Slow Motion Movie

A Slow Motion Movie is a great way to re-enact a battle without having anyone get injured.  In this case, we re-enact the Battle of Lexington based on various, conflicting accounts of who fired the first shot.

The entire class, broken down into 2 groups, one slightly larger than the other.

• White board or overhead.
• Transparencies of the testimony of John Parker and Major Pitcairn.

• Pick a Parker from the British (the larger group) and a Pitcairn from the Americans.
• Then, reading aloud the overhead of Parker’s version of events, direct the students to act out – in slow motion to keep things sane – just what Parker described, including having your “Parker” give the orders, etc. 
• Once you have acted out that version, have all return to their starting positions and act out Pitcairn’s version in the same way (you will have to move some British over to the American side, as he thought there were significantly more Americans there than Parker did).