Blood, hazards and American History for children

Since there was no school, there was an adventurous event for children at the Waseca Public Library on Friday, May 1. Hazardous Histories with Nathan Hale is a series of activities exploring the wild and weird sides of American history.

 

Through storytelling, games, crafts and challenges, the fairly large group of children weas offered some cleverly disguised learning opportunities. In the corner, sisters Aubrey and Clara were playing a cutthroat game titled, “One Dead Spy.” Said Aubrey, “It’s just like the game Battleship, we have to try to guess which spot the other person’s spies are standing on and try to eliminate them.” Not long after she said that, her sister Clara said, “B-1,” to which Aubrey replied, “Hit” with a disappointed look on her face as she removed her spy.

 

Children’s Librarian Brianna Bleeker, who was in charge for the day, was playing “Big Bad Ironclad” with a young man named Michael. Michael explained, “Each player gets an empty plastic egg to float on the tote of water provided. You have to play Rock, Paper, Scissors and if you beat the other player, they have to add a marble to their egg. The more marbles added to the egg, the more the egg will sink.” When the other player had at least 5 marbles in their egg, or if the egg sank, the player with their plastic egg still floating was the winner.” Said Bleeker, “Yes, today’s activity was low key and chill. This “Big Bad Ironclad” game was an example of how wooden ships from yesterday were made stronger when they were plated with metal on the outside.”

 

Another game available was “Cold War Correspondent,” the object of which was to send a “coded” message to a friend using Morse Code ciphers on paper. The friend would take a flashlight and try to send the message by putting their hand in front of the light. There were decoders available.

 

After that was another game titled, “Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood.” This game was very similar to the old game Marbles or Ring Toss. Children would put 5 marbles into a circle and using heavier marbles, they would knock the other marbles out of the circle. The child who knocked the most marbles out of the circle was the winner.