Have teams of students work together to create a timeline wall mural on newsprint. They can begin at whatever point in the events that led to the Boston Tea Party and write a title and short summary of each event. Decide whether you want them to continue the timeline after the Tea Party. The timeline can include as many events as the students have been presented in their textbooks. Or, you can have them research online and in history books to develop a timeline from what they discover from their research. Display the timeline mural from each team.
The Boston Tea Party was just one of the events that led to the war in which the American Colonies gained independence from England. Many familiar and not-so-familiar names enter into a study of this time period. Have the students choose a person to research and learn about. Let them present their subject person in a written report, a book of drawings or a short skit. Encourage them to dress like their character on a day when reports or skits are presented.
Form student study groups. Have each group do research from their textbooks, online or in the library history books. Ask the groups to determine what freedom meant to the people in early America. Suggest that they discuss what freedoms were not available under the rule of England. Ask the groups to also discuss what life might be like today in our country, if the colonists had not taken part in the rebellious act of the Boston Tea Party and we had remained under England's rule all these years.
Have the students act as though they were reporting a news story from the scene of the Boston Tea Party, yet with today's technology. Smaller groups can portray a reporter, a camera operator and some witnesses. Suggest that some witnesses are afraid because they thought the Indians had raided the ships and dumped the tea into the harbor. Others might have been participants, but are trying to act like witnesses. Students can write out scripts, if they want. And, some of the witnesses can tell conflicting stories or have opposing views of the British tax that prompted this event. The students can make their pretend interviews comical, serious, disorganized and any way they choose, as the events would have caused a lot of fear and confusion on that day. Fights can break out, women and children may scream and run away, and Indians may stand around looking clueless as to why people were pointing at them.