Spies changed the course of the American Revolution

When I think about spies, I think about James Bond and Cold War era spy vs. spy.  Recently I learned George Washington had an entire spy network during the American Revolution.  This inspired our history lesson for our co-op, Spies in the American Revolution.

 

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Spies in the American Revolution

George Washington was a spymaster.  He had spies all throughout the British government feeding him information.  If you’re at all familiar with the musical Hamilton*, it mentions Hercules Mulligan, and his information that helped save George Washington’s life twice.

The spies used a combination of ciphers, and code words to trade information.  There were attempts at invisble ink, but that’s got mixed results.  Our American Revolution spies lesson focuses on code words and invisible ink.  We did do a short lesson on deciphering ciphers, but at the bottom of this post you’ll find a link to a cipher activity similar to what George Washington used.

Occasionally Colonial Williamsburg does a spy activity based off actual events from the American Revolution (changed so it can all occur in Williamsburg).  The first time we went there, they had such an event and my kids were enthralled by the activity (I was too, to be honest).

Supplies for Spies in the America Revolution lesson

index cards, white crayon from my 24 crayons box I got with the Back to School sales, watercolor paint

To start off the younger kids decoded a simple symbol substitution, which was incredibly easy, but very much enjoyed.  For the older kids we did this worksheet, which was quite a bit harder.

While they were busy doing that I set out the secret messages.

American Revolution Spies activity prep work by me

Before all of the kids came over on the front of the index cards I wrote the clue in crayon.  They were pretty simple riddles, but since I was dealing with kids from age 4 up to 13, it needed to not be too simple.  On the back of the index card I wrote down where that card went in pencil.

Then I snuck around the house and backyard hiding clues for them to find.

Once they were all set up, I gathered the kids and explained how the treasure hunt worked.

American Revolution Spies activity

Each group of kids was given a watercolor paint set*, and a small cup of water to follow each of the clues.  After painting the clue to reveal the invisible writing, they had to puzzle out the clue, and head to the next location.  The older kids did figure out if you held the paper at just the right angle you can see the white crayon writing……..

All of the kids enjoyed the treasure hunt, I’d show you a picture of the “treasure,” but they descended on it too fast and had devoured it before I got there.

Afterwards they got to have a try at writing in invisible ink (AKA lemon juice).  Later we’re going to try revealing what they wrote.  I’m hoping to be more successful than the last time we tried this.

It’s hopefully going to work well.

 

 

Additional resources for American Revolution spies

• George Washington’s Spies*- a fun early chapter book
• Totally True Adventures: George Washington’s Spies*- in the style of “You Wouldn’t Want to” books
• Secret Six: The Spy Ring that Saved the American Revolution*- This is on my to read sometime list, it’s supposed to be great
• Washington’s Spies: The story of America’s First Spy Ring*- Also on my to read list, in case you didn’t figure it out, these last two are geared for adults, but I’ve heard great things about them.
• spies of the American Revolution on both sides– I almost bought my kids one of these when we visited Colonial Williamsburg recently
• spies of the American Revolution on both sides– great information from Mount Vernon
• Study American Revolution spies– I love love love how she differentiated the levels