Native Americans Part 1

We've been busy homeschoolers!  I wanted to take the time to journal a unit we've been working on, and one that we have big plans for: Native Americans.  We are using Evan-Moore History Pockets as a foundation, but I'm having a lot of fun planning additional activities.  I want to share what the History Pockets are like, and other ideas I've come across that'd be great for homeschoolers!

Our assembled pocket book.

The first pocket: Introduction to Native Americans.  This pocket has a map of the different tribal regions, and she adds a "shelter stamp" for each tribe that we learn about.  There is also a comparison chart to compare food, clothing, and shelter of each tribe; and a Native American Picture Dictionary.  I am really surprised, and impressed with how much she's taken part in these activities!  She even cut out all 24 sheets for her picture dictionary by herself!



The Seminoles

The tribes are presented in a certain order (as you can see on the cover of our pocket book), but I chose for us to work "backwards."  The worksheets are easily customisable so that you can study the tribes in any order that you'd like.  I chose to start from home, and work our way back; and I have another surprise reason for working backwards that I will reveal later on!

Pocket Activities

We assembled our recipe cards, and I attempted to make hominy. I probably would've stuck it out had I been feeling my best at the time; but I was sick so I demonstrated all the steps for Laken and we discussed how the women would've worked together to get it done.  We will do this again when Laken is old enough to help!  Each tribe has an informative booklet; and the headdress also fits nicely in its pocket, but it is usually out being played with right now.  Neither of us were feeling very well so she chose not to color most of her projects this time.

Seminole headdress

Laken in her headdress she finally decided to complete from her history pocket, and her finished beads.  Well, almost.  We learned that a Seminole girl would receive a strand of beads for every year of her life until middle age when she would begin taking them off again to end up with a single strand.  I read this somewhere else, but I found the info here too; and it also says here that they were given the first strand at birth so Laken needs another one still!

Additional Activities

Beaded necklaces          Working on the beaded necklaces, made with dyed penne noodles.  The black was my favorite!

Stickball

The Seminoles were originally members of the Creek Tribe; and the name Seminole means "runaway."  Stickball was a common sport at gatherings, in which a ball was thrown at a skull mounted on a stick.  Read more about stickball here. 

The Iroquois

For each tribe, we begin by placing the shelter stamp on the map, and adding the three vocabulary words to her picture dictionary.  She also writes a short definition for each.  Then, we move onto the fun stuff!

Pocket Activities

Wampum wish list                    Iroquois booklet, and wampum wish list.  The Iroquois traded wampum (beads carved from shells) for items they needed or wanted.

Three Sisters Poem

Additional Activities

Construct a longhouse                   Iroquois shelter, and vocabulary word.  We had fun looking for bark in wood piles on our nature walk, but watch out for ants!  We need a few more small pieces for our roof, but she takes them off to put people inside anyway.  Overall, very pleased with our project!

Make a wampum belt

Find the directions here



Yes, even a four year old can do this!

She liked to count them each time she finished a row.  Counting by threes practice!  We did a very simple, alternating pattern that was easy for her to follow.  She did this for a good half hour, and then I gave it a go too.  Fun for all ages!

She wanted another turn that evening when she saw that she could do a whole row at once, instead of adding the beads individually.

Completed wampum belt!  I just used some additional hemp cord to loop through both sides, and tied it in the back.

Three Sisters sensory bin Invitation to play with the Three Sisters (dried corn, beans, and pumpkin seeds)!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope our next couple weeks are as fun as the first couple!  Next up are the Navajo of the Southwest, and the Sioux of the Plains.



Musical Art

Yesterday, we tried snap painting; and Laken enjoyed "playing her guitar" while she was creating her design, a sure hit with any preschooler!

I used a regular size cookie sheet; and we were able to do two separate paintings with just one mess, even though I'm not opposed to messes!  I happened to have some extra large rubber bands.

Laken's completed snap art.  They looked even cooler once they dried!

I agree that this was a double sensory project.  I forgot how well music and art go together!  A family friend invented this paintbrush, and his dad gave one to Laken for her third birthday.  She enjoyed playing with it, but it was hit or miss with whether or not she had her finger on the metal strip.  Still, she played with it until she wore out the batteries.  We've been meaning to replace them for awhile, and it was put off for too long; because it really is an awesome gadget!  Yesterday's snap painting made me really want to get it working for her again.

Now that she is older, she is starting to understand the concept of the circuit a bit more.  I showed her how I could make a circuit by touching her, and be able to play with my other hand.  I'm excited to watch her play evolve!  It was fun to hear what things she came up with for the sounds she was making, like a dolphin and a siren.  I made the large, cursive L when I was re-introducing the brush to her; and at one point she touched it, and asked why it wasn't making noise.  I explained that it wasn't connected to the lines she was making, and the one she was touching; and she said, "oh, but I can make a line that touches."  YES, what a great observation!  Do I need to say that I highly recommend this as an addition to your art supplies?  It would make a great stocking stuffer!



Chimps, whales, and shells along the shore

We've been moving right along.  Our next consonant digraph was ch.  By now, we've discussed the rule for digraphs; and we have fun pointing them out at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of words.  Laken quickly picked up the sound, and was the first one to come up with a word (or two), "Chuck E Cheese."  Go figure.  No, we did not go to Chuck E Cheese.  We did read this book, though.  I've discovered this is how she really learns.

I settled for using cookie cutters to cut shapes out of sliced cheese; but as soon as I find block cheese on sale, we'll be doing cheese sculptures (we only eat organic cheese).

Other activity ideas:

Chick on a chair- positional words.  She put the chick near/far, front/behind, above/below, and left/right of the chair.

Injured cheetah- She played vet to an injured cheetah.

Movies

My grandma sent me this movie for my birthday.  I can't believe I finally have my own copy, or that I'm about to admit that I was an extra in this movie.  They filmed at CBJSHS the year I moved here, in seventh grade.  We saw Chimpanzee in theaters recently, but this went well with our lesson too.  Especially since we are focusing on outer space for science this year, and we just visited a German village in Helen, Ga.  I love it for teaching about our local culture and history, too.  Warning: PG



Other Books we read
Our reading lists are a compilation from the whole week.  There is a review after each lesson; and we review during play, and with books.  As we learn new digraphs, we still point out the others while we're reading.  This carries into our daily conversation as well.

We only had to spend one day on our next consonant digraph (wh), a first for us.
 

Whistles!  "Wheels on the Bus" was a must for music together today, which happened to be in the bath.  She loves acting this song out.  She also put together a Lego jeep to emphasize "wheels."

This was a blast!  I've been wanting to use blue jell-o as an ocean for awhile, but never thought I'd use it for a lesson.  I have other ocean animals, but lots of whales (and one narwhal) that I ended up using.  I knew I had to do the jell-o ocean, and the light-changing "ice cubes" we purchased on sale at wal-mart last month seemed like perfect icebergs!

It looked really cool when she was done playing with it, and we put it back in the fridge.  Her hands were stained blue for a day or so!

Other activities

We discussed and looked at the difference between white and wheat bread (bagels in our case).

We reviewed question words: who, what, when, why, which, and especially, where (she's learning where she lives).

Drawing on the whiteboard.

Exploring white.  We used white paint to lighten other paint colors.

Books we read

I was really happy that the ocean found its way into our lesson, because I would love to be doing an ocean unit right now (amongst other things); but focusing on phonics and reading is really working for her, and she keeps me going.  I actually was having a hard time getting back into our "lessons" after two vacations, but she initiated; and that's always motivating.

Shell mobile invitation.  I've been wanting to make a mini shell mobile with Laken for awhile.  It's something both her grandma and grandpa did, and there are some that are quite beautiful!  It only just occurred to me to let her add beads, and straws.  All great for fine motor development.  This was our warm up activity for our last consonant digraph lesson (for now), sh.

Getting the hang of it, and even re-inventing the art (love how she put a bead and then turned some of the shells upside down so it looked like the bead was in the shell).

I was beyond excited that we were able to fit the pirate ship into a lesson.  Unfortunately, nobody was home; but this probably worked in our favor.  We got a good close look; and avoided the awkwardness of Laken clinging to my leg, and hiding behind me, even though she claimed she was excited to meet a pirate.  She created an imaginary pirate that lives there, and tells tales of him.  That was a nice, quick stop; and we would get to the beach early enough to not be too hot at the playground after.  We will probably do that the other way around next time; but it's hard to get her off the playground, and I had an "actvity" for the beach.  It didn't matter, because we ran into the Beachside playgroup from our Homeschool group; and Laken took off to play with a friend.  She had fun, and that's all that matters; but we still got our activity in at the end when she started to get hungry, and came to sit by mommy.

Shovels of all kinds, and these are just a few!

A bit grumpy, as usual when she's getting hungry.  I give her the space she needs, "are you playing with a sh-sh-shovel?"

Two shovels works better, even though some playgroup friends showed up with a couple of huge shovels; but she was past group interaction at this point.  Serious concentration going on here.

Still a grumpy face, and she didn't want any help so she filled the whole bucket by herself; and then she decided she wanted help dumping it.

Our volcano, at least that's what it turned out to be.  We were already playing with the squirt bottle to spray molds, and I think sand got stuck in the nozzle so we had to pour what we had left on our castle which turned into a really cool volcano!  Better pictures next time.

We used our magnetic letter shapes to do our vocab words today, and drew shapes on the whiteboard.

She finished her mobile, and decided she wanted to hang it up outside where we hang the others.

Then she asked to paint, which worked out perfectly.  It was a great way to introduce sh as an ending digraph since we hadn't talked about it yet.  Lots of paint brushes!  We reviewed wh by using white paint, and mixing with other colors.

This turned into body painting.

And dinosaur painting.

Other activities

Daily responsibilities: getting dressed (shirt, shorts, and shoes), brushing hair and teeth

"Are you putting on your sh-sh-shirt?  And your sh-sh-shorts?  And your sh-sh-shoes?"

Playing doctor: pretending to give shots

Music: "Wheels on the Bus" in the bath worked well for this, too, splashing and swishing in the water.

Books we read

I had to get a bit creative with this lesson.  Fortunately, we didn't have a whole lot of time to read today.  The consonant digraphs don't have to be in the title.  You just have to know it's in the book somewhere, and most books have all the digraphs somewhere!

 We did have a couple of good ones

Love this book!

And everything Dr. Seuss

Consonant Digraphs Sh, Ch, Wh Review

Kids love to cook!  Get them involved in the kitchen with this fun review activity.  Allow them to assist or crack the egg shells on their own, whisk the eggs, observe the cooking process, and add shredded cheese!