My 8th graders are about to tackle the Empire Building/Frankenstein activity in 4.4 Since our area has just experienced our first snow fall and the fascination is high, I decided to try a twist on the activity. It's Frosty the Empireman. I followed the plan given in 4.4 with some fun exceptions. I told them the greatest weakness should be depicted somehow on the hat of the snowman (aka Frankenstein) since we all know what happened to Frosty when the hat flew off. The branches/arms should somehow display their selected best social hierarchy. Then I asked them to consider the importance of the remaining 3 categories. Of those, which supplied the strongest base for this empire? That should be the bottom, largest circle of the snowman, and so on. Having to not only choose the best political structure, for example, but also determine if political structure is more important for an empire than military strength, causes them to dig more deeply into their understanding. Finally, they are encouraged to add details to their Empireman through scarf, nose, eyes, etc. What could these represent in this icy metaphor and how could they best show that meaning? I hope you find this idea as. . . cool . . . as I did.
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