Patriots vs. Redcoats: An Outdoor Social Studies Game (continued)

1. Choose the teams. Depending on the size of the group, select three or so “Patriots” (more, if the group is large). Have the patriots stand in the middle of the field, and give each of them a “bayonet musket” to hold. Everyone else will be a Redcoat.
2. The Redcoats' goal is to run across the field without being tagged, grab no more than two "cannonballs" from the armory, and make it back to the other end of the field, or "Boston". As long as they have not been tagged, the Redcoats can keep running back and forth until they have brought all their arms back to their side.
3. The Patriot's goal is to tag the Redcoats with their "bayonet muskets". If a Patriot tags a Redcoat, the Redcoat must sit down where he was tagged on the field until the round is over. Any cannonballs the tagged Redcoat was carrying will be confiscated by the Continental Army and placed them in the "secret stash" basket in the middle of the field.
4. Each round ends either when all the Redcoats are tagged, or when all the cannonballs have been removed from the "Concord Armory".
5. The final cannonball count signals the victory: if the majority of the balls have returned to "Boston", then the Redcoats have won, but if the majority of the balls are in the Patriots' stash or in the armory, the Patriots win!

Did You Know?

What really happened in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775?

On that day, American colonists in the Massachutsetts towns of Lexington and Concord entered a decisive moment in history. Early that morning, British General Thomas Gage sent 700 “Redcoat” soldiers from Boston to capture the Patriots Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington, and to destroy the Patriots’ armory in Concord.