The Civil War

The kids' last day of school was on Friday, May 31st.  First up on the schedule was the 5th grade Civil War reenactment.  It's a tradition at the school, but since I've never had a 5th grader before and it is during the school day I never paid any attention to it.  Adam, Jameson and I arrived on the field of the Elementary School at 9:30 a.m. not sure what to expect. Britton was a part of the Union army so he was asked to wear a navy shirt.  All of the kids who were part of the Confederate army were asked to wear a gray shirt.  Every single student brought 50-80 water balloons in a cooler and the field was set up for the battle.

 

Parents lined up their folding chairs on one side, and a few younger classes came out to watch on the other side.  Before the battle commenced they had a brief award ceremony to recognize some 5th grade students.  Britton received 2 awards, one of them we knew about, but the other one was a surprise.  As part of the service club (and with individual service hours) Britton earned the Presidential Volunteer Service Award.  He received the silver award meaning he had completed between 76-99 service hours of service during the year.  He got a pin and a letter "signed" by Barack Obama.  A local chapter of the Kiwanis Club gives an award to 2 students from each class called the "Hope of America" award and Britton was selected as 1 of the 2 students from his class.  This award was given to students who have "demonstrated during this school year the capacity for leadership, the ethical and moral character and the outstanding academic accomplishment which represent the Hope of America."  Britton was pleased to be recognized in this way.

Here he is accepting his "Hope of America" award

After the award ceremony ended it was time for the action.  Once again I was impressed with the school and the scale of the activity and the attention to detail that went into this reenactment.  I had no expectations, but it was actually really cool and I know that the students will forever remember the details of the Civil War because of this experience.  The students were divided into 6 regiments and came marching onto the field with their regiments.

The Confederate regiments came first and each regiment had a person that yelled, "left, left, left right left." to they could all march together.

 

Here is Britton marching in with his regiment.

 

This gives you an idea of how large the battle field was.

Various students had a part in telling the story and would come to the microphone to explain what was going on.  They started with the beginning of the war and the first battle.  During each one of the battles (and they acted out several) the students would come to the middle armed with water balloons and then when the time was right this is what happened.

The kids had a blast throwing water balloons at each other.  A whistle would blow at the end of the battle and they would all run back to their camps.  More students would talk about the progression of the war and then the students would fill their arms with as many water balloons and they could carry and go back for the next battle.  After the battle of Gettysburg the students came out with their tombstones to represent the many who lost their lives and a few of the students recited the entire Gettysburg address.

 

Britton was part of the small group that went to the center and met with a small group of Confederate soldiers. The Confederates surrendered and the war was finally over.

At the end they talked about how the Union general gave food to the Confederate army as soon as it was over because they were once again his countrymen and needed to be treated as such.  It was educational and really fun. They started practicing for this after all of the testing was done for the school year.  What a great use of time that would normally be wasted!

 

Britton's last moments as an elementary school student

 

After school got out around 11:30 a.m. it was party time.  Our neighbor rented a big bouncy house and had a huge party and everyone brought treats to share.  Believe it or not, it is officially SUMMER TIME!