There have been some exciting times in history class so far. In learning about colonial life, students were particularly interested in how Puritans decided someone was a witch and were particularly appalled by the lack of cleanliness in colonial cities.

Hopefully your child didn't come home and tell you that he or she had to pay ten cents for every photocopy they were given. It was actually an exercise in the idea of "no taxation without representation." Both classes were remarkably calm about the idea for the first few minutes (a decidedly different reaction than I normally get!) but then got pretty angry about having to pay for their homework. They weren't quite as angry as the colonists (no threats to tar and feather anyone) but they were able to put themselves in the colonists' place for a little bit.

Earlier in the week, we had a debate between loyalists and patriots. We had such distinguished guests in our room as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and even King George III! I was very happy with how involved the students got in their different sides. A couple of British accents even popped up!

Below are pictures of the loyalists, the patriots, and the neutralists in our debate.