This past year we visited the spot and toured the Battle of Gettysburg. It was amazing. My homeschoolers’ love history as much as I do. First, let me say that Pennsylvania is a beautiful state. If you haven’t been, add it to your list.
My husband added to the tour by hiring a personal tour guide. It wasn’t that much, and added so much information. A trip to remember for our entire family.
Here is a game I devised to help homeschoolers learn about a significant battle in the Civil War.
Why Teach Gettysburg with a Game?
Games help to solidify the concepts that are being learned. Throughout my lessons I use my framework to get the information more than one way.
Hold the High Ground teaches not memorization but brainstorming on how the event affected the battle of Gettysburg and overall war. Teaching kids how to think, not what to think.
The lightbulbs to the war will hopefully lead to further interest. For example, they will connect what they hear in a documentary, in a book, and from the game. If you are like us it is fun to connect the dots and say “do you remember that part in the book” or wherever they found something of interest.
What you will need
First, before you play the game, make to gather all of the supplies together. If you don’t have something it’s ok to improvise. We do!
A map of the Battle of Gettysburg
Paper, poster or index cards
Pencils
10 small tokens or placeholders for each player
One die
Hold the High Ground at Gettysburg
After gathering all of the supplies be sure to go over the objectives. Especially with younger kids. My twelve year old didn’t have much trouble, but we did remind him of the objective a few times.
2-6 players
20-30 minutes
Objective: Control important locations around the battlefield.
Five locations:
McPherson Ridge
Seminary Ridge
Cult’s Hill
Little Round Top
Cemetery Ridge
Each player receives 10 army tokens.
Place the tokens around your map to begin the game. In addition to tokens, I used a whiteboard (small) to keep score. Each time they controlled a location it was a point. Our winner had to have ten points, but that is very flexible.
How to Play the Game
As we play games, it is fair to say that we rearrange the rules or manage the game differently if need be. Upon finishing our Battle of Gettysburg it became apparent that we need to have a copy of the directions to have them available.
On the dice: 1’s = Troops, 2’s =Terrain, 3’s =Leadership, 4’s =Intelligence. 5’s =Turning Point, and 6’s = Turning Points
First, roll the die. Second, whatever number it falls on that is the action to be taken. This part of the play is the index cards. I wrote out the questions on one color of index cards, and the historical events on another color of index cards. Therefore creating two sets of different cards to draw from. I then printed out a Gettysburg map and laminated it. Having all of the prepped ahead of time helped immensely.
Definitions-
1’s- move your token to any location.
2’s- Choose a location where your opponent must remove one token, and before removing it, explain why the terrain at that location mattered.
3’s- Answer a Gettysburg question.
If correct, move two tokens.
4’s- Draw another card.
5’s – Draw a historical event card. Read the card aloud and follow the instructions.
6’s- Choose one location and explain why controlling it would be important.
Gettysburg Turning- Point Cards
This is another area to write out on index cards. For this, I would use a third color for the turning point cards.
Create cards from index cards or scraps of paper.
July 1- Confederate and Union forces clash around Gettysburg.
Little Round Top
Explain why this location was important to the Union defensive position.
Culp’s Hill
Explain why controlling high ground could give an army an advantage.
July 2
Major fighting takes place at several locations around the battlefield.
Cemetery Ridge
If your army controls this location, move one additional token.
Picket’s Charge
Remove two Confederate tokens.
Gettysburg Address
Pause the game. Explain what Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address was and why he gave it.
High Ground
If you control two important high-ground positions, move two additional tokens.
Gettysburg Question Cards
You can also make a stack of question cards.
Try questions like these :
Who commanded the Union Army at Gettysburg?
Who commanded the Confederate Army?
Why was Gettysburg strategically important?
Why was Little Round Top important?
What happened on July 2?
What was Pickett’s charge?
Why did Pickett’s Charge fail?
why was Cemetery Ridge important?
What happened after the Confederate army retreated?
Why is Gettysburg considered an important turning point in the Civil War?
What role did terrain play in the battle?
What happened on the first day of the battle?
During the questions ask “why” a couple of times to get more than one word answers.
For older kids. Add characters. See who wants to be George G. Meade, Roberts E. Lee, John Buford, Joshua Chamberlain, and James Longstreet.
Further study: grab a biography on one of these gentlemen. Then grab some books from the library about Gettysburg. Get some different points of view.
Finally, add up points and award the winner. Games are fun when someone wins. Someone had to win the Battle of Gettysburg.
My small incentive or reward for winning is a Hershey’s kiss.
Make history come alive and keep it simple.
Make it a Frugal Homeschool History Lesson
Games don’t need to be expensive. Grab a poster, pens and paper, and use a lot of imagination. History doesn’t have to be expensive, it just has to be accurate. Therefore, make sure to sit down and watch a movie about the Battle of Gettysburg, read a book with your homeschooler, hold discussions and play “the High Ground” to see if different locations would have created different results.
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