The Navajo
We studied the Navajo while we were in Louisiana visiting my family for the holidays, as far southwest as we were going to get.
Pocket Activities
Laken colored the rug with crayons, leaving plenty of white space for the watercolor wash. Then she just used watercolors to fill in the white space, giving it a color washed look. I loved this effect!
We were meaning to do this in La, but never got to it. I set it up for Laken one day after we got home, and she wasn't interested in it. So I traced the imprint onto the foil for her, and then she took over gluing the beads. Then, she laced beads onto one side of the string while I did the other. I enjoyed sitting and working with her, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out!
Additional Activities
I've been trying to incorporate one or more of the vocab words for each tribe into our additional activities. For the Navajo, hogan and fry bread were two of our vocab words.
Navajo lived in hogans built from sticks and mud. There was an opening at the top to allow smoke from the fire inside to escape. I used a gallon milk jug, and cut the bottom off. This gave us a perfect frame to pile mud on, and left us with a hole at the top. We even threw some matches in there, and watched the smoke rise out!
Make fry bread
I had her draw a design with a black permanent marker; and then she used the paint brush to apply the glue for the sand.
The Sioux
We left our history pocket book in Louisiana by mistake so we had to wait for it to come UPS after the New Year with our Christmas gifts that wouldn't fit in our suitcases. We were also sick for the last several weeks so we've really been dragging our feet with getting back into schoolwork. Then, I realized it would work out perfectly to study the Inuit of the Arctic while we were doing our winter unit for homeschool co-op this month; but I needed to do The Sioux first. I'm already going out of order by doing the Inuit next (and I don't mind), but I didn't want to skip this entire region. It really would've thrown our map out of whack. So, I didn't do a lot of extra planning (not that I didn't try, but it worked out that I didn't come across many "additional activities"), and we were in a bit of a hurry to get through this tribe; but I was also pleasantly surprised by our activities (all of which I didn't expect to spark too much interest).
Pocket Activities
Laken got a kick out of this, and was easily able to decipher where the pictures went on her chart. I was taking pictures of her doing this activity, but my pictures kept coming out cloudy. Then, I realized I had a smudge on my camera! So, here are a couple of clear shots of the front cover and inside.
This was the most surprising of all! I certainly had my doubts. I mean graph paper, and a 4-year-old? I should have learned to never underestimate by now, though! I even lucked out, and came across these patterns. Some of them are very simple.
So proud! She chose the symbols/patterns for tipi, horse tracks, and cloud.
Too cute! You can add bells to them, too, but we don't have any... yet!
Additional Activities
You can find bison at most grocery stores. It's extra lean, and oh so yummy! This wasn't really a special occasion for us. Simply a must! We eat bison all the time. It's a favorite.
The Sioux used berries, leaves, grasses, and flowers to dye their rawhide clothing. I've been holding onto these natural paints for way too long. I was saving them for a "special occasion." I don't know why when Chris can easily bring us more from the co-op. Now that we've tried them, I will be using them more often! I've been experimenting with natural dyes on our Easter eggs for the last couple of years, and
I have to soak them overnight just to get a hint of color to them. So I wasn't expecting much from these, although I figured I'd at least give them a try for Easter this year since it says you can use them for egg dying. After all, I've got nothing to lose. Well, I was blown away by the deep, rich color of these paints; and now I can't wait to try them on our eggs this year!
Make a paper parfleche bag
This was one of our vocab words. A parfleche is a rawhide sack used to carry food and clothing. I came across a brown bag craft for this, and couldn't pass up the challenge. I used the directions found here, but with a brown paper bag instead of felt. I made the parfleche bag, and Laken used the natural colors to paint it. 
Ready to go!
