Mardi Gras

I am from Louisiana, and we visit as often as we can to see my family so it is important to me to keep the tradition of Mardi Gras alive in our home.  This year, I tried to involve Laken as much as possible in those traditions, while creating a few of our own as well!  

We made our first Mardi Gras lapbook:

Here are the links I used:

http://www.squidoo.com/mardi-gras-lapbook

http://anna.xanga.com/741847235/item/

A look inside the completed flaps.  I love that there was no writing!  And I also chose to use both links even though there were duplicate questions.  This was good for my preschooler.  My favorite is the flap that shows what the three colors of Mardi Gras represent.  Laken used dot markers to color it.  The whole inside of the lapbook took her less than 30 minutes to complete.

The back of our lapbook: King K craft (found here in first link).  She actually did this the first day we worked on our lapbook.  It took about 30 minutes to complete by itself, and she requested a lot of help with cutting and coloring (not a big fan of coloring these days) so that was all we did with it that day, and then we left it to dry.

Decorate your own King Cake.  I've never decorated my own King Cake before, ever.  I was a little disappointed at first, because it's not what I was used to; but then welcomed the opportunity for us to enjoy this first together.  This was messy fun for Laken, and a new tradition!

And it turned out beautifully!  

  We looked at masks at Jo-Ann's craft store so Laken had an idea of what Mardi Gras masks were all about.  Then I set up this invitation to make a Mardi Gras mask with a template I found in the first lapbook link.  I walked away while she glued the gems on, and was really impressed by the symmetry of the way she placed them when I returned.  We talked about the different ways we saw feathers on masks, and she chose to put hers like this.  I held them in place as she picked them out, and glued them on.  I suggested doing three sections of purple, green, and gold glitter; but she wanted to put them all over.  I enjoy getting a chance to work with her on a craft while still giving her control over the design, and I love our finished product.

I also used the heart shaped template from the same link to do masks for Valentine's Day, but they still make great Mardi Gras masks too!  Mardi Gras fell just two days before Valentine's Day this year, and I tried not to overlook one or the other. It was nice when I could tie them together.  I made the mask on top, and Laken made the bottom two.

Eventually, the idea came to me to try using salt dough to mimic the look of a porcelain mask.  

Here's the recipe I used:

1 c flour

1/2 c salt

1/2 c warm water

Knead the dough for 10 minutes, and let it rest for another 40 minutes.

Make sure you roll your dough out on your parchment paper.  I didn't the first time, and was unable to free it from my cookie sheet to put it on parchment paper before going in the oven.  From there, I just free handed it.  It's a lot easier than it looks!  Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for 4-5 hours until hard.  

The invitation to decorate, which took less than 10 minutes after a six hour preparation.  It was well worth it, though.

Fabulous!  We had quite a bit of leftover paint so we painted some more heart masks, too.

This was fun.  We put purple, green, and yellow paint on a piece of paper in a bin; and added Mardi Gras beads.  Then, you just shake until your heart's content!

I made red beans and rice for Mardi Gras so I took the opportunity to change out Laken's sensory bin.  I always have a sensory bin with some kind of grains and/or legumes in her kitchen for her to play with.  It gets used frequently.  This one will stay for quite some time still. 

Do you do anything special for Mardi Gras?  If so, or if you just love some of the ideas you've seen here, we'd love to hear about it!

Native Americans Part 2

We've been moving slower than anticipated, but that's okay!  It has actually worked out better for us.

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

Create a Navajo Rug
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!

Design a Navajo Necklace
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.

Build a hogan
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

Navajo sand art
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

 The Amazing Buffalo
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.

 Ankle Band
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

Bison for dinner
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.

Natural paints

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.  

Completed parfleche.  I love the way it turned out!

Parfleche with pretend jerky in it.

Ready to go!

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!