Capture the Flag

This was fun and different… after two days of studying an overview of the American Revolution, I took my students outside and had them play a rigged game of Capture the Flag. It worked amazingly well, although the red team got pretty annoyed as they lost advantages throughout the game (much like the British lost their advantages over the Americans in the war). The students went home over the weekend and made charts showing aspects of their game that compare or connect to aspects of the war. They did a great job with it, too, and most of them picked up on connections during the game itself. I’m generally against activities – so hard to control, and the kids are always so noisy! But they had so much fun AND remembered so much about the war itself… So once again, I think I will have to work in more activities.

The most entertaining part of the game came at the end of the day when another 8th grade teacher sent some of his students outside to ask if they could play with us. We ended up splitting into "our class" and "their class." At that point, I didn't rig the game; I just let them play. And would you believe... even when they were just playing for fun and I wasn't directing the discussion between rounds, they STILL talked about how their game compared to the Revolutionary War. It warmed my heart! My class won, which also warmed my heart. :)