These were pages 27-37, in The American Story, covering 1692-1743.Honestly, these were tricky chapters to build activities from. The Salem Witch Trials I made optional (we have some quite young kids) and an activity of "Let's Make Unfounded Accusations so We Can Take Your Stuff" just didn't seem fun anyway.
So we went with more general activities from the time period.
Our active activity was candle making - super fun!
We used two tall cans, one in simmering water and the other with ice water.
We chopped up the paraffin and put it in the warm can, along with some boiling water. Yes, the water and wax together! The wax floats on the water, and means you don't need to fill the entire can with wax (or make very short candles).
We used cotton string for wicks, weighted down with washers/ screws/nuts, etc.
You dip the string (briefly) into the wax, then into the cold water. The cold sets the wax quickly so that you can dip again immediately.The key is to make sure no water clings to the candle before you dip again (they turn into water filled blisters), and to do the wax dip quickly - otherwise the wax starts to melt off of the candle!
We let the kids do as many or as few dips as they wanted.
The candles really were lovely!
The art activity was writing with quills in invisible ink (lemon juice).Everyone loved this!
After they dried, I heated them over the stove to produce the words and drawings.
Our snack was popcorn - easy and a big hit- I think I made three batches!
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