Unity Campus News
Canadian History Comes Alive
Earlier this semester, grade 7B went to the Battlefield House in Stoney Creek. We went there because we are studying Canadian History.
The first stop that we made was in the basement of the Gage family home. There we were sorted into two different groups. The first group went the kitchen first. In the kitchen, we started putting together ingredients for an apple cake, instructed by a employee there. Also, we learned what the typical family and soldier ate.
Next headed upstairs to see the soldiers uniform. The employee picked two boys in our group as volunteers to model the uniforms. The soldiers had two uniforms; one that they could wear around the barracks and one that they would wear in battle. They also wore two hats and had to carry a lot of stuff. All of their things had to be carried into battle with them.
The third station we visited was back in the basement to write with feather pens or quills. It was held in a room off of the main basement, with a very long table filling it. We were given sheets of paper and told to write a letter in the perspective of a soldier who had just fought in the battle. When we were done writing, we folded it into a letter and sealed in with wax. It was awesome!
Right after writing with quill pens we went to lunch, and then back to the house to learn about diseases and what they thought were cures during that time. We got an object to hold and then we were told what disease we had and what the cure was, or what they thought the cure was. One object was a feather and the person who got that was destined to die from smallpox. Smallpox was very contagious disease, so to not get it, someone would put a feather to an infected spot and take the puss and put it into someone else. It was very weird to learn about the cures to these diseases.
Right after learning about diseases we headed upstairs to an added on part to the original house, to play a game called “Skittles”. It was a game that the soldiers would have bet on and played. When you pulled a string back as fast as you can a top got released and knocked down little bowling pins. Each pin was worth a different amount of points. It was very fun.
We were led to the main basement after those horrifying cures for our final station. Hammers, nails, tin sheets and wood blocks were handed out. Then the leader showed us how to put small holes into the tin following a stencil. We followed the instructions, and all our tin sheets had the outline of the Battlefield monument. When all of our activities were done, we were led to the large Battlefield Monument. Inside, we climbed up some stairs and got to a platform. We all had fun looking around on the area near it. The monument is to remember all the soldiers who fought and died in the War of 1812. Finally, after all of this, we ate the cake we had made earlier, boarded the bus and headed back to school.
