Non-resistant Moravian Native Americans: The Gnadenhutten Massacre

One of the most heartbreaking stories in American history is the story of the Moravian native Americans who were discipled by David Zeisberger.  Here is an extremely simplified version of their story:

They were driven from their native home along the East coast to Gnadenhutten, Ohio, where they planted crops.  After being driven to the area that is now Michigan because of further problems and mistrust from white settlers and other native tribes, they found themselves with no food.  In a desperate situation, about ninety of them decided to return to Gnadenhutten, Ohio to harvest their crops and bring the food back.  They were either mistaken for local hostile tribes or not trusted by the local militia and captured upon their return.  After refusing to fight and remaining non-resistant, they requested to spend the night in prayer (which was granted) -- the men in one cabin and the women and children in another cabin.  The next morning, all ninety-six of them, including 28 men, 29 women, and 39 children who prayed and sang until the end, were massacred by the militia who then burned the entire village.  Two boys, one of whom had been scalped, escaped to tell the story.  Faithful missionaries gathered the bones of the martyrs and buried them in a mound south of the village.  There are varying details, of course and I acknowledge that.  

A few years back, one of my eighth grade classes chose this topic for a class chapel after we had read and researched it in our history class.  I was privileged to visit the site on the way home from the Ohio music camp.  Although this is an incredibly sad story, it is rich in history, poignant, and a great example for our young people.  The Warrior's Challenge, a book about this story by Dave and Neta Jackson, is pictured below.  It's always in my junior high and high school classroom.

The Oceania Four Corners Geography Game

 

     The day before our history test on Oceania (which included the interesting story about Australia being settled by boatloads of prisoners from England), we finished our review and then headed outside.  There we laid large pieces of plastic tablecloth fabric on the parking lot in the correct geographic location (well, as close as we could anyway), and played the game Four Corners except instead of colors in the four corners the students could stand on Antarctica, New Zealand, Tasmania, the Solomon Islands, the Hawaiian Islands, and a few others.  

     We all had fun; the younger students learned some geography while the older students scored well on the map section of their test the next day.  Those are all good things.  

Easy & Interesting History Topics for Beginning Report Writers

 

     Writing can be challenging and frustrating for students, but there are ways we teachers can make the process more palatable for them.  One of my favorite ways to do this is by using a famous building from history for a topic.  This has several advantages.

1.   Buildings are neat and interesting, and the students will hopefully be genuinely interested in writing about them.

2.  They are learning about history and writing at the same time.

3.  The outline is pretty straight forward, and this really helps students as they get used to making outlines and writing.

        I.  How, when, where and why it was constructed

        II.  How it was used 

        III.  What happened to it or how it is used today

This is a great way to gently initiate students into the world of report writing.  The link to the Youtube slideshow is below.  If you would like a pdf file of the slideshow instead, please request one using the "Contact Us" form to the right in the sidebar. 

                Here is the link to the slideshow.

Also, if you choose to have your students make a 3D project of their building to get them interested in their topic before they write, here are some links of ideas and photos of completed student projects:  

Ships, Vikings, and Catacombs: 

https://theplainprofessors.blogspot.com/2020/03/history-projects-2020-vikings-catacombs.html

Statues, Pagodas, and Pyramids: 

https://theplainprofessors.blogspot.com/2018/12/three-dimensional-world-history-projects.html

Cabins, Molasses Explosions, and Hobo Post Markings: 

https://theplainprofessors.blogspot.com/2019/02/3-d-history-projects-and-hobo-post.html

The Black Death House, Rope Bridges, and the Wailing Wall

https://theplainprofessors.blogspot.com/2020/03/2020-world-history-projects-and-winners.html

Henry Box Brown, a Colonial Dress, and Shackleton's Ship 

https://theplainprofessors.blogspot.com/2017/04/not-in-box-not-with-fox.html

A Korean Dinner, Koi, and Kongki Noli

     Maple Grove Mennonite Academy's second annual Cultural Dinner and History Fair was held last weekend.  Our theme was Korea as we had been studying Korea, creating Korean art, learning Korean games, and making pottery that is currently being fired.  Hopefully we'll have some pictures of that soon.  

The students made these wind sock fish, the Korean flag, and the koi below for decorations.  They also  made paper fans and the folded paper pieces for the ddakji game.

     The moms prepared a fabulous, authentic Korean meal and the students served their 

parents and invited guests.  

     The adults seemed to enjoy the Korean games of kongki noli and ddakji more than the students did, and only a few rocks ended up in our bowls of sauce instead of on the backs of our hands where they were supposed to land.  

     The younger students researched a country and made a presentation poster on it while the older students chose a world history event for their topics.  

 

Research Paper or History Project Topic Videos

 I've been working on these lists for awhile.  Here they are in video form.  I hope that they may be helpful for you and your students. 

80 American History Research Paper or History Project Topic Ideas

60 World History Research Paper or History Project Topic Ideas

30 Famous Building Research Paper or History Project Topic Ideas 

Renaissance Activity Day

 

    This three minute documentary explains some of the amazing aspects of Brunelleschi's Dome atop the Cathedral of St. Florence in Florence, Italy.  It's fascinating.  After studying the Renaisaance in our history books, we watch this and then build our own dome.  

Nine students easily fit inside of it, and we left it up the rest of the week.  The students read books, finished their math and English assignments, and even sang their choir songs inside the dome.  

Energize Your History Class!

This article was originally written for and posted on The Dock for Learning.

Five Go-to Practices to Energize Your History Class

History is actually a class where we learn about real people and true stories about what they did.  It should be fascinating – not boring.  Here are a few ways to make history more interesting for your students.  

1.   Show actual pictures.  Photos of the Native Americans, the Great Depression, suburbia in the 1960s, the Twin Towers, and anything since cameras were used in the mid-to-late 1800s are great.  They speak volumes to students and make more relevant what the students are reading in the textbooks.  Use drawings when pictures are not available.

2.  Discuss the reasons for what people did and why they did it.  Most of what occurred in history was done for greed and power.  Talk about what God’s Word says about this, and what the response should have been.  Was the Civil War really the only way to end slavery?  

Discuss how whatever you are studying relates to us today.  We are currently studying the American Revolution.  We talk about how the colonists had said that they would obey King George and didn’t.  Then we talk about who we should be loyal to today.  When we get to westward expansion, we will discuss what people might do today to start their lives over.  

3.  Put the students into the scenario being studied.  If you are studying the Great Depression and read that around 20% of the people were unemployed, apply that to your class.  If you have ten students, two of them wouldn’t have jobs or any income.  Ask what we should do as Christians to help them.

4. Complete projects in class that directly relate to what is currently being studied.  Construct buildings out of popsicle sticks, replicate art forms from different cultures, eat foods from different countries, make string art maps of continents.  I have compiled a list of over fifty projects for American and world history, most of which can be completed in the classroom in one class period.  Contact me if you’re interested and I will gladly share it with you.    

   

   

5. Read and discuss the text together as much as possible.  Have students read paragraphs and “digest” the content together, asking them questions and discussing what happened. It is also helpful to have them write down key concepts, taking notes if they are older, or labeling diagrams or worksheets with as many visuals on them as you can if they are younger.  

Great American History Art Projects

Shannon Miller's 4th and 5th grade class at Maranatha Christian School really looks forward to art class on Fridays.  They have been making works of art from the colonial period of American history, because that is what they've been studying in history class.  Here are some of their works of pottery.  She used Art Skills Crafter's Closet oven-bake clay to make these.  It can be purchased at Dollar General for $1 a package -- and one package is enough for four students.  

They also sewed their own little books together and each one made a replica of Poor Richard's Almanac.  Inside they included maps, advertisements, weather forecasts, illustrations, and two of Benjamin Franklin's quotes.  I love this idea!  

Another project was a string art map of the United States.  Each student did their own, and learned some geography while they were having an enjoyable time in art class.  

Related Posts: 

Map Weaving 101

I'm All Strung Out 

The BIGGEST Map 

Shipwrecks, Morals, and Questions: The Importance of Teaching History

 This article was originally published in the fall issue of LightLines, a publication of Christian Light, Harrisonburg, VA. For a free subscription, email subscribe.lightLines@christianlight.org.

Shipwrecks, Morals, and Questions: The Importance of Teaching History 

by Deana Swanson

History is an amazingly important subject to teach for one main reason: it is the only subject that consists mostly of material that we can evaluate, make moral decisions about, and apply to our lives today.  

Reading, writing, and math are skill-based.  Students learn how to perform a task; they repeat it and get better at it.  Science is largely fact-based.  Students learn how science works and about how God created the universe and everything in it.  

History though, is different.  And it has far greater reaching effects.  When we teach history, students not only learn facts about what happened in the past, but they can directly apply those facts to what is going on in the news, and more importantly, compare that knowledge with what we know God’s word says about it, and then apply it to our lives today.  That’s exciting!  

For example, when we study Prohibition, the period of history when the sale and consuming of alcohol was prohibited, we look at the effects of what happened during and after it.  We can then discuss how in our own day the sale of marijuana is becoming legal.  We can ask questions like “How will that affect our society long-term?”  “In what direction is society headed?”  “What could happen long term?”  “How do you think God feels about that?”  

History comes alive when we do this, and it makes a difference to our students because just about everything in the past has some parallel to something that is going on today.  History tends to repeat itself:  “There is nothing new under the sun.”  (Ecclesiastes 1:9b)  

Every issue society is dealing with now has happened in the past, just in a different situation or form.  It is exciting and interesting to pull those facts out, relate them to now, see what happened back then, which decisions were made, and then apply those to current issues. 

History is a study of choices and consequences, good guys and bad guys, super smart decisions and decisions that we can look back on and wonder, why on earth did they do that?  And we get to talk about this stuff in history class.  

As teachers, we can have in-depth discussions with students and cause them to think.  It’s easy to do this if we start with easy concepts such as good vs. bad.  Here are a few more examples of questions teachers could ask students in order to get some discussions started.  

• Sin vs. Righteousness -  Was what happened in this period of time (or specific instance) good or bad? 

• Serve or self?  Was this person trying to serve others or was he being selfish? 

• God or greed?  While much of history would be in the “greed” category, there were also people who sacrificed greatly to do what was right in God’s eyes.  It’s great to point out those positives.  

• What does God think about that?  What does the Bible say about it?  It’s amazing what verses students can recall.  These will help start class discussions to answer this question. 

Discussing topics such as this can help students to look at situations long-term, and hopefully cause them to think about the next decision they have to make, and what the effects of that decision could be.  Every choice has a consequence, and every decision has an effect.  Students can see and learn this through history.  

It’s also challenging to ask students how things could have turned out differently.  What if America had not dropped atomic bombs on Japan?  Would the war have ended fairly soon anyway?  

History is also full of exciting and true stories that really happened. 

• Shipwrecks and mutinies

• Buried treasure

• Lost civilizations

• Magnificent buildings

• Brave and heroic missionaries 

• Natural disasters 

• Epidemics 

• Incredible feats of engineering 

Almost every page of a history book has a fantastic little nugget inside it -- an exciting story waiting to be uncovered. Rather than viewing history as a necessary subject to be covered, we teachers can present it as exciting stories that really happened to real people.  

It is also important to view history from a Biblical standpoint.  How has God been involved in history?  What did He allow?  Where did He jump in and save His people?  While He did rescue the Hebrews from being slaves in Egypt, He didn’t save the many Jews who perished during the Holocaust.  Why not?  Could it be that because when Jesus was crucified, it was the Jews who cried out, “Let His blood be upon us and our children”?  These are things we can discuss in history class.  

It’s okay to wonder about these and discuss them in class even when we teachers don’t have all the answers.  Often I am amazed when a student asks a really good question or has a really good answer.  It is good for us, and them, to think about and ponder these things.  It’s also all right to tell them that we don’t have the answer, but that we will research it or ask someone else about it and give them an answer later.

What about doctrinal issues such as non-resistance or the headcovering?  History is a great place to discuss these concepts as well.  Have you ever noticed how many ladies throughout history have had their heads covered in some way?  Look at all those pictures in the history books.  You can point that out to your students and ask them questions about it.  

History is a fascinating subject full of true stories. History is an important subject to teach because we can learn from the past and apply it to our current situation or to the future.  History gives us opportunities to ask our students questions and make them think.  History is truly an important subject that needs to be taught. 

In the following issues of Lightlines we will be covering specific stories which have occurred throughout history and giving examples of ways to use these stories in class to keep the students involved.  Different projects that can help history come alive for your students will also be presented.  

Seminole Quilt Craft

I'm always looking for creative hands-on projects, especially if they combine history with art.  This was one I remembered from about 33 years ago when I had sewn some huge flags using a Seminole quilt pattern.  Since we studied the Seminoles this week, I thought we could make some using construction paper, so we did.  

The design above is from the Miccosukee tribe. 

 

I sewed those gargantuan things!