# Bag of Wonder: The Mayflower > Sail across the Atlantic in 1620: tall sails, a hundred people below deck, a storm, then Land ho! Blow like the wind, count nine weeks, and pull the ship apart. A free interactive 3D exhibit for children aged 2 to 6, from Curiosity's Child in Troy, Michigan. - Interactive exhibit: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/mayflower/ - Ages: 2 to 6. The story is pitched at the youngest; the tap cards give older children more to chew on. - Cost: free, with no sign-in, no ads and no tracking. - Works on: phones, tablets and computers, in a web browser. Sound on for the narration. ## What it is Sail across the ocean on the Mayflower with Ms Daisy, then pull a ship of her kind apart: sails, masts, deck and the hold below. Free, narrated, for ages 2 to 6. How to play: press play to hear the story (read aloud in Kelly's voice, with the words on screen). Slide the time slider back and forth to see any part again. Slide "Pull apart" to see what is hidden inside. Tap any glowing button for a fact. ## The story 1. Long ago, before there were airplanes, people crossed the ocean in wooden sailing ships. This is the Mayflower, poppets, at the harbor in Plymouth, England, about to cross the Atlantic Ocean. 2. Look at her tall masts, and her big cloth sails. The sails catch the wind, and the wind pushes the ship along. 3. The crossing took about nine weeks, because there was no engine, just the wind. Now you try, poppets: take a big breath and blow like the wind! 4. Sometimes the waves grew big, and the ship rocked up and down, but she was strong, and she kept on sailing. 5. More than one hundred people squeezed in below the deck, and dogs came too, a big mastiff and a little spaniel! 6. They ate hard biscuits, and they slept in tiny spaces. 7. After many weeks at sea, one morning as the sun came up, someone cried, "Land ho!" There it was, at last, far across the sea: the land we now call the United States of America. 8. Today a big ship crosses the same Atlantic Ocean in about one week. And an airplane? About eight hours! 9. I crossed the ocean too, poppets, from England to America. But I was in a hurry, so I came on an airplane! 10. Look, poppets: the Mayflower on our table! She comes apart: sails, masts, deck, and the hold below. ## The parts, and what we tell children These are the tap cards, word for word. - **Sails**: The sails are big sheets of strong cloth. The wind fills them and pushes the ship along, with no engine at all. - **Masts**: The masts are tall wooden poles that hold the sails up high, where the wind is strongest. The Mayflower had three, and ropes helped hold them steady. - **Deck**: The deck is the ship's wooden floor, out in the open air, under the sails. Sailors worked up here, steering the ship and watching for land. - **The hold below**: Below the deck was a low, dark space. More than a hundred passengers lived down here with their chests and barrels. Nobody has plans of the real Mayflower, so this model is a ship of the same kind. - **Rope**: A sailing ship used a great many ropes. Ropes pulled the sails round to catch the wind, and tied the ship safely to the harbor. - **Lantern**: A lantern gave light in the dark parts of the ship. Its little flame sat safe inside, so the wind could not blow it out. - **Ship's biscuit**: A ship's biscuit is a very hard, dry cracker. It was baked hard on purpose, so it could last for many weeks at sea. - **A modern ship**: This is a modern ship, with an engine. It crosses the same ocean in about a week. On our table it is a small model: in real life it is much, much bigger than the Mayflower. ## Getting the science right What we checked, and the myths we steer around: - The Mayflower left Plymouth, England, in September 1620 and reached Cape Cod in November, after about 66 days at sea: about nine weeks. The page keeps weeks as its only unit, and compares a modern ship (about a week) and an airplane (about eight hours). - About 102 passengers sailed, with a crew of roughly 30, in a very crowded space below the main deck. Two dogs are recorded in the passengers' own accounts: a mastiff and a spaniel. - The sails were cloth; the wind was the only power. Ship's biscuit was a hard, dry cracker baked to last. - No plans of the real Mayflower survive, so the 3D ship on the display table is a merchant ship of the same kind and age (Poly Haven's Dutch ship), cut into its parts. - The page says the ship reached "the land we now call the United States of America". The land was already home to the Wampanoag and other peoples; the page tells the voyage only, not the first winter or what came after. - Ms Daisy's own line ("I came on an airplane") is the character's story, not a historical claim. ## How to use it with children Watch it together with the sound on. At "blow like the wind", everyone blows. Count the weeks out loud with the counter on the nine-weeks stage. At the display table, pull the ship apart and find the hold where the people lived. Ask more than you tell, and let the child drive. Then step away from the screen: fold a paper boat and blow it across a tray of water: no engine, just wind. Mark nine weeks on a calendar together to feel how long the crossing was. A few minutes together is plenty. The exhibit is a doorway to the real thing, not a replacement for it. ## Credits and licenses The real scans, maps and photographs belong to their makers, under the licenses below. The words, story and code are Curiosity's Child's. - The ship: [Dutch Ship Large 01](https://polyhaven.com/a/dutch_ship_large_01) by James Ray Cock, Rico Cilliers (sails) and Nicolò Zubbini (original model), Poly Haven (CC0), cut into its parts for this page. No plans of the real Mayflower survive, so this is a ship of the same kind - The lantern, barrels, crate and bucket: Poly Haven (CC0, James Ray Cock) - [the rope by TepidGames](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/coiled-rope-2-e6fe8fedd3d04b1dac3e32e0dd515cbb) (CC BY) - [the biscuit by plaggy](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/cc0-cracker-2-959753ced0fb43a3ad96b68d4b6a5e60) (CC BY) - [the modern ship by farhad.Guli](https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/cruise-ship-bb782326932e4c179e34f3d6c8e36b86) (CC BY) - The plane is the one from The Airplane - The display table is a real scan from Poly Haven ([side table](https://polyhaven.com/a/side_table_01); CC0) - The painted scenes and clips are watercolour pictures Kelly made for this page with Grok - Real sounds from Freesound ([CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/), thank you!): [gentle ocean waves](https://freesound.org/s/852826/) (kkenny101), [a large wooden ship](https://freesound.org/s/195193/) (PimFeijen) and [sea wind](https://freesound.org/s/510908/) (Lydmakeren) - Music-box waltz made for this page - Narrated by Ms Daisy ## More on the Things That Go shelf - [The Electric Car](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/car/index.md): An electric family car’s whole day: buckle up, drive the lanes, swish through the rain. Then pull it apart! - [The Excavator](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/excavator/index.md): Dig, scoop and pour! Meet Patrick, fill the dump truck, then pull the excavator apart. - [The Gas Station](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/gas-station/index.md): Fill up the car, look inside the pump, and find the giant tanks under the ground. Click! Full! - [The Airplane](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/airplane/index.md): Pack a suitcase, buckle up, take off, glide above the clouds and land. Then pull the airplane apart! - [The Train](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/train/index.md): A long freight train rumbles by: look inside the cars, cross a big bridge, count the cars. Food travels too! Then pull it apart. - [The Bicycle](https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/bicycle/index.md): Ride along the street with Raphael and Leonardo, count the wheels, see the chain and brakes glow, then pull a real bicycle apart. Ring the bell! ## About Bag of Wonder A free library of interactive 3D "look inside" science exhibits, made at Curiosity's Child, a licensed home daycare in Troy, Michigan. Secular and science-based; welcoming to all. - All exhibits and how we make them: https://bagofwonder.com/llms.txt - For grown-ups and AI assistants: https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/about/ - To cite: "The Mayflower", Bag of Wonder, Curiosity's Child (Troy, Michigan). https://bagofwonder.com/look-inside/mayflower/