The King's M&Ms

I was reading a blogger's Facebook page and saw that another teacher posted about The King's M&Ms and encouraged fifth grade teachers to Google it.  So I did.  Wow!  We had fun, fun, fun!!

Right when we came back from Winter Break, I had put my students into groups: England, New England Colonists, Middle Colonists, and Southern Colonists.  In my previous post, I was fomenting war in my room.  Then after lunch, they walked into a classroom that had 10 M&Ms in a coffee filter on each desk, and a set (non-latex) gloves on each tax collector's desk. Each member of Parliament, the Prime Minister, and King George III had index cards with dialogue on them.  They got up and spoke their lines about budgeting and how the French and Indian War had drained their accounts.  The PM suggested that they tax the colonists.

After that, the tax collectors stood up and addressed the colonists.  They read from cards and then went around and collected taxes.

The colonists played along and were properly outraged that they had to pay so much money.  After the King had his 40% and the PM had her 30%, and Parliament split their 20%, and the Tax Collectors got their 10%, I asked the students to write about their experiences as a colonist or an Englishman. While they were writing, I evened out the "income" so all students got a handful of M&Ms in their coffee filter.

Prelude to War

Oh my stars we are having fun this year in preparation for learning about the American Revolution!  I put my students into four groups: England (King George III, 3 members of Parliament, the Prime Minister, and 3 tax collectors), the New England Colonies (6 colonists), the Middle Colonies (6 colonists), and the Southern Colonies (6 colonists). I allowed England to decide who gets to leave for recess and lunch early.  They, of course, always choose themselves.

Three days ago two of my students were overheard debating whether England had the right to tax the colonists.  After school.  Yes, after school they were debating.  I LOVE THIS!!!

Yesterday after "England" left for recess early, one of my students said, "Mrs. Mitchell, in Social Studies, do the colonists ever do something?" I told her we'd have to wait to read about it, but I asked them how they were feeling about getting left behind.  They were good and mad.  So I asked them what they were going to do about it.  One of my boys wanted to declare war.  (I did tell him it was a bit early in the game)  One of the girls said she'd seen people holding signs and protesting and marching.  I gave her and two other students blank white paper and markers and permission to hide in the library to create signs.  I did not advise them on what to put on the signs.  The other students decided that they were going to block the door so that England could not leave early again.

The unfinished posters:

So at 12:15 I asked England what they wanted to do.  They decided to leave early.  The "colonists" jumped up, blocked the door and held up their signs.  Oh it was a great moment in history!!  I love that the students are coming up with these things themselves.  All I do is stir the pot! So, of course, I asked England what they were going to do about the colonists.  <twirling my dastardly mustache with glee>

On Monday we are going to do my own variation on the King's M&Ms.  Each colonists gets 10 or so M&Ms. The tax collectors will have gloves and will be the only ones to handle M&Ms!  I will give each colonists and Englishmen a coffee filter as a "wallet" for their "money" because I am not into activities that require massive amounts of prep! I have cards that I will give to my Parliament members: jewelry tax, jeans tax, sneakers tax, electronics tax, and something else.  Each tax is worth 2-3 M&Ms.  Members of Parliament, the Prime Minister, and King George III have speaking parts (on index cards) where I've taken information from our text books and made little snippets of dialogue. Then we'll really be ready for a revolution in our classroom!