spicing up NYS history

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Archive : 2002 : July : 31

spicing up NYS history
By Anneliese Bopp

I give my class jobs - colonial jobs. We used the Dover coloring book of Colonial Jobs for the beginning of our research, added internet research, created trade signs out of cardboard and paint and then worked on a giant
web on the bulletin board to study the interdependence of the occupations. We also made candles, tapped maple trees, made maple syrup and dyed wool, all then used to create group written explanations. We ordered a box of artifacts on loan from a local museum and studied the artifacts as well. Our final product was put together by a team and submitted as a Webquest entry http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215447/default.htm.

Another thing we did that the kids loved was assigning each a character from the Revolutionary war to do a biography on. This really peaked their interest in the Revolutionary War and personalized it. We also did some simulations with the aspect of trust and loyalties after reading Charlotte's Trunk. We read a great book called Toliver's Secret and I have a whole unit on that. It deals with spies and there are some great internet sites on spies.