Awesome Modern History: WWI and the Great Depression

These were chapters 84 and 85 in  A Child's History of the World.

For our active activity, we looked at the difficulty of dropping bombs.  Dropping bombs is easy, of course, but dropping them in the right spot is harder, as they discovered when they first started using airplanes in combat in WWI.

We had them stand over a cup and drop in a "bomb." Pretty simple.

Then we had them try to drop it in while walking past the cup without slowing down or stopping!  Very tricky!




 For our art activity, we dug little trenches and manned them with an assortment of little plastic "army guys."

We used curly ribbon for the barbed wire, and a few boulders that the kids came up with.

Then the two sides walked by, using black or white go chip "bombs" to bomb the other side's trench!

This collapsed the trenches, knocked over the plastic people, and convinced everyone they were glad they weren't in WWI!

 I did bring out my Dad's WWI helmet. 

I should clarify that he didn't fight in WWI (in fact, he was a small child in WWII), but when he was stationed in Germany, he and my Mom visited Verdun and found the helmet, as well as a pierced belt buckle.

We talked about how unfun life in the trenches was, then brought up the Red Cross, and it's service to wounded, and even healthy GIs.

In honor of the Red Cross, we had the snacks they served:

Coffee (for the grown ups!) and doughnuts!

A snack approved by all!