So, Day Two arrived, and many students thought they had Queen Suzy beat. There were far fewer pairs of sneakers, and jeans, and the chairs were barely touched. What I think students didn’t count on, was the new tax structure today:
Socks??? A sock tax, Queen Suzy???!!! That’s not fair!!!! I think if Queen Suzy had a jellybean for every time she heard “that’s not fair”, she’d have a LOT of cavities!!
So the day went on, taxes were collected and paid, and I have to say your students were very honest. They were not thrilled with the paper tax, though, when I handed out papers to them to do, and then forced them to pay a tax.
I think the chair tax grew old pretty quickly, as students struggled to find a comfortable position in which to do their work. Some students paid the 1 Bean tax to have their chair back. I would have, too!!
As the final jellybean payouts were handed to our Tax Collectors and Parliament members, students quickly noticed that our final tallies were quite uneven. Queen Suzy did her part to dissuade the disappointment by handing out extra jellybeans to her subjects, and that seemed to do the trick.
Our debriefing at the end of the day wielded many insightful comments, listed below the photos:
From the mouths of 309 Colonists….
It was very hard! When the colonists used to do it they must have had it a lot harder, real king, real taxes!
The people in New England were so mad at the king because they had to spend their money on the tea.
Unfair — sock tax. Because everyone is wearing socks and we have to pay double if we try to take our socks off!
He kept collecting and didn’t even care about what the colonists said….
Must have been hard – real money – actual families that they didn’t have enough money to help — like the great depression when people didn’t have enough money
Unfair because the king kept taxing stuff for no reason just so he could have the money
It was hard in the classroom because you really want to have a jellybean so bad, and you don’t want to give it away – so that’s why you give up stuff.
Harder for the colonists – more taxes harder to pay – cost more Hard for us we took every day things and had to pay for them with jellybeans that everyone likes.
When they had to pay they probably escape to a better place == get away without paying….
Mad! They had to spend a lot of money and it’s hard for us too because we didn’t have a lot of jellybeans, and we had to give up stuff that we really needed like chairs.
Fun not having chairs because you got to sit on the floor or on top of of your desk and fun trying to figure out how to make room on your desk for your paper.
No More Kings movie from Schoolhouse Rocks– that king and colonists — they revolted against the king. They wanted to get rid of the king. Kinda wanted to get rid of the queen.
Cheaper to go to bathroom than to the bubbler. – some 309 colonists found a way around that tax.
I laughed and laughed. The photo documentary is excellent. What a great way to learn about taxation. Thanks Queen Suzy!