Robert Gould Shaw: Respect and Courage

We began the class with twenty minutes of free play, after which we did our workout and recitations.

Then we reviewed last week's lesson about Gettysburg, primarily that the battle was won by the North who had the high ground.  We then had the boys share what they remembered about Joshua Chamberlain and watched this clip from the wonderful movie, Gettysburg, that shows his daring move on Little Round Top.

Then we introduced our last hero of the Civil War, Robert Gould Shaw.  The trailer for Glory is a wonderful, brief recap of the role he played with the Massachusetts 54th Regiment.  They were the second regiment composed of African American troops and their courage at the Battle of Fort Wagner (roughly 40% were lost) has become legendary.

We then let the boys play before playing "Telephone."  We'll be discussing Alexander Graham Bell next week so we'll refer to the game again then.

Gettysburg and Joshua Chamberlain

Today we began with 20 minutes of rough housing. Then we had our workout and recited the Pledge and our class rules and affirmations.

We then reviewed a bit from last week and introduced our hero- Joshua Chamberlain. 

We read the book Voices of Gettysburg which I highly recommend.  After reviewing the battle’s highlights and Robert E Lee’s mistake (hubris or too much pride), we went over Chamberlain’s heroism. He was a college professor who cared so much about abolitionism that he joined the Union Army, even though he didn’t have to (rare- most of the men were drafted and fought reluctantly once the emancipation proclamation was written.). 

He had only read about war but read everything he could find and so, when faced with what seemed an impossible situation he thought outside of the box and saved his men.  His heroics saved the battle for the Union Army by preventing them from being flanked.

Then we re-enacted Gettysburg with an uphill nerf battle, letting the boys take turns being the North and the South. We finished with an all out nerf battle.

Abraham Lincoln the Champion Wrestler

 For this lesson we began having the boys play on the trampoline.  Then we got started with our class.  We did our workout and recited the Pledge of Allegiance as well as our class rules and affirmations.

We then reviewed Frederick Douglass, Slavery and Abraham Lincoln's upbringing.  Then we talked more about the Civil War, showing the boys a scene from this Animated Heroes Classic video about Lincoln.  The scene showed some of the wounded after the first Battle of Bull Run.  

Then we told the boys the story of Abraham Lincoln beating Jack Armstrong, a town bully who was part of a gang.  You can read about the story here.  

The boys loved the story and afterward we had them take turns wrestling, one on one.  We only had them wrestle for 30 seconds at a time and didn't really call points or declare a winner this time.  Hopefully in the future we'll have more time to do this and make it more competitive.

Next week we'll talk about the Battle of Gettysburg and have a nerf battle!  We're asking the boys to come with eye protection so they will be safe while they shoot.

Abraham Lincoln

We began the class with our themed activity.  We had the boys pretend to be runaway slaves.  They started at the end of the street and ran north.  I was the "slave catcher" and would come out of the house every so often to look for them.  I would run out onto the street, look around, and then run back inside.  I made sure to whistle first to give them a five second warning so they could hide.  The boys loved it.

After that, we let them play, then we had our workout and recited the Pledge and our class rules.

Then we reviewed slavery, introducing the idea of the Underground Railroad and slavery's connection with the Civil War.  We didn't have time to watch it but this video about Harriet Tubman is a great way to illustrate what the Underground Railroad was and to explain about abolitionism.

Then we introduced our new hero, Abraham Lincoln.  We read a book about him called The Value of Respect: The Story of Abraham Lincoln. 

Let the boys have a snack and then they played on the trampoline for the rest of the class.

For those who have more time, this is a great video about Lincoln.