I'm going to share about something I did for the last two years when I was teaching about the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution!
Of course I'd already spent some time talking about sparks of the revolution and my class did that fun simulation where I was the governor and they had to pay taxes (in chocolate of course). But I take it to another level...we set up a whole village, each kid picks a trade, makes a store sign, earns a wage dependent on that trade, etc. When the quartering act hits I even take away some of the kids' chairs for the day.
When the kids have finally had enough, and we've learned a lot about taxation...I show them this fun video.
And then we go through the Declaration and read it. I mean, really read it. I think it's important for kids to know what this document meant, so I made this powerpoint that breaks the document down one paragraph at a time and shows a translation in today's language!It's just $3 in my store!
So, hopefully we have some link ups for you to check out below!
I love how you had your students set up a village! Music is definitely a hook!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this! The Revolutionary War is one of my favorite units, and this song will help make it even better next year.
ReplyDeleteMary
Fit to be Fourth