JOURNAL ENTRIES

1.  There are several good Revolutionary War fiction books available to 4th and 5th grade readers, such as the Felicity Books by Valerie Tripp in the American Girl Series, and Drums at Saratoga by Lisa Banim.  Children would read these books for pleasure and to get the "fiction" side of the war.   A lesson could then  follow on journal writing.  Students could then have the opportunity to write a  journal of a girl or a boy during the Revolutionary War Time Period.

Other fiction books about that time period are:

• Hope's Crossing, by Joan Elizabeth Goodman
  The Fighting Ground by Avi
  The Winter at Valley Forge by VanWyck
  My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier

   

LETTER WRITING

2.  Write a letter to a friend in England during this time.  Set the scene: 12 year old boy living in Saratoga;  Father gone; Mother working hard; baby sister sick, etc.  The assignment is to write the friend a letter telling him how bad life is here, but the friend should still consider coming here.  The good things outweigh the bad things.

DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

The Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, New York. 17 October 1777. Painting by John Trumbull and taken from the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia

3.  Download  or obtain a copy of the famous picture of Burgoyne surrendering at Saratoga.  Have the children describe what they see in the picture. What is happening?  Who do they think it is?  What could they be saying?

PBS has a good short film on enlistment found at http://www.saratoga.org/battle1777/  (click on militia) .  In this short film, Joseph Plum Martin tells why he enlisted in the   Continental Army.  On the same site is a very interesting story on why Benedict Arnold's leg is buried at Saratoga!

At the same site, there is a Revolutionary Game for kids to play;  it's called The Road to Revolution.  On this, the children can test  their knowledge on the Revolutionary War.