Field Trips
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
Ready-to-use materials for teachers can greatly contribute to a meaningful educational experience for students and teachers alike. This activity accompanies a self-guided battlefield tour during the course of a visit to Saratoga National Historical Park.
Read through the activity in advance. At each stop, reading aloud the introductory text for the tour stop will help put that site in context for your students. Then, have them complete the questions for that site. Whenever possible, a few minutes should be allowed for students to physically explore the tour stop; a sense of connection with and appreciation for the historic site is a crucial part of the battlefield tour experience.
Vocabulary
FORTIFICATIONS --constructed defensive positions; here, they were built with logs and piled earthARTILLERY --cannon, singular or plural
RIDGE --long, raised geographic feature, often overlooking a lower area
REDOUBT (re-DOWT or RE-dowt) --temporary field fortification built of a zig-zagging log wall (design gives defenders overlapping lines of fire), either vertical or horizontal logs, with 2-4 feet of dirt piled up against the wall in front of artillery positions, and with cut branches piled up 5-10 yards in front of the line as another barrier to attacking troops
Materials
Last updated: June 8, 2023