Throughout the first term of school, our class has examined and picked apart the First World War. Through numerous assignments, all challenging our thinking through inquiry questions and deeper meanings, our class has achieved a strong understanding of the First World War. As the end of the first term and the 2016 year approached, it was time to challenge and put our understanding of the war to the test. Our teacher assigned our class to create an immersive expirience repressing Canada’s emerging identity throughout and after the First World War. This project was to be done in groups of four to five, with each group focusing on a specific time period. My group consisted of Marley, Jayden, Nash, and Mike, and we focused on the horrendous trenches of the war.

Our group started the journey of creating this expirence by planning it out. We had to somehow create the expirience of trenches in the school gym for parents and other members of the community to enjoy, and walk through. Seems kind of impossible right? Well our group thought so too, until we decided on a plan. I was chosen to be the commander of the “new soldiers” (which were actually just the spectators), and I was to guide them through the trenches, showing them all of the different things soldiers did there. We started to bring our trenches to life by painting dozens of cardboard boxes, which would later become the trench walls, and putting together costumes and floor plans

Once the day had come to present our immersive expirience, we were fully prepared. We had painted backgrounds, created a tank out of a go-cart, assembled costume and props, memorized scripts, sound affects for realism, and had the trenches ready to assemble. We put together the entire expirience within two hours, and were just finished once the parents began to come through. I really enjoyed getting into the mindset and character of of a commander, and my entire group did a great job creating an effective war atmosphere, and the people who expiriences it greatly enjoyed their time.