Plays and Simulations

The Miracle of Spring Last week in the Into Reading program, we had been discussing how genre affects the way a story is told.  We have been reading a variety of genres like realistic fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, and poetry.  One of the stories we read was in the form of a drama/play, titled "The Miracle of Spring".  We discussed the elements of a drama and to make it a bit more fun, when it came time to read the play, I brought in some props and assigned roles so we could act out the play. 

"No Taxation without Representation"

Every year when learning about the events leading to the Revolutionary War, I do a simulation of what it felt like for the colonists to be taxed unfairly.  Some students were assigned to be tax collectors, while others, members of Parliament, and then regular hard working colonists.  Colonists were taxed on numbers of pencils in pencil cases, if they were wearing a certain color, or if their name started with a certain letter.   They had to give their money to the tax collectors and if they ran out, they ended in the stocks.