This next week the Utah Patriot Camp takes place. I have responsibility to teach two classes. Here is one of my drafts for my class about the Boston Tea party. I’ll be teaching elementary aged children and I want the class to be interactive. I was delighted to hear that the camp leaders have arranged for an actual ship to be delivered to the camp. A miniature one, obviously, but what a great tool to use to our advantage.

Purchased items:
– face paints,
– Head bands and feathers,
– Tea bags filled with plant matter
– Crates that can be easily opened by the kids and
– A mock ship.
– Also I need to finish up the two gunny bags I’ve already filled with grass. Seal them with safety pins and then sew shirt and pants on them on each of them so that they can look like sailors that the kids can throw over board along with the bags of tea.
– Camera to take picture of kids in front of the ship
– Hand wipes to clean children’s faces and fingers once they’re done if they desire.

Things I need to watch for:
– Have dabs of paint already on strips of tap so that kids don’t use too much paint by them squeezing the tubs by themselves. They’re each allotted a dab of each color of paint, premeasured. And pain will need to be dabbed just before class so it doesn’t have a chance to dry out.
– Watch for things or activities that could hurt the children by them becoming too active by throwing tea and sailors off the ship or using hammers.
– Watch my tone because once I spoke very serious and I scared my niece’s daughter making her cry.
– Some kids might not want to ‘pretend’ or dress up.
– Some kids running off unattended.
– Make sure site and ship are kid proof before activities.
– Watch the time in getting ready for the arrival at the ship.
– Helpers will help me reset the stage in preparation for the next class. There will be six groups of students for the day.
– Helpers attending each class will need to be warned in advance of what will happen so they can cheer and help get the kids to get in the mood to pretend. And they can help put paint on the kids that need help. Have plenty of hand wipes.

The presentation will be very straight forward as I am restricted to 15 min and most of that will be in them getting dressed. I am thinking that I will want to modernize the possible speech to motivate kids to dump the tea by saying things the kids might relate to.

Setup:
Briefly talk about Boston full of English citizens who felt abused by mother England. The stamp act, the sugar act, multiple acts laid upon the people to help pay for England’s war with France. The people felt they were not being properly represented back in England. They got mad and madder at the injustice.

One night, a bunch of guys were in a tavern complaining about the tea on the ships in the harbor that would be taxed. It just want’s fair. They wanted to show mother England how mad they were.
We’ll toss the sea over board, they agreed. So they dressed up like Indians and went to the ship and tossed crates and bag of tea over board.

Speech: Class, we are going to pretend like we are those men in Boston. I’ll give you a speech. You cheer me on. Give me a cheer!
Then we’ll disguise ourselves as Indians and go to the ship and toss all the tea over board. If anyone resists us we’ll toss them over board too, just like the movies

Now our make believe Boston Tea Party shall begin: Men! When have you faced a bully that was really mean and you wanted to stop him or her from being mean? Give me a cheer!

Have you ever seen someone cheat on a test and know that it’s wrong and you say Stop that! Shake your fist at me and yell Booooooo!

Mother England is adding more taxes. The Sugar Tax, The Stamp Act so she can pay for her war with France. Taxes… Taxes… Taxes. Now they want to tax our tea. I’m not going to stand it anymore. Let’s go to show them it’s wrong. Give me a cheer!

Let’s dump England’s tea into the water. Whose with me? Give me a cheer!

Run over to the table that has the paint, head sets and feathers ready.

Men, each of you grab a head set and paint strips across your cheeks like this; so you’ll look like Indians. That way they’ll never know who did it. The tea is in crates. We’ll open the crates and toss the bags over board. If there are sailors lying around and they resist us. Toss them over board too. Give me a cheer!

Ready? Let’s go!

http://www.utahpatriotcamp.com/