Civil War Celebration

Our culminating unit Celebration was lots of fun! Earlier in the unit we'd talked about the new art of photography and photographers of the Civil War. Then I'd had the children take photos that told a story. We displayed them at our celebration.

Here's the invitation to our celebration, which was modeled after Lincoln's Second Inaugural Ball.

Here are the tickets—each admits one gentleman and two ladies! (These are pictures of the actual documents. It's cool to see how they really looked.)

We had one hoop skirt already, and I bought two more so all of the girls could dress up. They LOVED that! There was a great flurry of preparation all day long, doing their hair and getting all dressed.

They were lovely Civil War Belles!

Daisy did such pretty hairstyles for everyone.

And at the last moment they decided Clementine must be dressed up too, so they put her in this rather…Medieval-looking dress and a too-bit petticoat. She felt very grand!

Here are the guests arriving at the ball, the ladies on the arms of their gentlemen.

For some reason Gus felt this was appropriate attire.

We had a program to start everything off, where the children presented their Civil War Final Projects.

Ziggy hopped in at the last moment with a nice presentation on "what's in a Civil War Soldier's backpack."

Clementine added her two cents

Malachi presented "Babies of the Civil War"

And the other presentations can be read about in this post.

Next…the fancy buffet! I shortened the original menu a bit, but took all the menu items I did use from the original :) 

A great spread! For dessert I Mary Todd Lincoln's almond cake, which was surprisingly good! Very light because of the whipped egg whites, and with a nice almond flavor. It was dry a few days later, but not at all dry the day we made it. Here's the recipe…I actually blended up the almonds instead of just chopping them, so they were very fine!

Mary Todd Lincoln's White Almond Cake

Waiting politely for their food…unlike the guests at the real ball, who trampled over each other and made a huge mess when they descended upon the food, apparently!

After dinner we watched the silent movie The General with Buster Keaton (so good!) and then there was, of course, a little dancing!

Building Civil War Pontoon Bridges

We discovered last time we did this unit that water bottles make great pontoons! Sebby was fascinated with all kinds of bridges at the time, so we went much more in-depth in our bridge and army engineering study than we might otherwise have. While I don't currently have anyone quite as obsessed as Seb was, spending an afternoon at the little creek building bridges is great fun for anyone!

Here are a couple videos about modern Pontoon Bridges:

SR-520 Pontoon Float-out

Floating Bridge Documentary

We split into teams so that each team could build their own bridge. I let them figure out their own designs and how to construct them!

Gus fell in the water almost immediately, of course. Luckily it was a hot day.

Daisy and Junie's first bridge was great! Strong enough to hold several marching soldiers.

Gus soon cheered up and was happily showing me how the cut on his toe was "almost better."

Daisy and Teddy tried a different bridge design, which worked maybe even better too. It was good to have some space between the pontoons for the current to go by and put less pressure on the bridge.

Their bridge was also nice and long!

The soldiers were able to sneak over to the enemy camp for a surprise attack!

Goldie and Junie tried a second bridge after seeing Daisy and Teddy's.

It was very sturdy!

Memorizing the Gettysburg Address

I challenged the children to memorize the Gettysburg Address and told them there would be a reward if they did so! Daisy, who always accepts a challenge, was the first to get it memorized, and I assumed would be the ONLY one to do so. But when the others saw her eating the RitterSport candy bar I gave her, they were galvanized into action, and they ALL ended up getting it memorized! Well, Junie, Goldie, and Teddy, I mean. I'm sure Malachi could have done it (he often memorizes 10-minute-long oratories for Debate!) but he didn't bother. :)

One day when I was talking to Abe on the phone (he's on a church mission in Texas right now) I asked him if he still remembered the Gettysburg Address. He said he didn't but he could probably do parts of it if you got him going! I think it was lots easier for me to re-learn it this time, having done it before. It's really just those last three long sentences that are the hardest.

Somehow I didn't take a video of Teddy yet! But I will update this if he still remembers it. Anyway, here are the rest of the children reciting it, for posterity. 

Goldie

Junie

Daisy

Vortex Cannons and (Yarn) Yama Men

We talked about Civil War weapons and then made Vortex Cannons, which aren't really the same thing as Civil War Cannons at all, but they're fun, anyway! You just seal up all the air in a box, cut one hole in it, and bang it on the sides to get an air vortex to come out! It's pretty easy to knock over a whole stack of styrofoam cups with the blast of air. Here's a video where they put smoke in the air so you can actually see the vortex!

The Vortex Cannon--Student Science

This was an interesting video about the many steps for loading and firing a musket and cannon.

Musket Drills and Firing Cannons

This video shows a musket firing in slow motion. Really cool.

Slow motion musket firing

And here are our vortex cannons in action. Takes a minute to get them pointed the right way, but you can sure tell when you've got it right!

We did an activity where we made yarn dolls like the children in the 1800s might have played with. My grandma called these dolls "Yama Men," for some reason, so we do too! (There's even a little song my mom would sing while creeping the Yama man up to tickle your chin…"The Yama Yama, the Yama Man, He will catch you if he can! So run for your mama, 'cause here comes the Yama, the Ya-ma Man!") 

Basic instructions are here, but it's easy to fiddle with once you get the hang of it! The kids through Teddy had no trouble making their own.

I can't say it's a very neat activity, though! :)

Daisy made a whole Yama Family. So cute!! I loved the baby especially.

Junie made different colors, and Yama Mamas as well as Yama Men.

Goldie made lots of cute ones too, but somehow all I have a picture of is this cute little puff of a baby.

Kind siblings made some Yama Men for Ziggy (or did I make these? can't remember now.)

Teddy made a really cute Yama Bunny, after which Gus demanded a "Yama Caw" for himself.

So with great ingenuity, I made one. My masterpiece!

Gus loved him! He slept with him for quite a while. Of course, these guys inevitably fall apart after a few weeks, and then you're finding yarn all over the floor and throwing them out in frustration, but never mind that—they are fun till that time comes! :)