we're going to be looking at what were the strengths and weaknesses of the Continental Army and the same history February 6th 1788 Massachusetts becomes the six State the six of the original 13 Elena turn around please to ratify the Constitution does anyone know what ratify means approve approved excellent so now Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to approve the Constitution why is that important because in order for the Constitution to go into effect and have our government run the way it does today they needed n of the original 13 to approve it now they have six so they just need three more States okay so that's why this is important Michael uh that's a good question you know I really don't know up the top of my head I'd have to look that up all right so I'll give you a moment to copy this down and then I have a question for you should copy this down and then I have a question for you and hopefully all my sports fans and here will be able to answer it for me everybody that's got a jersey on hopefully you'll be able to answer this question for me know to call on all right here's my question does the team and it doesn't matter what sport football baseball basketball hockey soccer cross doesn't matter do the team that's favored to win sometimes but do they are do they always win it's either yes or no no can you give me an example of a team that may been favored to win in their Sport and didn't okay why were the Patriots favorite TN they right back in 2007 they were undefeated so they were expected to win excellent can anyone else give me another example of where you had a team that was favored to win but then didn't excellent who was favorite to win that game the Jets excellent which uh just a couple weeks ago right when the Giants were playing the Packers most people didn't give the Giants a chance at winning that either but they did who was favorite to win yesterday by the way the Patriots Patriots okay think about baseball okay how many times have we gone into a new baseball season and a certain team was picked to win the World Series and Pa and did they even make it to the World Series who was picked last year who was favored last year to win the World Series yeah Philadelphia the Phillies did they make it no so even though you have a team that can be favored it could be heavily favored to win a game or to win a championship even because on paper they look like they're the better team they're not always the better team when they meet on the field correct now what does this think about this for a moment what does this have to do with what we're doing in social studies how does this connect to the topic we're cover here excellent exactly when you look at what the British army was at that time in 1775 through 1781 they were the best army in the world weren't they if anyone was to guess who should have won the American Revolution everyone would have said the British they were stronger they had more resources they had more supplies I mean on paper you should have said oh without a doubt the British army should have won this War cental army wasn't favored at all were they but as We Know that war continental army okay exactly now we're going to look at some of the strengths and weaknesses of the Continental Army what helped to make that team that Army win what helped them to beat to beat even though they were the underdog what helped them to come from behind and win just like the giant yesterday what helped them come from behind and win Lindsay to the board okay leave it right there for strengths okay so right now let's copy strengths you like that Kier okay they were fighting for a cause they believed in Patriots wanted Freedom didn't they yes or no Patriots wanted Freedom yes they believed in this they wanted this what about the soldiers in the British army were they really fighting for something that they believed in why not J the British arm the British soldiers the right TR okay Michael not at the beginning that didn't happen until 1777 and exactly the soldiers really weren't fighting for anything they wanted the British soldiers right they were basically told get on a ship sail over to the colonies and stop this Rebellion they hadn't been they didn't live in the colonies right they have homes in the colonies they have families in the colonies so were they really fighting for something that they believed in no whereas the Patriots they're fighting for their homes they're fighting for their families they're fighting for this whole idea of Independence that is something that they hold very dear to them and even though they're the underdog that helps them in their fight they knew the land why is that important Contin Army knew the land why is that important excellent say that louder so P hears you isn't it easier to get around if you know where you're going if you know the area versus is all of a sudden you're in some place you've never been before and now you have to suddenly try and find your way around okay and strategically for placing attacks for planning battles where's a good area to engage your enemy versus a bad area knowing the land and having that information gives you a strength it gives you the upper hand and like Lindsay said before they had a great leader in they had a great leader in who was their leader say it louder yeah they had a great leader in George Washington didn't he fight in a war prior to the Revolutionary War what war was that he put in he fought in the French and Indian War and what side did he fight on the British you think he learned some things about the way the British army fought Michael their technique yeah he knew their technique okay he knew how they fought he knew that there were certain things that they would not change he also experienced those Ambush attacks from the French and the Native Americans right so he takes that background he takes that experience that he had from fighting in the French and Indian War and he uses it now as the leader of the Continental Army and he uses all of that against the British he knew exactly what would work and wouldn't work he knew what type of attacks to try and use and what maybe he shouldn't and that gave them a as well Michael just go to the boarding move the magnifying glass to see what the weaknesses were that's okay yeah was our army as strong as the British army how many show hands would say our our army was as strong as the briti farming okay you're right we weren't remember I told you last week Washington had to train a professional Army he had to take volunteers who signed up now people who had been volunteer soldiers who now signed up to be in the regular army he had to take those men he had to train them had to make them into soldiers as he was fighting the most powerful army in the world he didn't have a year to train them he didn't have six months to train them he didn't even have six weeks to train them this was okay guys you're in the Army now and uh you're getting your training on the job as we're actually fighting the British okay so we didn't have a stroll army guys not have a lot of supplies okay we depended a lot on the people living in the colonies for the supplies for food for clothing and the Second Continental Congress that was the acting government for the United States now had no money it really had no money so because it doesn't have money can it give Washington money to get supplies that he needs okay not at all so if you look at yep that's I said they relied on the colonists themselves to help them later on that doesn't come till after Saratoga in 1777 right now at the beginning of the war France Spain the Netherlands they're watching they're on the sidelines okay and they're watching to see what happens if they think that the Americans have a shot at beating the British they'll step in and help but if it looks like they're just going to get crushed by the British then oh well maybe we'll maybe we won't but they were on the sidelines they were watching and they were waiting to see and Saratoga was that moment where those countries said hey you know what maybe with some help they they can crush the British Lindsay MH see these don't get me wrong I mean these were men who had experiences with shooting you know with guns and stuff but it's different just to shoot a gun to shoot at the little food or whatever versus being in the Army being able to take a group of men and train them to work as one as one group as one unit and that's what Washington had to do okay he had to take men who were not used to being given orders and now make them follow orders and when I say follow words I mean in a split second follow orders get into position be ready and that's not easy that's not an easy thing at will to do okay think about like you just came from gym right and Mrs cook said all right right now I want the kids whose last names begin with a z i them not a through z z a through M I want them on this side of the gym and kids whose first names begin with t through I don't know V I want them on that side of the gym she gave two different directions didn't she it wasn't last names on both of them it was two different directions and she wants you split up right away and you'd have to be able to do that right just like that many of you would be confused by her directions okay here you go now you've got a group of men who have signed up have joined this Army who have no military experience have no experience in following commands or no Maneuvers and they're have to all of a sudden follow commands and directions that they've never heard before and again do it in a split second so it wasn't easy all right um I want you to keep your notebooks out and we're going to do a little activity okay how many of you know how to text awesome and how many of you know like uh the shorthand for texting like TT L what's TT L talk to you later BR RB okay awesome because what you're going to do now is I'm going to pair you up with somebody okay probably just the person that's right next to you and I want you to write out an an instant message or text conversation you would have with a friend okay about what's gone on so far with the Revolutionary War okay so yes you can use OMG okay you you you can use all of your texting Shand LOL okay you can use your little smiley faces you have to dra them though okay and I you to do is again it says um 10 lines from each person we're going to make it five okay so you have to come up with five lines you have to come up with five lines so you might be your first line might be hey what's up your first line might be not much and whatever and then go into yes it can be more than five but I'm saying at least five let's just put it that way at least five all right so you guys are going to work together you guys are going to work together okay you guys you guys you guys bla and Jay you work together Michael and Frederick you work together and then you guys you guys you guys you guys you guys and you guys all right so you can you know what let's get Loosely so you can like do this On Loosely so maybe you can just like you know work on it together you can pass the Lo Le back and forth to each other all right take some pass it back please okay and I'm going to give you out the sheet you can use one piece of Lo Leaf that's fine okay so it would be like Kieran and then what you write then you give little sleep to Liam and then Li would write his name and then next to that everybody should have you just need one piece of Lo Lea group okay so get with your partner okay and let's start