Objective: Students will understand the life of a Civil War Soldier and how civilians were affected by the war especially in Tennessee.
Brainstorm the following Civil War terms.
War
President Lincoln
Slavery
Plantation
North
South
Confederate
Union
Soldier
Pass out Manipulative 1, have the students write down their best guess on what the items are the soldier uses for the Civil War. Do not give them the answers, they will be seen during program. (Manipulative 2 is the answer key)
Use Manipulative 3, have them color the United States flag, discuss what the colors and stars and stripes represent. Discuss why this was called the Union flag during the Civil War and show the Confederate Flag. The Union readmitted all states that had seceded back into the United States of America after the Civil War. Thus the American flag that we use today came from the Union flag used in the Civil War.
(stars = 50 states and represents land)
*Our current flag with 50 stars was not made until 1960.
(stripes = original 13 states)
(Red = hardiness, courage)
(Blue = vigilance, justice)
(White = Purity)
A Nation Divided – students will understand a brief overview of the Civil War and the flags of the war by three handouts that they will work on with questions for each handout.
Use the map (Manipulative 4) for students to answer questions from Manipulative 5. Go over answers and open discussion about the Civil War. (Key is included with Manipulative 5)
Pass out (Manipulative 1) and see how many items of a soldier they can identify from the program. Check their memory and give them the correct answers.
Have students write a letter as if they were a soldier fighting in the Civil War. Items they may want to include, food they ate, battles they fought in, camp life, or a wound or disease they have gotten during war.
Have the students write a journal entry as if they were a child living during the Civil War. Items they might include would be their work on the farm, their schooling, scarcity of food, clothes and medicine and what they had to do to help provide for their family.
Activity 4
Click on the website for extensive lesson plans for the Stones River Battleground. The website is from Teaching With Historical Places. www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp
Activity
5
Display the students battle flags made during the program, by either attaching to wood sticks or straws or making a bulletin board of all their flags.
Have students study and discuss two Civil War songs (Manipulative 6). How do the lyrics reflect or explain the feelings and life of a soldier?
Have the students ask their parents about their family history and where their ancestors were during the Civil War (if possible). In class, have each student present their findings and identify which side their relatives fought for or lived and what happened to them after the war. Students may bring pictures, diaries and other artifacts to show.
