Lost Colony of Roanoke

In Social Studies we are discussing the arrival of the English in North America.  Today we discussed a group of colonists who came to North America (specifically an island off of the coast of North Carolina, called Roanoke Island) with governor John White.  The colonists came too late in the summer season for food to grow properly, so White and a crew went back to England to get more supplies.

However, because of a recently erupted war between England and Spain, White was forced to leave his family, friends, and community behind at Roanoke for THREE years!  When White returned, he was shocked to see NO evidence that the community existed at all.  The settlers whom he had brought with three years earlier were gone, including his family and grand daughter (Virginia Dare), without a trace.

In addition to reading about this in our text, we also watched the first 12 minutes of the video below to get a better idea of what happened at Roanoke.

Video used from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaqG6rC4hIw

Today, we are left only with many clues and theories as to what happened at Roanoke.  Below is an image of the book we used to learn about five theories, which explain the disappearance of the colonists.

 Due on Friday (October 12), students need to write a 1,2,3,2,3,2,3,4 paragraph explaining which theory they believe.  If they want, using the provided evidence, they can create their own disappearance theory.