Lost in TIme: Interactive Civil War Game

Oh. My. Goodness. I love the state of Alabama. I love that I come from Alabama, that I live in Alabama, that Alabama is steeped in Southern charm, and that Alabama is full of a rich history. When I see a website like this one, though, which is created by the Missouri History Museum, it makes me want to say, "GET IT TOGETHER ALABAMA!" 

This game is Lost in Time and it is fantastic. It is animated. It is interactive. It is engaging. Students learn a LOT.  

The premise of the game is that students are on a field trip to the Missouri History Museum where students are not allowed to touch anything, but you as the player touch something that sends you back to Civil War times. You have to help several key types of people in order to get home. You help a civil war doctor on the battlefield, a slave escape, a homefront lady fight fire, and more. Although this game is targeted to teaching Missouri history, the students still learn great deal about what the civil war was like for people during that time.

Tip: When you let students play this game, provide a scrap piece of paper and pencil. They need to write down the code that appears after the game starts. If they are unable to finish the whole game, they can put that code in at a later time to complete the game. At the end of the game, students solve a code. I think I will require that my students turn in the resulting sentence as part of their participation grade. How many teachers do that? Play a game to get an A. I heart it.

I still wish Alabama would make one of these for Alabama...for every time period. If I knew how to make them, I SO would. If anyone from Alabama Archives or the Alabama Dept. of Education is reading this and would like to hire me to learn how to do that and to actually do it, I accept.

Enjoy!

Sail to Victory! An AWESOME 1812 USS Constitution Game

This is the second post, the follow-up post, to the last post that I posted. It is embarrassing how long I played this game. The game is Sail to Victory!, and it is project of the USS Constitution Museum. 

I taught a leave of absence for a 5th and 6th grade computer teacher at the end of the school year. The job was perfect for me. I could find computer games and play them to evaluate them basically all day while students worked and/or played whatever I assigned. I spent at least a day playing this game.

In my last post, I posted an interactive activity in which you got to explore the USS Constitution in 1812. In this game, you actually join the USS Constitution in 1812. You have to make decisions about what to buy to survive before you start. Then, you begin your job as the lowest rank in the ship, a boy. You get to do the hard and disgusting jobs, like in this picture where you have to kill the rats on the ship...and that is not the most disgusting job. You also have to make decisions about who to tattle on to the superiors, whether or not to gamble with shipmates, whether or not to participate in telling tall tales, and so much more in addition to your jobs. You get promoted as you play the game, and you earn newer, cooler jobs as you are promoted through the game. You eventually even get to shoot ships during the battles of the War of 1812! 

Coolest. Game. Ever. You participate in nearly every job that was available on the USS Constitution during 1812 as well as the social life of that time. I would tell you more, but I would like to go play again. 

Enjoy!

Explore Old Ironsides - The USS Constitution in 1812

Above is a screenshot of what you'll see when you enter the Explore Old Ironsides interactive activity. This website makes me sooooo happy. Why can't there be websites like this one for every subject in history? I learned a LOT from this website, and I had a lot of fun. In fact, I didn't realize I had learned anything until I had played with this one for hours. And isn't that what we want for our students anyway? We want them to learn something while only realizing that they are having fun.

In this interactive activity, you will get to go to all areas of the USS Constitution as it was in 1812. You get to click on all kinds of stuff in each scene. Some objects make noise. Some people tell you things about themselves. Sometimes you learn a bit more about different objects and activities. Sometimes you get an animation.

The cartoon renditions are fantastic, but they portray everything realistically. You may even hear "Gross," "Cool," "Ewww...," and even a couple of giggles as your kiddos explore this ship. I don't want to say more because I don't want to give anything away, but I want you to know that this website is most definitely in my TOP 10!

There is even an activity that goes with this activity, but I recommend letting your students explore this one first. This would even be a good activity for the SmartBoard...

I'll post about another incredible, awesome, over-the-top activity that goes with this one in a couple of days...or longer...I'm in grad school again, friends. I'm taking nine hours in eight weeks. Yes, I realize that I am crrraazy. :)

Enjoy!

Bombarding Yorktown Game

This game is Bombarding Yorktown and also comes from Washington's World. This game lets you participate in the last major battle of the Revolutionary War - Yorktown. The player gets to be captain of the gun crew, directing the aim of the cannon and letting the gun crew know when to fire. The gun crew's job is to destroy the enemy's protection (walls, ships, random stuff in the way) and guns so that it will be easier for foot soldiers and infantry to attack. The game has three levels, and George Washington himself coaches you through each one. Good luck in battle!

Enjoy!

Washington's Treasures - My New Favorite Game

This is a screenshot of one of my new favorite games! I played this game an embarrassingly long time. This game is Washington's Treasures, and it is ah-mazing. You, the player, are transported back to a 3D rendering of Mount Vernon at the time when Washington still lived there. You have to explore his mansion and estate, interviewing various members of the household as you search for Washington's most treasured items.

There are several reasons why I really, really love this game:

1. It is a game. It is a history website, and it is a game. I feel that I am talking like Dug from Up...
2. It is a quality game...with sound...and it is historically acurate...and fantastic!.
3. You have to interview three people before grabbing each mystery object. The people to interview change for each item. They can be people who work(ed) for Washington, Washington's family members, Washington's slaves, and/or Washington himself.
4. You get to see what the people you interview would have been doing back then... (for example, you get to see what a blacksmith would be doing on a typical day while you interview him).
5. When you pick up one of the treasures, you get to see a photo of the actual treasured artifact and get to read a little bit about it - a very little bit (It keeps students engaged enough to read while staying short enough so they can move on with the game!)
6. Students can collect bonus items for an end of the game bonus. You get to see a photo of the actual treasured artifact and get to read a little bit about each of these, too!
7. You can go in most of the buildings on the estate. Whether you can or cannot go into them, though, you still get to read a little about each building and what it was for when you go up to its door.
8. There is audio for this game, and you can hear the voices of each character.
9. THERE IS SO MUCH MORE! I'm going to go play again...
10. Do you need more reasons? Go there now! Play! Have fun!

Enjoy!

*GASP* Tuskegee Airmen Flight Leader Simulation!

Have you seen it? Have you seen it? Have you seen it?! This website is so stinkin' awesome! This is...are you ready for this?...This is a Tuskegee Airmen Flight Leader Simulation (When the page opens, scroll down to the bottom of the page to open the simulation). Oh yes. You heard correctly. If you are a teacher, this should excite you. If you are a teacher from Alabama, this should excite you to the point of bone-tingling. If you are an Alabama history teacher, this should make you gasp in awe as you say, "No stinkin' way!" (which is exactly what I did). Alabama tends to claim the Tuskegee Airmen even though the men came from all over the U.S. because the training base was in Tuskegee, Alabama, but - check it out - this website/simulation was made by the National Air and Space Museum. National.

When I saw that this simulation exists, I immediately wanted to play, and before I even played, I immediately wanted to give this to students as a super-fun-they-have-no-idea-that-they-are-learning assignment. In the simulation, the students learn what the Airmen needed when they flew (puh-lease take the time to look up why they called life vests a "Mae West" so you can give your students the tame version before playing...for those of you who know who Mae West is/was, I'm sure you can use your imagination...), and then they get to make all the decisions that a flight leader would have made on a mission. The picture above is actually deceiving because that is actually a screenshot of one of the only times the students are not given the opportunity to make a choice. Usually, there are two choices (red boxes), and the choice affects the rest of the course.

I will say - if you/your students/whoever is playing has seen the movie Red Tails - which is an amazing movie that will really help you better understand what the Tuskegee Airmen went through and did by the way - you/your students/whoever is playing will probably know the best decisions to make (for the most part) already. I encourage you (and your students) to try all the different decisions in multiple attempts of the game in order to see how each decision affects the course of the mission, anyway, though.

I am SO EXCITED about this one, still. .......Yep, still excited.

Enjoy!

Colonial Life TrackStar Activity

When I found this website, I think I spent three days trying to look at everything it had to offer...and I think I just barely scratched the surface. Colonial Williamsburg's website is absolutely fantastic. It's way more than fantastic, actually. I just realized how completely inadequate fantastic and any other synonym would be for the website.

The part I enjoyed the most is the video section. You can watch them make all kinds of things from scratch - chocolate, bricks, cannons, and even entire buildings. The picture below is a screenshot of one video that shows a demonstration of how wall structures were raised back in the day (minus the hardhats and US Army...). In many videos, you can watch how the actors interact with each other to get a feel for what it was like back in colonial times. You can watch fifers and drummers perform. Have you ever seen anyone make plaster from scratch? Ever wonder what it was made of a long time ago?! You can watch a small clip to see the whole process!

I made an activity for a bunch of the videos that is made to be like a reading guide - but for the video clips. Here is the Colonial Life TrackStar Worksheet (MS Word) and the Colonial Life TrackStar Worksheet Key (MS Word). I sequenced the videos in the same order that they appear on the worksheet using TrackStar. TrackStar will only let you post 15 links on each track, so I had to split it into two parts: Colonial Life Part 1 and Colonial Life Part 2. Some videos had their own link; those videos open and start automatically when you click the link on the side. For the videos that did not have their own link, there are simple directions for locating them in the top of the TrackStar when you click the link on the side. 

Both parts (Part 1 and Part 2) each take about an hour to complete. If I were using this activity with my class, I would give the students the worksheet, and I would show all of the videos in class in the classroom. They could complete the worksheet as they watched it. I would, however, let them go to the computer lab afterwards to fill in anything they missed. After they finished the worksheet in the lab, I would let them explore the website. Some of them may want to watch some of the videos a second time, and some of them may want to look at some of the videos not included in the TrackStar. 

This is just a fun way to learn what life was like in the 18th/19th century.

Enjoy!

Making the Letters to Mrs. Roosevelt Look Old, Aged, & Authentic

Before anything else, print off some old stamps like these on the left. No, I didn't make these look old. They printed out that way! There are several at this website. I am not sure all of them apply, but that's ok. From what I can tell, the cost of the stamp was determined by the size of the letter or package so all of them were used during this time period. The one, two, and three cent stamps seem to be the most likely ones that would be seen on the kinds of letters we are making. After printing the stamps, cut them out. They do not have to be cut out perfectly. Just wiggle the scissors back and forth as you cut to make the zigzag-ish effect on the stamps. They are old; they shouldn't look perfect.

Here are the rest of the steps:

Pictured Above is all the stuff you'll need:

- Some plastic to cover your workspace (I cut open an old shopping bag)

- The Letters to Mrs. Roosevelt

- The Postage Stamps

- Envelopes (Mine are assorted sizes for authenticity...and because I ran out of the larger kind.

- Brown paint (Mine is acrylic, but finger paint/tempera paint works, too.

- Paper Towels (Just in case...)

- Assorted Pens

- Glue Stick

- Sponge Brush

- Small Paintbrush (For stirring...)

- A Cup or Mug

- and Water, which is not pictured because I got the water from my sink which was in a different location than my desk.

Step One: Pour a little brown paint into your cup or mug.

This looks about right.

Step Two: Add water until it resembles muddy water. I would guess that this about 3/4 cup. Stir with a paintbrush so that the brush part can get the paint off the bottom as it is stirred into the water. It should be as thin and as runny as water.

Time out for just a second: Can you see what this mug says on the side? "The only thing children wear out faster than shoes are parents and teachers." Smile.

Step Three: Dip the sponge brush into the brown paint water. Press the sponge against the side to get rid of excess. Repeat every time you use this brush.

 Step Four: There are actually a few ways to do this part. One way is to just paint the letter front and back. I don't know if you can tell, but I love how this particular letter is addressed to, "Dear Mrs. Lady."

There is no real technique to it. Just paint until there is no white space left.

Turn it over, and...

...paint the back the same way.

Here is another way that was invented when I got tired of painting all of the letters. This way gets some of your frustrations out, and it gets delightfully messy. (FYI: Pictured at left is a completely different letter than the "Dear Mrs. Lady," one.):

Crumple the letter into a wad.

Dunk it into the paint water. Submerge it all the way before taking it out of the water. (Please NOTE: Do not wring it out. I forgot that I shouldn't do that, and it made it very difficult to unfold later. Just let it drip into the cup.)

Unfold the letter and lay it flat. If it tears, that's ok. This letter is supposed to be super old and fragile. It adds to the character of the letter. Sometimes the rips and tears freak students out a bit, but once you tell them that they were already like that, they seem to make peace with it.

Step Five: Paint the envelope back with paint water.

Turn it over, and paint the front, too. Try not to get the parts that have glue (like the seams that hold the envelope together) too wet. If the seams get to wet, the entire envelope will fall apart. Fortunately, scotch tape had been invented by the 1930's. Surely they would have had some at the White House to repair these letters...

Make sure you paint the front flap like this. If you paint it on the other side, you will just get the seams more wet, and you don't want that.

All painted!

Here's another way to age an envelope. 

Crumple up the envelope - because it is SO much fun!

Do NOT dunk it! It will make the seams too wet, and the envelope will fall apart. Paint the envelope. Let the paint water settle into the wrinkles...

...like this. Let it dry a bit, then flip it over, and paint the other side.

Step Six: Let everything dry! When I did this the first time, I laid out a couple of garbage bags I had cut apart in the floor so I could lay the letters and envelopes on them to dry. Then...

...this came along. "This" would be my dog Buddy, and his snowman that he got for Christmas...and about four blankets and two pillows that he stole to make a "nest." He is dazed by the camera flash that awoke him from his nap. He has a thing about laying on any papers in the floor, so last time, I moved everything from the floor to all of the couches and my bed. This time there are only two of each because I have already done all of mine before. :)

.....

Step Seven: Once they are dry, apply glue to every edge and corner to the back of the stamps before adhering them to the envelopes.

Step Eight: Press the edge of the stamp to the envelope. Look how weird my fingers look!

Step Nine: Use various pens to address the envelopes to Mrs. Roosevelt. The address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. 20006. I actually took mine to church and asked lots of random people to address them so that they would have various handwritings. The ones that turned out the best were from senior adults. Their handwriting had that pretty old style. Asking other people to address the envelopes also varied the way Mrs. Roosevelt was addressed. Some said "Eleanor Roosevelt," some said "Mrs. Roosevelt," and one even said "First Lady."

Step Ten: Look how wrinkled and ripped the one on the right is. They are both dry, so fold them to be stuffed into envelopes. 

Step Eleven: Stuff them into the envelopes however you can (especially for itty bitty envelopes).

Step Twelve: Do not seal them shut! Just tuck in the flaps so that they can be used over and over again.  

Ta-Da!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Let me know how you use these in your classroom.

Enjoy!

Books I Want...Well, Only A Few of Them

Ok, so there are a LOT of books that I want, but here are a few of the ones that pertain to Alabama history that I want:

Finding Lincoln by Ann Malaspina

This book is set in Alabama in the 1950's. Louis needs to use the library to do a report on Abraham Lincoln, but the library is for whites only.

Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don't You Grow Weary by Elizabeth Partridge

This book is about the children of the Civil Rights Movement, and it features black and white photos documenting the Civil Rights Movement with special attention paid to children. The book includes the Selma to Montgomery March.

Colvette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

This book is about a teenager in Montgomery, Alabama who did exactly what Rosa Parks did....nine months earlier. She not only was not celebrated, she was shunned by her peers. This book should give a closer look into the complexities of the Civil Rights Movement. I told my students every year that to an extent Rosa Parks just got lucky. There were more people than her refusing to give up their seats. This book proves the point.

*NOTE: I have not read any of these books yet, and I have reason to believe that part of one of these books may not be appropriate for  4th graders. I want the books just the same, though. :)

History From Hoover to Roosevelt & Letters to Mrs. Roosevelt from Children Two-Part Activity

For whatever reason, The Great Depression is a time period that is near and dear to my heart. My grandparents lived through The Great Depression. They had their first children during that time, and one of their very first babies almost starved to death. Condensed milk came to his rescue. It is the time period in which my mom's favorite show, The Waltons, is set. It is the time in which a handicapped man became the symbol of strength, determination, and courage. My dad also contracted polio (many years later), but he exhibits some of the same characteristics for which Mr. Franklin Delano Roosevelt is remembered. Physically, he walks with a limp. Character-wise, he always presses on. He never says can't.

Those of us who know what that time period was like from the stories of our grandparents, through books, through movies, through documentaries, through blog posts, etc. have a respect for those people. When economic times are tough, we think of that time period. We think, "They made it through; we can, too." Students need to know about that time period. They need to know the desperateness of the situations of the people of that time. They need to know that kids of the Great Depression longed to be able to eat at all each day, to own any article of clothing at all, etc. They need to know that this time period existed so that they can appreciate today... because it isn't yesterday.

This activity is a two-part activity. The first is a PowerPoint presentation that gives the students a picture of history at that time from the time Hoover was in office to the time Roosevelt was in office. The PowerPoint is only supposed to give the students enough background knowledge to help them understand the letters they are about to read. The second part consists of reading letters from children to Mrs. Roosevelt.

These letters are copies of actual letters to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt from children during the Great Depression. We teachers call this a primary source. Something magical happens when a student gets to hold a primary source. As they (the students) so eloquently put it, "It makes history less boring." The letters to Mrs. Roosevelt range from children asking for used underwear to children asking for bikes and dolls. We know that the requests in these particular letters were never granted. Mrs. Roosevelt was very charitable and she answered a lot of requests, but she was only one person. She couldn't answer them all by herself.

It is a thing of beauty to hear 4th graders saddened and/or angered by the fact that a child didn't have clothes and that the President's wife didn't grant clothes to that child. I do not facilitate these conversations. I give the students questions to answer for each letter, and they are allowed to discuss within their groups. I just walk around and listen. I rarely have to say a word. Students help each other understand what they do not understand. Students talk through how they feel as they answer the questions. I don't have to tell them to; they just do.

The questions sheet used to include a question that said, "Do you think the writer's request should be granted? Why or why not?" for each and every letter. The students inevitably said, "Yes" to every letter. Now, after the students have read all of the letters that they have had time to read (usually about four each), I ask them, "Pretend that you are only able to give one of these kids what they asked for. Of the letters you read, which one would you choose and why?" I always look forward to reading these responses more than any of the others.

Anyway, enough of my babbling. Here is the activity:

1. Show From Hoover to Roosevelt Powerpoint. The last slides will explain what children will do during the Letters to Mrs. Roosevelt activity.
2. Randomly give out the Letters to Mrs. Roosevelt letters to students; Give out Letter Questions Sheet (I usually run a copy of this on the front and back so that students have four sets of the questions which is enough for them to respond to four letters).
3. Explain your expectations for the activity including how much time the students will have to complete the activity (I usually give two history class times for the combination of the PowerPoint and letters activity). You may even want to respond to a letter on the Letter Questions Sheet in front of the class as a model. Depending on your comfort level and your students, you may allow students to complete the activity independently or in groups. If your students can handle working in groups, I recommend it. The students learn a lot from each other. I usually leave extra letters at the front of the room so that students can get a new letter as they finish reading and responding to a letter.  
4. About twenty minutes before time is up, ask students to answer the following question on another piece of paper: "Pretend that you are only able to give one of these kids what they asked for. Of the letters you read, which one would you choose and why?"

I will post how I make the letters seem more authentic and old in my next post.

Enjoy!

Movie for WWI: Sergeant York

Ok, so Sergeant York is about a WWI hero from Tennessee, not Alabama. This is such a good movie about WWI, though. Since it was made in the early era of movies, there are war scenes, but there is no blood and no gore. The movie is in black and white, and when I tell students that it is in black and white, they all make that disappointed sound. I assure them, though, that this movie and To Kill A Mockingbird are two movies that are so good, that I do not mind that they are in black and white. (It has Gary Cooper in it for crying out loud! I always wanted to know what he was like because Lucy, of I Love Lucy, so often described certain men as a "Gary Cooperish" type.) Usually by the time the students see Sergeant York in a shooting contest, they are hooked. I have never been able to show it all in one afternoon, and both years the kids have just about driven me crazy asking when we are going to see the rest of the movie.

Watch it before you show it to the kids. They will ask questions as the movie goes along. Answer them as they ask even if you have to pause the movie every once in a while. From this movie: they will gain an understanding of what life was like in the rural South back in this time period, what boot camp and training was like for these soldiers, and what war was like with all of the new technology of the time. Possibly most importantly, they also get to experience the story of a truly humble war hero whose intelligence was gained in the backwoods of the South and whose integrity ran so deep that it influenced a nation (They even made a movie about him! :) ). You may want to mention that if any of them take a trip to the Smoky Mountains in Gatlinburg, they will see a sign on the interstate for the Alvin C. York VA Medical Center. I have had so many students come back and tell me that they saw his sign.

I do not do any written response on this movie. Sometimes we teachers can kill a good thing. I find that there are so many good questions and discussion throughout and after the movie, that there is no need to beat it to death with anything else. I do, however, do a project in which the students may choose to research the technology of WWI as one of their research topics. I will try to post that project soon.

If anyone ever finds that this movie has been restored to a color version, please let me know! Let me know if you use this movie in your class, and the impact it had on your students (and you!), too.

Enjoy!

Scholastic's Interactive WWII Home Life Activity

Let me tell you how absolutely amazing Scholastic is. Here is the link to their WWII American Home Front Home Life interactive activity. The interactive activity lets students click on different items in the living room and kitchen of a home front WWII family home. The item links open to show primary sources including photos, posters, and more, and some play audio files such as Roosevelt's inauguration speech and public service announcements. Each primary source link also includes a brief description of each primary source and its significance to the war effort during WWII.

I had actually decided that Scholastic (and its website) is amazing a long time ago, but I love it even more now! You see, I actually found this activity a week or so ago, and the audio files would not work. I did everything I could to my computer - I cleared my cookies, I deleted history, restarted my computer, downloaded updates, made sure I had the latest versions of everything, downloaded some more, restarted my computer again...you get the drift.

I was so excited about the audio files because that was one kind of WWII resource that I really felt like I was lacking. I know I haven't posted any of the WWII stuff to the website yet, but there is a lot of stuff coming!

Anyway, the audio files still were not working after all of my troubleshooting, so I contacted Scholastic. They sent me an e-mail that let me know that they would be working on the problem. Not much later, they let me know that they had fixed the problem! I was so excited. I went straight to the website to try to listen to those audio files (and I realize you are smirking at my geekiness).

They still wouldn't work for me! Scholastic worked on their website for me for over a week so that those audio files would work! You and I, thanks to Scholastic, now have access to this completely working interactive WWII American Home Front Home Life activity!

Enjoy!