The Pilgrims’ Story: A Cause-and-Effect Adventure

Lesson Plan - Get It!

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Cause and Effect With the Pilgrims

Cause-and-effect relationships are everywhere! They help you understand why things happen. Here are some examples.

Now, look at history.

The Pilgrims were people who lived in England hundreds of years ago. They wanted to worship freely, but their government wouldn’t allow it.

• So what did they do?

Their journey wasn’t easy. The storms at sea made people sick, and the Speedwell ship started leaking, forcing them to sail only on the Mayflower.

When they finally landed, it wasn’t where they’d planned—it was Massachusetts!

• Would you like to learn more about the Pilgrims?

Read the story below about their journey.

The Pilgrims were eager to leave England because they wanted religious freedom. They boarded two ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, and set sail.

However, the Speedwell began leaking and had to turn back. That left everyone crammed onto the Mayflower. The journey across the ocean was rough. Storms tossed the ship, and many people got seasick.

After 66 days at sea, the Pilgrims finally saw land. They had planned to settle in Virginia, but the storms blew them north to Massachusetts.

It was already November, so it was cold, and they didn’t have time to build proper homes before winter. The first winter was very hard. Many Pilgrims got sick, and some didn’t survive.

In the spring, Native Americans, including Squanto, taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn and catch fish. Because of their help, the Pilgrims had enough food to survive the next winter.

To celebrate, they invited their Native American neighbors to share a feast. This was the first Thanksgiving.

Now it’s your turn! Fill out the Cause and Effect Organizer found under Downloadable Resources in the right-hand sidebar using this story.

Decide which events from the Pilgrims’ journey were causes and which were their effects.

Here are a few examples to get you started.

• How many cause-and-effect pairs can you find in their story?

• What causes would make you take a big risk, like the Pilgrims?
• What effects do you think they hoped for?

Keep up the great work in the Got It? section!