Today, I witnessed the Battle of the Somme in a Ninth-Grade classroom. The class participated in a re-enactment of trench warfare. The students were divided into three groups, German, French and English as they came into the classroom. My host teacher and I had moved the desks and marked them with a numbering system. The desks were lined up in three tight rows with a large gap in between the two groups, "No Man's Land." At the sound of a whistle, the two sides threw colored paper wads at each other as they sat on the floor and used their desks as a trench system. We had three rounds of two minutes with a ten minute question and answer period in between to resupply the paper ammunition. It was a very enjoyable activity and the students were so enthused that I had to repeat the action with two later classes.
Got a lot of positive feedback and the students had to write a point of view "Letter from the Trenches" to some one at home. All in all it was a great activity and showed a critical understanding of World War I trench life and fighting.
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