Cpl S. Weston Liggett of the U.S. Marine Corps, who now teaches at Wilson Primary Center in South Bend, IN, celebrated the 236th birthday of the Marine Corps in 2011 with his Kindergarten students and a few other participants such as the principal and even a Marine Vietnam veteran in attendance.
Cpl Liggett has often shared information with his students about life in the Marine Corps, namely that Marines must be intelligent as well as good readers and listeners. His students love to see his Recruit Knowledge and School of Infantry Field Handbook which each Marine must memorize before reaching the fleet. For this special day, Cpl. Liggett set up a Marine scenario so that his kids could practice reading and following directions, just like real Marines. We at Sgt Grit were more than happy to provide the class with some supplies for their Marine extravaganza.
To replicate the Marine Corps experience, Cpl Liggett split his class into two teams giving each team directions that led to various uniform items that he had hidden around the room. The kids used their relative position vocabulary and reading strategies to decode the directions. Once the students located all of the uniform items, they engaged in a dress-up relay race.
Each team member had to take turns quickly dressing up the uniform, giving a salute, and then removing the uniform before passing it to the next team member.
After the games, the oldest and youngest students indulged in the first pieces of Marine Corps birthday cake, while the Marines' Hymn played proudly in the classroom, oorah!