stop licking the taxes

Used a We The People lesson plan yesterday to have the kids model the tax situations that preceded the Revolutionary War. Appointed a King George, a Parliament member, two tax collectors, and made everyone else colonists. Had King George and Parliament decide on "classroom taxes," and they came up with things like a tax on library books, pencils, drinking water, being tardy, excessive talking, using a desk and chair, etc. I gave the kids 15 small pieces of chocolate apiece to use as their personal funds. When the tax collectors started going around collecting taxes for things like "wearing slippers," the "colonists" started protesting. Some opted to go to jail instead of paying their taxes. So many wanted to go to jail that I had to close the jail ("overcrowded!") and make King George force the colonists to pay up. This really pissed them off. One kid was so frustrated at being taxed for having a pencil (a pencil that I gave him yesterday, to add insult to injury) that he licked his piece of candy before dropping it into the tax collector's pot. The kids were so pissed off at him (because in the end, King Geoge, Parliament and the tax collectors were supposed to divvy up the pot - 50 percent to George, 40 to Parliament, and 5 percent to each tax agent.) There were one or two silent criers, too.

That was a successful Social Studies lesson.