The Revolutionary War

     It is difficult for one to be a historian (whether self proclaimed or professionally acclaimed) and not have strong twinges of Patriotism. I will be the first to admit that our government has flaws, our nation is not perfect, and our citizens do not always make us proud ... but one cannot look through the portholes of our nations history and not feel an overwhelming sense of pride at what our founders created!

     I LOVE teaching the Revolution. What a profound opportunity to teach our children the doctrines of democracy, the standards of our Constitution, and the liberty lavished on our land.

In the words of one of these such men ... 

"Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom."
John Adams, In Defense of the Constitution, 1787

     Sadly, I did not take as many pictures of my Revolutionary Unit as I had intended. Being that this unit fell after Christmas, this means it was during the "drag" months where moments of coherent thoughts seem to be few and far between and thoughts of Spring Break seem to dominate! *grin* 

 We ...

practiced being drummer boys (and girls) 

researched an important Revolutionary war character, created power points and presented them to the class

made Revolutionary war Lapbooks 

created flip books on the different causes of the war

simulated the war by having a "Paper Wad" war in the gym

examinded primary documents (spy letters) and created invisable ink

dissectedthe Declaration of Independence and created our own (from adults! *grin*)

wrote a RAFT about the Boston Tea party from the point of view of a "Tea bag" 

watched the fabulous t.v. series "Liberty's Kids" 

(we actually only watched a couple episodes during class, but the kids loved them so much we finished them all - 42 - during lunch for the rest of the year!) 

     However, I did manage to get a fun video of a lesson we did on drummer boys during the war. Two of my boys had a "bad habit" of drumming on EVERYTHING, ALL THE TIME! Grant it, one of them inparticular is actually very good, but you can imagine the frustration when these talents demonstrate themselves during silent reading, computer time, direct teaching, etc. As I was planning my drummer boy lesson, I thought about how it would be really great to highlight these boy's talents in front of the whole class and really let them shine at something they, so obviously, LOVE to do. 

They had practiced with the music, but I think their nerves got to them (imagine that! *grin*) and it doesn't quite match but still was lots of fun :)

P.S. Don't mind me ... I didn't turn the silly camera off in time! *blush*