Despite the pouring rain, more than 500 Boston schoolchildren came to the ninth annual Making History on the Common on Monday, June 4.
The kids learned about the rich history of Boston Common starting with the first Native American inhabitants, to the energizing Colonial times, through the thought-provoking protests of the 1960s with interactive activities and programs.
Each of these activities is designed for the children in Grades 3-5 to learn about living history through hands-on experience: marching, planting, dancing, protesting, and playing with historically accurate materials including:
Historic New England: Colonial Games and Trades;
Three Sisters Garden;
The Ancient Fishweir Project and the Wampanoag Nation Singers and Dancers;
Historic New England: Food Will Win the War: Victory Gardens on the Common;
Freedom Trail Foundation: Colonial Punishments;
The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment: Civil War Soldiers’ Life and Drills;
New England Contra Dancers;
City Archaeologist: Archaeology of Boston;
Protests on the Common;
Leventhal Map Center: Mapping the Common;
NE Genealogical Society: Save the Common: Julia Ward Howe; and Public Transportation and the Common
Boston Landmarks Commission: Beacon Street 19th Century Architecture
Where is the Original Shoreline?