The Setting
Imagine you were there the night of December 16, 1773 amongst an angry crowd of patriots. You, like the men standing beside you, have had enough of British law and tyranny. Your city, Boston, has reached a boiling point, and now a cry has risen up from the Sons of Liberty, “Boston Harbor, a teapot tonight.” There is a feeling of excitement amongst the crowd, like a gathering storm. You dress up as a Mohawk Indian, march down to Griffin’s Wharf with about a hundred other men, and board one of the three ships anchored in Boston harbor. You and your fellow patriots ply open 342 chests of tea and throw them overboard into the Massachusetts Bay. You ensure that no one gets the idea to salvage any of the tea leaves floating on the surface of the water, so you use a paddle to stir every last leaf into the sea.
In order to make your point, this uprising cannot go down in history as an act of theft, but as a patriotic protest. This event must be remembered as a protest against British overreach, as the Boston Tea Party of 1773.
Living History
Living history is the practice of bringing the past to life through immersive, interactive activities. History is more meaningful when you can touch it and experience it. If you’re simply reading about events in a text book, history will be remembered as dry facts on a page. But when you take what you have read and then build your own piece of history, it comes to life.
I love dioramas, building scenes from the history that we have recently studied. With its three-dimensional figures and landscape, the scene in history comes to life.
In Issue 2 of the Revolution Minute, we study the Boston Tea Party, a scene that I have found fits rather well into a shoebox :)
Supplies
- Hot glue gun
- Shoebox or crate
- Construction Paper
- Blue Construction Paper (for the Bay)
- Black Construction Paper (for the sky)
- Yellow construction paper (for the moon and stars)
- Popsicle Sticks
- Twine (for the sign)
- Thin Cardboard (for creating tea crates)
- Tea Bags
- 3x5 card
- Mini Ship
- Soldiers
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Instructions
Cut out your black construction paper to fit the lid of your shoebox. This is your sky.
Cut the blue paper to fit the bottom of your shoebox. This is the Bay. Take a narrow strip of blue, cut some waves, and glue it to the backdrop of your shoebox.
Cut out some yellow stars and a moon and glue them into your sky.
Label a popsicle stick with the words Boston Harbor. Wrap some twine on either end of the popsicle stick. Make two holes in the top of your shoebox and hang your popsicle stick sign from it.
Fill out a 3x5 card with facts about the Boston Tea Party and glue it to your sky.
Create some of these labels:
- Massachusetts Bay
- The Ships: Dartmouth, Eleanor, Beaver
- Griffen’s Wharf
Paste these labels onto a popsicle stick and glue them to your box or your ship.
Form some popsicle sticks into a dock. Glue some soldiers onto the dock.
Dab some glue in little piles and pour the contents of your tea bags over the top of the glue.
Cut your thin cardboard into mini boxes and label them “tea”. Glue them onto the dock and into the bay.
Glue your ship into the bay.
Present your diorama to at least one other person and give a presentation about what you know about the Boston Tea Party.
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