TCS 5th Graders Bring History to Life Through Project-Based Learning

At The Children’s School, project-based learning (PBL) is a powerful way for students to connect deeply with academic content, build essential skills, and discover their voices. During their second PBL unit of the year, 2024-25 fifth-grade students explored the lives, cultures, and histories of Indigenous Peoples of the Southeast. Through research, reading, and creative writing, students imagined themselves in the past, developing historical empathy, sharpening their writing, and strengthening their critical thinking skills.

The PBL unit was closely integrated with the class novel “How I Became a Ghost” by Tim Tingle, a story about displacement, spiritual connection, and survival told through the eyes of a young Choctaw boy. As students read the novel, they also researched Indigenous communities and major moments in Indigenous history, then applied their learning by writing their own short historical fiction stories.

Below is one example from Charlie, TCS Class of 2028, who created a vivid, action-packed story set in a Seminole village during a time of great upheaval. In “The Battle for Tomorrow,” Charlie brings together powerful storytelling, cultural research, and historical events, all while showcasing the leadership of a young protagonist faced with impossible choices.

“The Battle for Tomorrow” by Charlie, TCS Class of 2028

It was a calm, warm summer night on a lucious, vast beach where a small village in the Seminole tribe lives. At night all the people in the town drift off to sleep listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. The stars shining above them in the often clear skies. In that tribe is a special boy named Micco.

Right now Micco is asleep, tired from his busy days. When he is awake he lives up to his name. Micco-Chief, rises up when there is danger, since his birth he was destined to be chief. The leader of the little small town on the beach; the leader of Chiaha.

When Micco slowly wakes up he feels cold raindrops on his skin, making him shiver and causing him to be cold. He looks up to see rain navigating its way through the cracks of their small, but sturdy lean-to roof. The rain was harsh, causing the roof to shake.

Micco listened. He hears his Seminole ancestors telling him through the walls, “come on out, you must live up to your name, chief today and forever.”

Suddenly, Micco quickly rushes outside to see pouring rain hurting their small Seminole village immensely, tearing through the black, sense sky. He waited for the rain to calm, patiently waiting for the moment it simmered down. When the rain stopped coming down so hard he leaps into action, yelling for people to come into his lean-to. Micco observes that the people are hungry and not getting fed so he tells the people in the lean-to that he is going to look for food and they should not be worried. He grabs his blow gun and runs into the forest with his dog Dakota who is a loyal dog that helps him hunt.

In the forest Micco promises to himself that the first thing he sees he will kill. This harsh act is needed to feed his hungry people. He walks for miles in the sense forest. Rain drops falling off the pine trees and the floor was boggy and hard to walk on. Micco saw something. Thinking that he would live up to his promise, he gets ready to kill. But the first thing he sees makes him freeze in his tracks…

What Micco sees is beyond terrifying, the nocossa that almost killed him when he was younger. If it wasn’t for his father his story would have ended right there. Micco doesn’t know why his father did that but he did so Micco has to live on with his pop. But he can’t be stuck in the past because he made a promise to his father and how he made a promise to himself, and he does not give up on promises, so he aimed his blow gun and shot it; it did nothing. Both of them stood still. He remained terrified for one second until he realized that the noise had disturbed the nocossa. The nocossa ran fastly at Micco and a claw hit his wrist with strength that could crush buildings and he laid there with red, painful blood gushing out of his wrist. Time stood still. Micco’s eyes closed.

Now, you may think that people in the village would be worried but no, they are not. They trust in their fearless, brave chief and that he can tackle anything. He was their leader and they had faith in him. They waited patiently for him to return.

Meanwhile, in the forest Micco feels a small surge of warmth. His eyes slowly open and to his surprise, he sees a forest nymph, one from the stories his grandma used to read to him.

The small nymph said “It will be okay, brave chief of Chiaha.”

Micco responded, “I know.”

“I will heal you if you save these woods!” Commented the nymph.

And fearless as he is he said, “yes!”

So Micco closes his eyes once again and let the nymph heal him.

Micco, exhausted but relieved that he is not about to die anymore, slowly and carefully gets up and looks around to thank the nymph that healed him but the nymph was nowhere to be seen.

Micco, confused, sees a scroll so he picks it up and reads it:

Let it be known that within this village, that by the decree of the President of the United States of America, you are to be removed from these lands. This order comes in the wake of the signing of the Indian Removal Act by President Andrew Jackson of the United States of America, a document which seeks to relocate your people from these lands, so that they may be settled elsewhere, as decided by the government of the United States of America.

Micco scrambles back to the village with the scroll torn up to pieces behind him. But what awaits him is a site of something that he would not ever imagine…

As Micco runs back to his village, he runs through a small clearing to see the nocossa that killed his dad on top of a pile of people…still people.

Micco smells the pale scent of blood and sees the red, painful blood too. So, he springs with all his might and gets to the nocossa but as he looks at what the peoples physical features are, they are not Seminoles. They are American soldiers. They were here to move them but the bear stopped those movers. Micco felt relieved but he knew that this war wasn’t over and he will need to battle for tomorrow.

THE END

Back Cover:

It was calm where a small village in the Seminole tribe lives. But it won’t be calm for long.

When Micco wakes up to a torrential downpour hurting his village, he gathers people to his lean-to. He goes out hunting to find food that he can feed his hungry people. But he doesn’t know what to expect when a surprise gets in the way just to lead to more.

In this thrilling historical fiction novel Micco must brave out all the challenges or suffer the consequences. Will he or will he not, that is the question to find out in: The Battle for Tomorrow.