The Revolution is over! America has WON! Now what?
We took some time to analyze the transition time between the war ending (1781) and Washington becoming the Executive leader of our country (1789).
Our first "government Constitution" was called the Articles of Confederation. While it took care of many of the issues the colonies had against King George III, it did not solve other major issues!
It created very strong state governments and a very weak federal (Central) government that could not create money, tax it's citizens, pay it's soldiers, create a military, create laws (needed unanimous votes), left the country leaderless and vulnerable to anarchy, and did not address the major debt that the country was in after the war.
To understand this, we PLAYED WITH BLOCKS. This TOTALLY FANTASTIC simulation idea came from BLOGUSH.
Students were placed in "State" groups - with Delaware being the smallest.
The goal was to help pass laws that helped each state gain the most blocks.....
Southern states, such as Virginia, were better off, less fighting, successful cash crops, slave labor, and a relative "safe" war time allowed them to enjoy good government funding. They did not want to share other states debts, had their own money (which was useless anywhere else), and were unable to pass laws that everyone could agree on.
So we acted this out with blocks.
Poor Delaware!
We also acted out "Shay's Rebellion" an uprising that occurred due to angry farmers who revolted after being told they would go to "debtors prison" if they were unable to pay their state taxes ... but they were unable to pay their state taxes because the federal government was unable to pay them for their war service, because they could not tax! Both activities allowed students to see the problems with the Articles of Confederation and why the Constitution needed to be adopted. 
Naturally, the day ended with a "tallest tower" competition :)
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