Civil War Unit Study and Final Projects

After doing the Revolutionary War a couple years ago, it was time to study the Civil War again. I was excited because there are so many interesting and fun activities that go with the Civil War, I knew the children would like it. Here is our shelf of library books all ready to go! :)

And here's my Civil War Pinterest Board

(Click to enlarge either of these)

Here's a picture of our map of the battle of Gettysburg, for an idea of the level of impressiveness we're talking about in these activities. The eggs represent various regiments, and the pillows and books are various hills and landmarks. :) It did the job!

Ziggy's imagination was most caught, for some reason, by the description of Robert E. Lee riding to Appomatox to surrender. For awhile every paper on our house was made into a flag bearing the words "I srendr" and Ziggy rode around on his "horse," Traveler, to do the honors.

We made hardtack to try, and honestly, right out of the oven it was pretty edible. Kind of a like a dry, less-flavorful biscuit. The kids were saying how it didn't seem so bad to them, so I saved a piece and left it out on the counter for three days and THEN had them try it. It was awful, of course—rock-hard and almost impossible to chew. And we didn't even have to contend with maggots like the real soldiers did!

Another fun thing we did was get a telegraph key and learn Morse Code. Of course, the key doesn't make a noise or send a signal without anything to hook it up to, but it gives the general idea of what a telegraph operator during the war would have used. Daisy and Junie had a fun time writing and sending each other messages.

It was pretty hard to get the right letters, especially when the message was coming fast! You can see the "C"s for "correct" and the "W"s for "wrong" on Junie's paper. :)

For our end-of-unit celebration, each child chose a project to do. This was one of my favorite parts of the last time we did this unit, and this time it was the same. I love seeing the great ideas everyone comes up with! Daisy decided to do a presentation on the Battle of Gettysburg and the dedication of the cemetery afterward, where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address. She painted the hill where the cemetery is found, and made crosses and headstones for the hundreds of graves there.

She also made finger puppets of some of the people that were there for the cemetery dedication. The orator Edward Everett and his wife, a little girl in the crowd, and of course President Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Tad Lincoln.

Above the puppets in this picture is the podium where President Lincoln stood to give his address.

Daisy put a teeeeeeny copy of the Gettysburg Address on the podium. Those are the real words! She printed it out on the computer. :) And as the finale to her presentation, she recited from memory the Gettysburg Address!

Teddy had the really cool idea to make a Civil War Musket. He was not content to just make a simple one like I suggested, but wanted to do every part like the trigger, the hammer, the cap, and so forth to make it accurate! I helped him find a piece of bamboo to be the ramrod and a wrapping-paper tube to be the barrel, but he constructed all the other parts himself using a box cutter and tape and cardboard. I was amazed at what he was able to do!

You can see some of the mechanism here. One white arrow points to the hammer, which is attached with a paper fastener within the barrel so you can actually cock it. The other white arrow shows the frizzen above the pan, where you set the little cartridge (or is it a cap…I've forgotten). It fits nearly onto the frizzen so it can be hit by the hammer, strike the flint, and light the charge inside the barrel.

Here is a side view. The bayonet is affixed by Velcro so it will stay on the barrel! :)

And here Teddy is dressed as a Union Soldier with his trusty musket!

Malachi stood during the program and gave an Impromptu presentation on "Civil War Babies." Very information. You can see Exhibit A in his arms.

Then Ziggy got up to do an impromptu presentation too, and Clementine joined him!

Goldie's project was about transportation and communication during the Civil War. She taught us about the telegraph, the railroad, and hot air balloons, which carried units of Civil War Spies! We read several interesting books about that. Goldie made the cutest little models to illustrate her information!

Junie's project was also amazing. She made a model of a Union Army encampment, and her attention to detail was just incredible. There were campfires, tents, cannons and cannonballs, rocks and logs painted to look like cannons and cannonballs (that was a funny little detail we read about in a book—a trick some regiments used to make their numbers and weapons appear more formidable), stray cats, and so forth. It was such a cute little scene!

Cats eating the solder's fish he cooked over the fire

A cannon, and a tiny cart full of hardtack for the soldiers

(This shows how tiny the hardtack and the barrel of coffee were)

A campfire with a roasted chicken roasting nearby (and a dog trying to steal it)

A soldier fishing in a stream outside the camp, and another hiding behind a tree

A solider bedding down for the night

I loved these projects and the good things the kids learned while working on them!

2000 Years in 12 Courses: A Clothing History Celebration

For our end-of-unit celebration, I decided we'd have a big feast, with one course representing each historical era we studied. As we ate each course, we reviewed the clothing styles for the corresponding era and talked about various political and social events that occurred during that time period. Each child chose an era to focus specifically on, and gave a little oral report about it. They each made a project to go along with their era, too. Some of us dressed up in "historical clothing" of one of the eras.

Here are the (fairly subjective—after all, it's hard to whittle down periods of tens or hundreds of years to just one or two characteristic foods! Still, these were all things that seemed representative to me!) foods we ate and the historical eras that went with them:

MENU

1. Classical world: Pita Bread, Olive Oil, Olives, Feta 

2. Middle Ages: Bacon, (Root) Beer 

3. French court (1600's): Melon (a favorite food of Louis IV) 

4. Age of Revolution (1700-1800): Tea (representing Boston Tea Party), Baguette (representing the Grain Riots in France) 

5. Regency/Victorian eras (1800-1900): Hot drinking chocolate, Shrewsbury Cakes

6. Edwardian era (1900-1910): Cucumber Sandwiches (as mentioned in "The Importance of Being Earnest")

7. World War I: Homemade Donuts (referencing the Salvation Army serving donuts to soldiers, who were called "doughboys") 

8. 1920s: Pointes d’asperges a la Mistinguette, a la Anatole (a food referenced in one of the Jeeves stories by P.G. Wodehouse—see the rest of the menu here). Could also have done Tapioca Pudding to reference "Thoroughly Modern Millie." 

9. 1930s-1940s: Fritos, Cheerioats (Fritos and Cheerios, called "Cheerioats," were first made in the 1930s) 

10. 1950s: Deviled Eggs, Jello 

11. 1960s:  Tunnel of Fudge Cake, Celery with Cream Cheese 

12. Modern Times: Fruit Smoothie, Salted Caramels

Daisy and Junie dressed up as beautiful Victorian ladies. Well, they were really trying to be ladies of the French Court, but the tutus they wore under my skirts looked more like crinolines than like farthingales or panniers. Still, at least they got the birds in their hair! :)

Abe gave a presentation about the Victorian Era. He wore a top hat and cravat. Very handsome.

Malachi talked about the 1920s. He wore a bowler hat and made a banjolele like Bertie Wooster's.

Seb talked about the 1950s and made a model cockpit of the 1952 Cessa 172 Skyhawk. As you can see, none of instruments are digital!

You may wonder if it is possible to eat 12 courses in one meal! It is difficult. But not impossible. The key is just having tiny bits of each thing. We loved it. (But I do wonder how in the world Louis XIV managed meals with forty-four courses, or equally preposterous numbers!)

This was such a fun celebration and a good review of all the historical eras we'd been studying. We hope to do it again someday! :)

Presentation at midwives' college

I just wanted to post this picture of Seb's poster for the presentation we gave at the Midwives' College in Salt Lake City. I didn't get any pictures of the day itself, but it was really fun—Abe gave a report on the risks and benefits of Ultrasound and Doppler, Seb and Malachi gave an overview of fetal development at 22 weeks (which is how far along I was at the time), and Daisy and I read aloud our very favorite book about babies. (This one.) All the kids did such a great job, and of course we always love spending time with midwives!

Spring Bookfest

We interrupted our Chocolate Unit for our Spring Bookfest, with special guests Heidi and Meg. Everyone had previously prepared a report or project on a book of their choice, and at the Bookfest we presented our projects to each other and had a nice lunch. We held the festivities outside in the backyard, using the playhouse porch as our stage. It was really fun!

For her project, Daisy made a matching tiny book to go with her favorite penguin book. I helped her take pictures of every page, print them out at a tiny size, and then she cut out all the page spreads and I helped fasten them together. She LOVES her tiny book!

She was cute doing her oral presentation, if a little giggle-y. :)

Abraham told us about an Encyclopedia Brown mystery involving an egg-spinning contest. He re-created the contest, told us the facts, and let the audience see if they could solve the mystery. It was really good.

Heidi talked about Sid Fleischman and some of the events in his life that inspired his books. I was particularly interested to learn that he wrote a biography of Mark Twain (I have only read his fiction). Abraham liked learning some details about Fleishman's background as a traveling magician, and we liked the reminder that when we write and re-write and revise again and again, "all that's wasted is the paper!"

I thought for sure I had taken a picture of Meg's presentation, but I can't find it! Cute Meg talked about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and taught us what she had learned in that book about philately (a new word she taught us, which means studying stamps and postal history). We learned about the 3 elements of a stamp (value, design, country of origin) and then Meg helped everyone make and decorate their own postage stamps! It was such fun!

Malachi gave his presentation on The Stokes Guide to Western Birds. He drew pictures of the baby, juvenile, and adult plumage for all his favorite birds (robins, bald eagles, yellow warblers, painted buntings, and flamingos) and told a little bit about each kind of bird. It was very informative! The little girls helped him by holding up the pictures.

Sebastian's presentation was on the DK Eyewitness book Electronics. He made a poster showing and explaining the different parts of a circuit board. He had a real circuit board which we could touch and look at, and then he explained how each component worked, and what its symbol would be on a circuit diagram. I learned a lot from this presentation!

Our Spring Bookfest was a rousing success and we hope to make this an annual (or semi-annual!) event. It was a fun day!