In case it wasn't obvious, that's a rewrite of the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence - and it ties right in to why I have to write this post. It's time that I explain just what is going on in 5th grade right now.
Well, we are learning about the Revolutionary War. Ask your kids why the colonists rebelled, and they should be able to tell you about the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, the Townshed Acts....and any number of other infringements the British government committed against the colonists. So, of course, we decided that it was time to write our own!
We first discussed all of the ways the colonists were offended by Britain, and then we tried to generalize them and place them into categories. Then we talked about ways that we were frustrated by school. We started a list, categorized them, and made some general statements about our complaints.
And then....we wrote our declaration. We held a signing party, just like our Founding Fathers, and we sent that baby down to Mrs. Nichols via special courier (AKA, a student randomly selected by Class Dojo.) Here's a picture of our first signing. Our first signer decided to sign as big as possible so she could be "just like John Hancock" and my little teacher heart burst with happiness.
After penning what we thought was a pretty good declaration, we compared our version to excerpts of the real Declaration of Independence. We did a pretty good job, truthfully, but there was one section we hadn't written...and we needed to be just like the colonists. After pondering aloud if we needed to revise, the answer was a resounding YES, so we added another paragraph. But, the problem was that Queen Nichols already had our first copy.....what to do?
We sent a spy to make the switch. So if your student told you about about army crawling down the hallway, stealing something from Mrs. Nichols's desk, or running back down the hall to avoid capture.....it's all in the name of independence.
But we couldn't stop there. Did the American Patriots stop after simply penning their concerns? NO! Did the American Patriots give in and call it a day simply because the 3:!0 bell rang? NO!
Granted, we aren't fighting for things nearly as important as freedom from an oppressive king or the right to develop our own laws and tax policies....but we still aren't giving in....not even when Mrs. Nichols sent her reply back via courier and wrapped in a royal blue ribbon.
Which is why we lit Mrs. Nichols's office on fire, left her a voice mail of the class singing "Yankee Doodle," and hung protest posters. I'm pretty sure Queen Nichols is feeling the heat, because I caught her doing some studying after school on Friday...
We are hosting a publishing party to celebrate the completion of our nonfiction children's books!