My coworker told me about this amazing activity she did with her students and I just HAD to try it (I always am looking for engaging, hands-on activities for my students). Anyways I tried it last year and absolutely LOVED it! I couldn't wait to use it this year and my students couldn't get enough. They would whine when we would have to end social studies for the day! So what is this amazing activity???
It is Civil War Easy Simulations by Scholastic. It is only $6 for the PDF version which I would recommend getting so you can just print off the worksheets, instead of copying them from a book.
It allows the students to experience what it might have been like to be a soldier in the Civil War time period. First, students are put into groups and get into Infantry's for either the Union or Confederate side. Then, it has the students pick a character (former slave, farmer, aristocrat, etc) and each of these characters have certain traits they are better than others. Such as a farmer might have a high strength number, but low medical expertise. Next they have to decide what types of items they want to bring with them to war. They can only carry so much so they have to calculate the weight they can carry. Some of the items will help them through the journey. Then the teacher reads them scenarios and the students have to make choices of what they want to do. Are they going to send a scout to see what's going on, run, shoot, etc? I love to see the students working together and finding reasons of why they should or should not make certain decisions. Then throughout this simulation, they have to make spins on the spinner to determine if they got hit, made a proper defense, get an infection, etc.
The thing I love most about this simulation is how they describe what camp life was like, battles that actually happened during the Civil War, they hear speeches from both the Union and Confederate sides, etc. They even have journal entries from actual soldiers of the Civil War which is where they get the ideas for the scenarios that happen. This is a 5-day simulation (start on Monday, end on Friday), and at the end of each day, the students write in their journal as if they were a soldier in that time. I have never seen such beautiful, and meaningful writing from my students then during this simulation. They learn to write from their point of view and use emotions and details of how they were feeling during this experience. I would highly recommend doing this with your class! I will warn you, though, the kids get VERY excited, which means it can be difficult to keep them quiet while you are trying to read directions and so on. Just be very clear with your expectations up front. To make this easier, I actually made a google slides to follow along. This way as you give instructions (such as make a spin), you don't have to repeat yourself and the students can just look at the slides to see what they need to do (this helped soooooo much!!!) I have attached the link so you can use it!
Click Here for Civil War Simulations FREE Google Slides.
I hope you and your students enjoy this as much as I did! Please leave a comment and tell me how your experience was!
Also, there are many other simulations by Scholastic that might interest you more, if you try the simulation leave a comment and let me know how they were!
Enjoy experience soldier life in 1862!
Your google slides link does not work
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