Lesson Plan

War on the Home Front: Post Visit Activities

Grade Level:
Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
Subject:
Social Studies
Lesson Duration:
90 Minutes
State Standards:
English: 4.1,4.2,4.3,4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7,4.8,4.9, 5.1, 5.2,5.3,5.4,5.6, 5.7,5.8,5.9
History: VS.1, VS.7, VUS.7, VUSI.1,USI.1,USI.5,USI.8,USI.9

Essential Question

What affects did the Civil War have on both the enslaved and free residents of the Burrough's plantation, where Booker T. Washington was born, from 1850 to 1865?

Objective

To develop the students understanding of the following –

• Definition of slavery
• What life was like on a piedmont Virginia, slaveholding tobacco farm
• The primary reason why the Civil War was fought
• How the war affected the enslaved and the slaveowners
• Booker T. Washington’s memory of the moment of emancipation
• What happened following emancipation for Freedmen and former slave owners

Background

This is a grouping of 6 post visit activities for teachers to do with their students once they visit Booker T. Washington National Monument.

Preparation

The various post visit activities require differrent things from the following list: notebook paper, pencil, (optional) video camera,computer, graphic organizer, books, encyclopedias, internet, crayons, various materials to make illustration, construction paper, markers, wire or yarn to hang timeline

Websites:

Materials

War on the Home Front is unit of activities designed to introduce students to the impact of the Civil War, especially as it affected those living on the Burroughs' plantation.

Download War on the Home Front Post Visit Activities

Lesson Hook/Preview

War on the Home Front is a unit of activities designed to introduce students to the impact of the Civil War, especially as it affected those living on the Burroughs' plantation.

Procedure

Procedures vary upon activity in the post visit lesson plans:

1.BORN HERE, FREED HERE: Through discussion students will compare and contrast Booker T’s life before and after he was freed. The students will create a venn diagram and label each part "Before the Civil War." and "After the Civil War." Students will think about what Booker T. Washington’s life was like before and after he was freed. Think about how political events of the time could have affected both and how his life was the same even after he was freed.The students will think about what it meant to be a former slaveholder or former slave after the Civil War and list the responsibilities and problems of each. Think about how political events of the time could have affected both.The students will discuss these relationships.

2.Journal Entry: Students will be able to explain the life of an enslaved child during the Civil War. Students will have a class discussion/brainstorm about what life would have been like for a child during the Civil War and research using a graphic organizer about what life was like for kids during the Civil War.Students will write a journal entry using details from their research “A day in the life of an enslaved during the Civil War”     

3. The students will research particular people or events important to the Civil War era using a graphic organizer. They will make an illustration of their person or event. Examples: poster, model, drawing, mobile, collage, or puppet. (Suggestion: Use a computer to locate pictures)  The students will present their projects to the class. This should be done as an individual activity.

4.TIMELINE:  Students will be able to create a classroom timeline from 1850-1865 of important events during the Civil War. The students will work in groups to create a timeline putting in important events and people from 1850-1865.They will cut construction paper into rectangles with each year that they wish to show event and place these above the timeline.Place important people and events on the timeline. Suggestion: Choose the number of events appropriate for your class.

5. Compare and Contrast: Students will construct two pie or circle graphs. Using the graphs students will compare and contrast the resources of the North and South.The students will construct two pie graphs. One will represent the resources of the North in 1860. The other will represent the resources of the South in 1860. They will include in the graph items such as the amount of money, the number of people, and the number of factories, food supplies, and railroads that each region has. They will analyze the differences between the two regions. How did this affect the Civil War? How did resources affect each side's ability to fight, especially in the long term? What conclusions can you draw from the differences in resources?  The students will create illustrations for events on timeline.

6. Point of View: Students will compare and contrast the multiple points of views of individuals on the Burroughs’s Plantation. After a trip to Booker T. Washington National Monument, students will research what the Civil War was like for those who fought as well as for those on the home front.The students will think of men in different situations and their points of view. How did men view the war? For example: an enlisted man, a wealthy slaveholder, a small farmer that doesn't own enslaved persons, a man who didn't fight, and an enslaved man or boy. Try to find as much as you can about what the men in the South had to deal with. What were their responsibilities? What were their long-range goals? How did they meet these goals? The students will think of women in different situations and their points of view, how did the women view the war? For example: a married woman with small children, or an enslaved woman on the home front, a nurse, a woman whose sons had gone to war. Try to find out as much as you can about what the women on the home front in the South had to confront. What were their responsibilities? Who did they have to depend upon? What were their long-range goals? How did they meet these goals? goals? The students will hold a panel discussion comparing and contrasting these differing points of view.
 

 

Vocabulary

  1. plantation: a large farm where a cash crop is planted and grown to sell                                                                       
  2. "big house": the house where the owners of the plantation lived                                                                       
  3. emancipation: freedom, especially of the slaves in the United States                                                                       
  4. slavery: the owning or keeping of slaves as a practice or institution; slaveholding                                                                       
  5. cash crop: plants that are grown to sell for a profit                                                                       
  6. grapevine telegraph: an oral form of communication in slave culture in which news spread rapidly among slaves from plantation to plantation                                                                       
  7. agrarian: relating to the land; relating to the cultivation or ownership of land                                                                       
  8. property: something that is owned by someone                                                                       
  9. casualty: a soldier who is lost during active service, especially through being killed, wounded, or captured                                                                       
  10. indentured servitude: a contract to work for a person for a certain number of years, usually to pay for passage to the New World; at the end of the contract these servants are free                                                                       
  11. industrial: having to do with industries; relating to factories or the work, products, or people within                                                                       
  12. insurrection: a rising up against established authority; rebellion; revolt                                                                       
  13. territory: a part of the United States having its own legislature but without the status of a State and under the administration of an appointed governor                                                                       
  14. secession: the withdrawal of 11 states from the United States of America in 1860 and 1861; being about the Confederate States of America and the American Civil War
Suggested Activities and Strategies                                                                                    
  1. Flash cards                                                                       
  2. Jeopardy                                                                       
  3. Who Wants to be A Millionaire                                                     
  4. Paragraph Writing
  5. Web Quest                                                                       
Key terms  
  1. Slaveholder: an owner of another human being who is used as personal property                                                                       
  2. Abolitionist: a person who works toward ending slavery in the United States                                                                       
  3. John Rolfe: English colonist who introduced tobacco to the settlers of Jamestown                                                                       
  4. Nat Turner: American leader of a slave rebellion in Southampton, Virginia                                                                       
  5. Abraham Lincoln: the sixteenth President of the United States; also President during the American Civil War who issued the Emancipation Proclamation                                                                       
  6. John Brown: American abolitionist leader who seized Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859                                                                       
  7. Alexander Stevens: Vice President of the Confederate States of America                                                                       
  8. American Civil War (1861 – 1865): the war fought between the Union and the Confederacy                                                                       
  9. Emancipation Proclamation: the document issued by President Lincoln, which became official on January 1, 1863, that was supposed to free the slaves in the Confederate states                                                                       
  10. Underground Railroad: an organized system of “conductors” and safe houses that helped runaway slaves escape to the North                                                                       
  11. 13th Amendment: the amendment to the Constitution in which slavery is ended                                                                       
  12. Union: the side of the United States during the Civil War; the North                                                                       
  13. Confederate: the side of the South during the Civil War; Rebels

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Tags: civil war slavery freedom

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Last updated: January 12, 2022