I would start off the lesson on the Civil War by showing the students a timeline.  This will allow students to gain a better perspective on just where in time and history the Civil War took place.  After reviewing a little bit about the Civil War and some of its background information, I would show clips from the movies, “Glory” and “Gettysburg.”  By allowing the students to get a visual representation of what the Civil War and life during that time period was like, students will better be able to visualize events that will happen in the books that they read.  Being able to put images with words creates a better media of understanding for the child.  Before reading the books about the Civil War, I would conduct a fun activity in which the students could participate, so they will feel more involved with the events that occur in the stories that we will read.

Activity 1:  Junior Armies

First, the teacher would divide the class evenly into two groups, the Union and the Confederacy.  The class would sit with their assigned army and begin discussing strategies and battle plans for eliminating the other army.  A map of a battlefield and both army’s positions will be given to each team.  With these maps, each group of students, or army, will device a plan of attack that would be most effective when attacking their opponents.  When both groups are done planning, each group will have a turn presenting their plan of attack to the teacher and opposing forces.  There will be no winner announced for the battle, but both strategies will be critiqued and analyzed by the teacher.  The teacher will ask each army questions about their strategies and why they were conducted.

After the activity is complete, the students will watch a scene from one of the above mentioned movies showing military battle strategies.  Once the class is able to see a battle plan put to action, the books they will be reading will be introduced.