Civil War Project

Laurel was given several different options of ways to display events or people from the Civil War.  She chose the option of picking a famous person and creating a diary of that person.  She had to write three entries and they had to be in first person.

  Laurel wanted to choose a woman who was a nurse during the Civil War.  So we did some research and she chose Claraissa Barton.  Claraissa, who went by Clara, was famous for starting the American Red Cross.

We were about to walk out the door for school, and I told Laurel to hold her diary up so I could get a picture.  I was just going to take a picture of the cover and she said, "I want you to take a picture of each page!  I have never written this much in my life! I want to remember this!"  She is so funny!

I'm so glad that she got me to take pictures of what she wrote.  She really got into this project.  I learned that History is her favorite subject, which I think is just fantastic.  She actually bought a book about World War II, at the book fair.  And she actually reads it!
She was so cute.   When she had finally written her last word, she looked up and said, "whew.... I feel like I'm Clara now!"

At school, they had to present their project to the class.  The entries only had to be 3/4 of a page.  I told Laurel that her teacher would probably just let her read one page.  Laurel told me that afternoon, that she went to her teacher that morning and said, "this ladies' life was so interesting, I just couldn't stop writing and I just don't know which page to choose.  I just need to read it all!"  I was so proud of her because Laurel does not like to be center of attention, so I knew that she was really stepping out of her comfort zone.
I think that child truly fell in love with Claraissa Barton and can now tell you everything about her life.