Declaration of Independence

This week in Social Studies, we began to discuss the Declaration of Independence. To illustrate the drafting of and the reasoning behind the Declaration of Independence, I used the video at the following link:
http://www.webtexts.com/declaration/

It was very popular, and they're pretty excited to share it with family members and friends. I've posted the link and given the homework assignment to discuss the things we learned in class today.

We did an activity where they closed their eyes to envision what life would be like without the liberties we have today. I gave situations like King's soldiers taking your home, your dinner & bed because they wanted to- and you had no control over it; or having outrageous taxes placed on everyday necessities because King George III decided he wanted more money in his coffers. We explained our feelings at these "injustices" and then talked about what the signers of the Declaration did about it. We picked apart much of the actual document and discussed what thd Founding Fathers wrote, especially the part that our class recites on a daily basis, so that they'd better understand what they're saying.

Please discuss these things with your student so they can come back to class prepared to discuss it full group again.

Happy Conversing!