Valley Forge for Kids

Join us as we discover what it was like in Valley Forge during the American Revolutionary War with these fun hands-on Revolutionary War for Kids activities. This fun history for kids lesson includes rolling cartridges activity, cold feet activity, dragon pistols, and other Revolutionary War Project Ideas, lots of great book recommendations, and a free printable revolutionary war lapbook with important dates and people. This is a fun American history for kids unit for kindergartners, first graders, 2nd graders, 3rd graders, 4th graders, 5th graders, and 6th graders.

Revolutionary War for Kids

Learn about famous Americans during our War of Independence from the British around 1776 with this fun American history for kids lesson. In our revolutionary war lapbook you will learn about important people from both the red coats (lobster tails) and patriots of the militia as well as major events in the timeline from the Boston Massacre to the Declaration of Independence and George Washington leading the 13 colonies to become the United States of America. We have also included revolutionary war project ideas to keep kindergartners and elementary age students in grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4, grade 5, and grade 6 engaged and make learning fun!

We did some fun hands on history projects like cold feet, dragon pistols, rolling cartridges, field trip to valley forge, leaned about Benedict Arnold, and finished our free American Revolution Lapbook. This has been such a fun history unit to explore together as a homeschooling family.

Revolutionary War Lapbook

Each week we will add more dates to our timeline and learn about famous people from the American Revolution. You can do this unit without buying a single textbook (assuming you have a good local library)! Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >> Download <<. The American revolution lapbook pdf file will open in a new window for you to save the freebie and print the template.

Valley Forge for Kids

We watched episode 23 (The Hessians are Coming) to the end of the series ~#39 from the outstanding Liberty Kids video series. (If you have middle school+ age children you might want to check out The Founding of America Megaset)

Valley forge Cold Feet Activity for Kids (Winter 1777-1778 )

After reading our history books and watching Liberty Kids we tried to get an idea of how cold the soldiers were in Valley Forget during the Revolutionary War. We put ice packs attached to our feet with rubberbands to get an idea of how cold the soldiers were at Valley Forget. Many soldiers didn’t have warm coats or blankets.

I wanted to make firecakes like the soldiers did, but didn’t get to it. Basically they mixed flour and water to make a dough. Then they put it on hot stones around the fire for something to eat. Not very good, but they were hungry and rations were limited!

We took a “fieldtrip” to Valley Forge as part of our Revolutionary War Road trip (see post here). The men were in groups with others from their same company / state. Some states were better supplied than others. Some barely had enough food, blankets, and some were even missing shoes! It was very moving to see the type of shelter they built (looked very much like Lincoln Log homes) and watch the movie to get a feel for the conditions.

There were various canon’s left from their defenses that Goofy thought were VERY cool! At first I kept thinking wow these are still here from the beginning of our nation… then I kept thinking how young of a nation we are (200+) and how much things had change in 200 years! I wonder what 200 more years will bring….

Alliance with France – Feb 1778

Rolling Cartridges Homeschool History Project

I first found the idea of rolling cartridges in the Konos American Revolution Activity Book. I love having lots of hands on activities to help make history come alive! We rolled our own cartridges out of paper and filled them with our gun powder (sand) and a musket ball (marble). After rolling several we had an idea of how time consuming this task was for the soldiers.

The Battle of Cowpen – January 7, 1781

Dragon Pistols Hands on American History Project for Kids

We made our own Dragon Pistols (I saw the idea at Squidoo here) using a scrap piece of wood that we super glued a clothespin on. The ammunition was rubber bands. It actually works very well & continues to be a BIG hit. Another option would be to make muskets using Let’s be Early Settlers with Daniel Boon by Peggy Parish

Treaty of Paris September 3, 1783 (Benjamin Franklin, John Adams)

Famous People of the Revolutionary War for Kids

Benedict Arnold American History for Kids

Benedict Arnold was a general during the American Revolutionary War who originally fought for the American Continental Army but defected to the British Army. While fighting for America, he obtained command of the fort at West Point, New York, and plotted to surrender it to the British forces. After the plot was exposed in 1780 he served the British Army as a brigadier general.

Lord Charles Cornwallis

John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States’ first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America’s political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to this day. “I have not yet begun to fight.”

(A Blow for Liberty is a great historical fiction book about being on John Paul Jones’ crew)

Women in the war

     

NOTE: Sometimes we skim through these books. I cannot guarantee the books in their entirety as we only uses parts or look at pictures. So forgive me if there is something in these recommendations that I don’t see =-)

FREE Revolutionary War Timeline & Lapbook

We also added this weeks’ events & famous people to our lapbook. You can download the American Revolutionary Lapbook here.