Tag Archives: Berlin Wall

MOM CAMP Days 24-27

When mom volunteers to help decorate the school for the new school year, the kids get recruited to help. Thankfully, my kids love arts and crafts so it was an easy sell.

Our school’s theme is Timeless Journeys. So we attempted to make each section of the school represent a different time period.  We move all the way from the cavemen to the boundless future ….

The first time period is the pre-historic. We decided to make a cave in the hallway. Some of the moms did the cave walls, while the kids and I worked on a few ‘cave man’ hand prints.  

The next stop on our journey through time is Ancient Greece.

Once again, I put the kids to work making a few columns.  We decided on two different styles…  A broken pillar and one still intact.  We also didn’t paint them—originally in Ancient Greece they would have been brightly colored.  But, it’s a big school and we had to keep moving to get our decorating finished!

Next up is life in the Middle Ages.

The kids and I began making a few things at home so it would move faster when it came to decorating the actual hallways.  We started with a few accent pieces for the Middle Ages hallway.

my first try

My first try at making torches was a little rough. I took old grocery bags and rolled them into cones and stuffed them with tissue paper ‘flames’. I didn’t love my first attempt and the comments from The Princess didn’t help. She declared they looked like flowers!

Cinco’s Improvement

Cinco came to my rescue when he told me we needed to crumple the flames up and not allow them to fan out.  It was a good point and the final torches looked pretty good.

The next step was to crate a few larger more distinguished pieces.  We decided on ‘stained glass windows’.

Then it was time to skip ahead to the colonial period!  I have to give credit to another amazing mom who made a very cool looking Mayflower.

Next up was the Wild West, which I sadly didn’t photograph.

Then I put the kids to work again!  This time we made the Berlin Wall.  Instead of traditional graffiti, we wrote famous Cold War quotes on the wall.

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Berlin 1961: A Review


Wow. I really loved this book. Berlin: 1961 by Fredrick Kempe details the establishment of the Berlin Wall. The first section offers a look into the leaders who played key rolls in the Berlin crisis. Then readers are treated to a by-by-play account of creation of the wall and the western response (or lack there of). Finally, the epilogue takes readers through a critique of Kennedy’s actions and how the aftermath of Berlin was linked to Cuba. I will say the last 1/3 of the book provides the real action! So, if you’re pressed for time, skip to the end!

In addition to the barebones facts of history, Kempe offers small vignettes offering readers a look at the real occupants of Berlin. Many of the compelling stories of escape from East Berlin are featured– and I am very interested to follow up with a book of life behind the wall. Kempe uses these stories to illustrate the heart-braking elements of the wall.

As a reader, I was left feeling that JFK really abandoned the German people and betrayed the cause of freedom through his weakness. Furthermore, I am left wondering if there would ever even had been a wall if Nixon were elected the first time.

I highly recommend this book. It provides an interesting, thoughtful, well-researched point of view of a time and place critical to the American-Soviet Cold War.

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