Project 78: America!

During Project 77: Shakespeare! we watched the film West Side Story, and the song America inspired Monica to select it as the week's project (along with the fact her father declared he would never want to live in America!).

We covered American history from the 'discovery' of America by Columbus through to life just before the American civil war. We made use of the traditional American History for Kids on Amazon Prime, and supplemented it with additional videos and discussions that were more challenging to the traditional narrative, e.g., History vs. Christopher Columbus.

It was also nice that, in keeping with the previous week's Shakespeare theme where we had studied The Tempest, there was a TED-Ed  video Why Should You Read Shakespeare's the Tempest? that explored how it could be interpreted from the perspective of colonisation.

We also explored the American narrative through three stories: reading an abridged version of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and watching the animated films An American Tail and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. 

Finally they made their own Statue of Liberty crowns and torches from paper plates and toilet rolls.

Three Statues of Liberty

Next week's project: Art and Mondrian.