Civl War Battles Simulation

Long time no blog!

We finished Mock Trial about a month ago, which is why I wasn't blogging, and then we had spring break, state testing, etc etc etc and anyway, I'm just sitting down to blog all the fun lessons we have been working on!

We only have FOUR weeks left of school. It's pretty crazy and kind of stressful! I have a lot to cover still and not a lot of time, but we will make it work!

So, I'll be straight with you when I say that Civil War is not my favorite thing to cover, only because I feel like it's very battle heavy. I don't really focus on the battles with the American Revolution, just the ideas, themes etc. With Civil War, I feel like a lot more students are interested in the battles because they have been to battlefields or heard about Generals, so I feel more pressure to cover the battles more in depth than I normally would. 

The problem is, I have never found a way to do battles that isn't Powerpoint/lecture format, which I hate.

So I turned to my trusty TPT! I looked for battle simulations and found one that had good ratings. Only problem, it was $8. That is a lot, in my opinion.  However, it had good reviews so I took the risk! I had some precious TPT credits I had been saving and I bought the simulation.

Oh man, you guys. This was the worst TPT product I have ever purchased. It was a disorganized mess! I have never seen anything so bad. It was just several very confusing documents. The seller had a key that didn't match the student copy and it also had a lot of wrong information. I was so disappointed, but I realized I could spend a significant amount of time using the same basic idea of  a simulation and create my own.

So, here is the idea. I split my class into two, Confederacy and Union. Then within the bigger groups, I created four smaller groups with 4 students per group. Each of those smaller groups was a regiment. I gave them the description and pictures of their regiment and they had to introduce themselves to the class. So we had regiments like The Iron Brigade, the 54th, Irish Brigade, Stonewall Brigade, etc.

The idea of the game is I read what has brought students to a particular battle, then students are presented with a choice. Every choice they make has positive or negative point value.  Then I read what actually happened and show students a video, then I give them the point breakdown of what they earned based on their decision. The goal is to get the most points. Even though the Union won the war, they aren't guaranteed to win the game.

My students have had SO much fun with this game and they are so much more likely to remember why each battle/general was important. I'm so glad I finally figured out how to teach battles in a way that I love.

If you would like the game for yourself, you can buy it from my Teachers Pay Teachers store here.

Hope you enjoy it as much as my students! If you have any questions about the details, email me at beggingborrowingstealing@gmail.com