Miller Weekly Update

On Tuesday, June 13th, the 5th grade Gifted and Talented classes here at Miller hosted our annual “Civil War Day”! This annual event is the culmination of a unit of study of American history from explorers to the American Civil War. This event is like a "living history museum" where students work together to create a presentation on a topic of their choice from the Civil War period. In all, there were 59 groups that presented to 5th grade classes over five class periods.

When presenting, each student worked in concert with their partners to memorize their part and bring their presentation to life. They did this by adding a "wow factor" and/or creating a product to go with it. (We call this STEM meets the Civil War!) For example, this year, one group of students who talked about seacoast and mortar cannons created a scaled down version of a seacoast cannon mounted to the "wall" of a fort that actually worked, shooting out small, light “cannon” balls. Another group talked about 19th century photography, making a camera with moving parts, and our telegraph group made a replica telegraph machine to explain how it worked. We also had girls dressed in period clothing, boys in soldier's uniforms, and a group talking about and displaying a variety of soldier's accoutrements. Other groups discussed 19th century food and recipes, and they actually made a variety of foods like apple pie and jam that were able to be sampled. Many students like our women spies and women soldiers added to their presentations by visiting thrift stores to find clothing that resembled that of the 19th century, so they were “in character”!

All in all, this was a great learning opportunity not only for the student presenters but for everyone involved. Well done everyone!