Learning Activities for Students Grades 4-5

"War on the Home Front" is a unit of activities designed to introduce students to the impact of the Civil War, especially as it affected those living on the Burroughs plantation.

Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools that are met by a visit to the site and the learning activities.

History and Social Science: 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.7, 5.7, 5.9, and 5.10

Computer/Technology: C/T 5.3 and C/T 5.4

Mathematics: 4.19 and 5.17

English: 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, 5.7, and 5.8

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Pre-Visit Activities

1. Vocabulary

Designed to help students become familiar with the terms used in activities and on their trip.

2. Map Activity

Students will label a map identifying Union states, Confederate states, border states, and territories.

3. Map - U.S. by 1861

Duplicate for Map Activity

4. Map - U.S. by 1861

Key for Map Activity

5. Slaveholder And Slave

Through discussion students will compare and contrast the relationships between slaveholder and slave before and after the Civil War.

6. Letter To My Friend

Students will write a letter to a "friend" trying to persuade them to either be on the side of the North or the South.

7. Choices

Students will compare and contrast Booker's life as a slave with their lives today.







Post-Visit Activities

8. Diorama

Students will construct a diorama about an event that occurred on the Burroughs plantation from 1856-1865 and give a presentation of their project to the class.

9. Project And Presentation

Students will research and present a project dealing with events or people important to the Civil War era.

10. Timeline

Students will create a classroom timeline from 1850-1865.

11. Pie Or Circle Graph

Students will construct two pie or circle graphs. Using the graphs students will compare and contrast the resources of the North and South.

12. Point of View