Revolutionary War

Here's a fun, "make-believe" lesson on the Revolutionary War, thanks to Annie, my 4th grader. She is reading Sophie's World, a Faith Girlz Book by Nancy Rue. In it, the main character pretends to be someone else during a different time period (the 18th century, Revolutionary Wartime, so it's a great choice to go along with this lesson).

She wanted to have an imaginary identity, too. She made herself a knapsack and put in it her journal. She wrote about helping the soldiers. She even used old style writing, replacing the letter 'S' with 'f'.

So today, I printed the worksheet below, rolled it up, and tied it with a piece of yarn. I hide it "by the campfire" (or fireplace) and told the girls that they had secret messages that, once decoded, will give them their next four missions.

Coded Secret Mission Message

After the girls figured out the message, they researched each person, and wrote a little about them on the worksheet. There are links on the second page with information on each person. (You might want them to just do one at a time.) Then have them act out what that person did during the Revolutionary War.

For instance, Dicey Langston was rumored to have dressed as a man in order to fight in the war. My daughters are dressing up as boys. I'm willing to bet that they are going to have fun with this one. They are going to act out swimming a swollen river to warn the troops and pretend that they are riding a horse at night. For Besty Ross, I'm going to give them some red, white, and blue fabric... just mis-matched stuff. Not necessarily solids. Then i'm going to help them sew a flag. I'll post pics when we do.