Wild West Unit Study

Our Wild West Unit took a few rabbit trails along the way.  At one point, it even morphed into a separate Native American Unit Study.

We studied the artist C.M. Russell and worked on a little western flavored art.

I pulled a lot of online resources from a unit at Ed Helper.   Instead of recreating their wheel, I’ll just share their link instead.   Check it out here.  

We added lots of things to our timeline and history notebooks and read LOTS of books.   I hope you find the info I pulled together helpful.

Library Resources:

Wild West; by Stuart Murray
100 Things You Should Know About the Wild West; by Andrew Langley
The Wild West, An Interactive History Adventure; by Allison Lassieur
Life in a Wild West Show; by Stephen Currie
Stagecoaches and Railroads; by Sally Senzell Isaacs
Wild West Days; by David C. King
Annie Oakley; by John Hamilton
Belle Starr; by Carl R. Greene
Buffalo Bill Cody; by Michael Goodman
Wild Bill Hickok, The Man and His Myth; by Joseph G. Rosa
Facts & Fiction:  Bandits & Outlaws; by Stewart Ross
Wanted!  Frank & Jesse James, The Real Story; by Margaret Baldwin & Pot O’Brien
Butch Cassidy: by John Hamilton
Jesse James; by John Hamilton
Billy the Kid; by John Hamilton
Judge Roy Bean; by Carl R. Green and William R. Sanford
Wyatt Earp; by Rob Staegler
Doc Holliday; by Carl R. Green and William R. Sanford
Kit Carson, Mountain Man; by Tracey Boraas
America’s Premier Gunmakers Remington; by K.D. Kirkland
America’s Premier Gunmakers Winchester; by K.D. Kirkland
America’s Premier Gunmakers Colt; by K.D. Kirkland

Native American Unit Study

We started off on a Wild West Unit study, which quickly took a rabbit trail into a Native American Unit Study.   That’s the beauty of homeschooling, right?

We learned about different tribes, their housing, food and famous chiefs.   We also read about the Trail of Tears, The Long Walk and Wounded Knee.  My girls are officially boo-ing the Calvary after all of that.

The girls and I learned about various weapons of the different tribes.  We then set out to make what I considered one of the safer Native American weapons, the sling shot.   I guess if you look at it from Goliath’s standpoint you know this is not the case, as I learned later as well, ahem.

While studying the Nez Perce and their equestrian skills, we made appaloosa decorations, and Lindsey promptly placed it on her trusty steed.

While studying the Navajo, we delved into a little faux turquoise and silver jewelry.   The “beads” are macaroni noodles.   To color the uncooked noodles, put 2-3 tablespoons of rubbing alcohol in a zip lock back, then add several drops of food coloring and mix well.   Dump in your desired amount of macaroni and move it around in the bag quickly.   Place in a single layer on a cookie sheet to dry (and to lose the alcohol smell.)  String the macaroni on heavy twine or yarn to make your necklace.

For the faux silver, take a piece of tinfoil, and wrap it around a piece of cardstock.  Make sure the shiny side goes towards the cardboard.  Tape the tinfoil onto the back of the cardboard.   Draw a design onto a white piece of paper, then overlay the paper onto the tinfoil.   Trace back over the design, pushing hard enough to transfer the pattern onto the tinfoil below.

We also revisited our Moccasin Making  skills.

Finally, we finished off our study with some fry bread.   This was a staple food for some Native American groups, and for my family when I was a child too.   The girls enjoyed theirs with honey.

Books & Resources:
The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears; by Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green
The Trail of Tears; by Peter Benoit
Wounded Knee:  The Death of a Dream; by Laurie O’Neil
The Battle of Little Bighorn; by Micael V. Uschan
The Cherokee; by Cathryn J. Long
Saga of the Sioux; by Dwight Jon Zimmerman
The Apache; by Anne Ake
The Sioux; by Michelle Levine
The Navajos; by Liz Sonneborn
The Arapaho: Hunters of the Great Plains; by Karen Bush Gibson
The Shoshone; by Sarah De Capua
The Iroquois; by Charlotte Wilcox
The Greatest Indian Chiefs; by Jean Marcellin
Sitting Bull; by Herman J. Viola
A Boy Called Slow; by Joseph Bruchac
Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce; by Bill & Jan Moeller
Chief Crazy Horse – Following a Vision; by Larry Dane Brimner
Geronimo; by William Thompson
The Indian Wars; by Carol Behrman
Native American History Pockets; by Evan-Moore
American Indians Fandex; by Workman Publishing

Activity Day–Pocahontas

Pocahontas was a huge success in this months Activity Day.   We learned about her life before the white man, including the diet, housing and travel methods.   We built dioramas including long houses, vegetables and fruits out of colored clay and used tiny pieces of leather to make items to put in the longhouse.

Then the girls learned about Pocahontas’ introduction to the Englishmen, her trip to England, her marriage to John Rolfe, the birth of her son and her unfortunate death in her 20’s.

Books we used: 

Pocahontas, Bridging Two Worlds; by Larry Dane Brimner
Pocahontas; by Lola M. Schaefer
Pocahontas; by Grace Steele Woodward
Pocahontas; by Lucia Raatma

Here is a finished project.  Obviously we didn’t make the items to scale, but I still think the girls did a great job making their Powhatan Indian dwelling.

Weekly Wrap Up – The Trail of Tears

 

The first week of November is history!  I really just don’t know where the time is going, and I know I made mention of that fact last week…but GEEZ people!   But, on a positive note, the time changes Sunday morning at 2am, so we get to sleep a little later.  Well, hypothetically we do…my kids internal clock doesn’t reset.

So what did we get accomplished this week?  Lots!

Language Arts:  The girls both have a firm grasp of nouns, pronouns and action verbs now.  We’re working on more memorization and also doing more copy work these days.

Spelling:  Lesson 15 has been completed.  I’m thinking of taking a break for the next few weeks, just so we’ll be sure to have some spelling work left for after the holidays!

Geography/history:   We finished up North Carolina this week.  We focused on the Cherokee people, and the Trail of Tears.   We read lots of books, and even made a map of the evacuation routes that were used with the Cherokee were relocated.   This ties with slavery for being the two most emotional topics we’ve studied so far.  

Books we used:

The Cherokee; by Emilie U. Lepthien
The Trail of Tears; by Joseph Bruchac
Cherokee Sister; by Debbie Dadey
The Journal of Jesse Smoke, A Cherokee Boy; by Joseph Bruchac
The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears; by Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green
If You Lived With the Cherokee; by Peter and Connie Roop
Amazing Cherokee Writer, Sequoyah; by Mary Dobson Wade

Science:  We studied the various climates of the world, made a “patchwork map” coloring each type of area (tundra, rainforest, desert, etc.) a separate color.

Math:  Our curriculum finally worked its way back around to liquid measurements after not having mentioned them since midway last year.  So this was pretty much a new topic.  So again I set up a liquid measurement center.  Included were 1 cup, 1 pint container, 1 quart container, 1 gallon container and a washtub to catch the spills.   Olivia worked on measuring, pouring and memorizing the facts, again.

Lindsey began counting by 10’s this week.  She’s also memorizing her math addition facts.  Something fun I’ve noticed is that she is using her snacks (grapes, goldfish, raisins) to work out subtraction problems while she eats.  Too bad I didn’t think of that!

Latin:  We’re working on more command words and singular/plural versions of those words.  Again this week we did some fun Simon Says sessions, all in Latin!

Ballet/tap: We only have 2 more regular weeks of ballet before we break for Thanksgiving – New Year.  There will be no Nutcracker practice this weekend and then we’re fast and furious towards production!

Life skills:  This is an area we work on a lot, but I don’t necessarily post about often. However this week has been busy in several ways.  The girls learned some dynamics about yard work here.  We worked together to make some yummy popcorn balls for snacks.  We used this yummy recipe from my other blog S.A.H.M. I Am!

However, by far the greatest class project of ALL times arrived early Tuesday morning!  Meet Eliana!  

This cutie will be added to our mix several days a week.   What better opportunity to teach the girls about caring for babies?   Quite honestly, I was 35 when I had Olivia.  I had NEVER held a newborn baby, had NO clue what to do with one either.   So these girls will at least have a faint clue!

We’re also working our way through a Unit Study that I’ll be sharing with you in another week or so, once we’re finished up….so keep checking back!

To finish up our week, we had a lovely Afternoon Tea, you can read the post at S.A.H.M. I Am!   Be sure to stop by this week’s Weekly Wrap Up!

Native American Activity Day

We finalized our Native American study this week.  I really enjoyed the group of kids that were in my class this year.  It was my first venture into teaching “older kids” (9-11).  At the beginning of the year, each student picked their official Native American name, and those are used here.  One girl, had a difficult time picking a name, so she was named by default, as you’ll see.

“Lilly White Deer” brought in an authentic Navajo rug for us all to look at.  I was amazed that both sides look exactly the same.  Anytime I make anything with fibers, the backside always looks ratty.  Obviously the Navajo are MUCH better than I!

“Lilly White Deer”, who recently relocated from Arizona,  also brought her best friend Emma to class.  Emma and “Lilly” have been friends ever since they were three years old.  They’ve both been homeschooled all their lives.  Emma still lives in Arizona, so it was a special treat to have her with us this week; and it was great to see that their friendship bridges the miles between them now.

The class studied the Tlingit of the Northwest this week.  One very interesting fact we learned, was that they built their homes out of wood planks…what made it interesting was that they cut the planks from trees, without chopping the tree down.  Sounds like a hard, and dangerous way to go about it!

After we finished up out totem poles and potlatch masks. We moved on to our grand finale!  Homemade chocolate chip cookies and fresh picked strawberries.   I was very happy to see that the berries were devoured faster than the cookies.  Pictured below are “Wise Owl”, “Swift Hawk” and “Girl with No Name”.

I asked for volunteers to give a presentation (for Emma’s benefit) on various tribes we’ve studied over the year.   I was thrilled (and STUNNED) that 3 of the boys volunteered.   I’m guessing that Emma’s presence had something to do with their eagerness!

“Dying Mule” was the first to volunteer (and the biggest shock for me).   He read the story he wrote about being an Inuit and living in an igloo. 

“Roaring Bear” also shared his Inuit story.  I have to confess it was a very good story.   The names he gave to those in the story gave a lot of insight into the characters (they were none too bright!)

By far, the greatest joy came from “Wise Owl” volunteering to share his story.  “Wise Owl” is a reserved young man, who has so much to offer.  Typically, he’s not one to “put himself out there”.  So I wanted to jump up and shout when he asked if we had time for him to do his story.  My dear, we’d have stayed an extra half hour for you!

Meet the Navajo

I'm teaching a Native American class for our monthly activity day group. Each month I mention it during a Weekly Wrap Up, but I've yet to document the class. I finally thought ahead enough this month to do take the camera (although I failed to take good photos of the FINISHED projects). Each child has picked their own Native American name, and those will be used here.

I'd love to take credit for all this creativity, but I can't. I'm using the Evan-Moor Native American History Pockets as the basis for the class, so all of the credit goes to the folks at Evan-Moor. Below is an example of the cover of the history pocket. This particular one is provided courtesy of "Roaring Bear".

We made faux silver and turquoise necklaces. I colored pasta for the turquoise. To color the pasta place 2 tablespoons of rubbing alcohol in a ziploc baggie. Mix in food coloring until you reach the desired shade is achieved (we were trying to make turquoise, but didn't turn out as I'd planned). Pour in the pasta and mix well, coating all pieces. Repeat steps as necessary to get the desired amount of pasta. Place pasta on a cookie sheet, wax paper or paper towels to dry for roughly 30 minutes (I did this step prior to the class).

For the medallion, I used thin cardboard, covered in aluminum foil (dull side showing), and lots of tape to secure the back. Then I used a hole punch to place holes for the twine to go through. The kids traced a design onto the foil with a dull pencil, to give the impression of metal engraving. Below is a finished necklace being modeled by our lovely "Lily White Deer". And yeah, I'm a doofus and didn't take a single photo from the front of the necklaces.

We also made cute miniature Navajo rugs. I had the kids color the designs in very bold colors; leaving lots of white along the sides. Then we used watercolor paints to add a color wash, and then finalized by gluing it onto heavy black cardstock and cutting "fringes" on the ends of each rug.

Here is a shot of the entire group. From the left we have "Roaring Bear", "Running Panther", myself, "Lily White Deer", "Girl with No Name" and "Wise Owl'. If you'll notice, on the table by "Wise Owl" is a finished necklace. Notice how rich the color is on the pasta once it dried. Unfortunately, our friend "Swift Hawk" was not in class on the day I finally remembered the camera.

Red Hawk

Have I mentioned before that I LOVE my city library? They have the most wonderful events, speakers and programs throughout the year. Last night was WONDERFUL!

The library hosted Native American storyteller Red Hawk and it was FABULOUS!

As you can see, Red Hawk was dressed in traditional Cherokee clothing. During the 1 hour presentation, he taught us several words in his native tongue. I doubt the spelling is right, but here they are: the word for hello (pronounced O C O) I understand (pronounced a-ho) and a lovely war cry that was really similar to "hoo-wah" that you hear the marines yell on occasion.

Red Hawk taught us some of the traditional drumming rhythms and helped debunk a lot of the myths about the erroneous and stereotypical drumming in movies. The 30 or so children and 50+ adults had a wonderful being his drummers (using our hands on our knees) as he walked us through several rhythms and their meanings.

Several volunteers were chosen to learn traditional Cherokee dances as well. The boy in the red shirt is from my Native American co-op class, and the name we gave him is Wise Owl.

The stories were entertaining, engaging and had good morals. One point he made, was are the things you're giving your time and attention to matter when you're 98? Good question in a lot of areas!

At the end, he played part of a lovely song on his flute. We learned that women in his culture are not allowed to play, or even touch a flute, because it's a instrument used for love songs for the men to use to woo their women.

If you ever have the opportunity to attend a presentation by Red Hawk, I strongly recommend it!

Squanto Wrap Up

My husband had abdominal surgery on Monday, so it was ruled a no school day.  I spent most of the day at the hospital.  My mother-in-law spent the night with us Sunday so that she could watch the girls for us on Monday.  There was some learning involved (she says with a tone).  Olivia learned that her grandmother doesn't know how to start a gas cookstove; and grandma learned that Olivia was willing to do it for her.  THANKFULLY the MIL had enough common sense to boycott this idea and use the microwave when needed.  (In my defense, I attempted to show her how to use the stove and she declined.)  

We spent most of this week learning about Squanto.  Squanto was Patuxet; however Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag invited him to join them after his entire village died of disease.   The girls created a very  large timeline of  important events of Squanto's life.

Squanto was kidnapped several times.  The photo below depicts him being taken captive and taken to England.  The details in the photo are a bit fuzzy, but in the upper left corner, Squanto is on the left, with his hands tied.   In the bottom right corner of the boat is a VERY dejected looking Squanto as he travels to England (which is the very small area to the right of the boat...I guess if you're looking at it from a distance, it could be very small....)

After returning to North America in 1614, you'd think Squanto would have avoided the newcomers.  But noooooooo!  Later that same year he was kidnapped and taken to Spain and sold as a slave.   This lovely group of colorful Monks helped him.

Squanto returned to North America in 1619, to find all of his people had died.  Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag's invited Squanto to live with them.   In Spring of 1621, Squanto met the Pilgrims (to be honest, there is no way in the world I'd have gotten anywhere NEAR a white person after all that kidnapping!)    Maybe he was attracted by the colorful garb of William Bradford below?

In the fall of 1621 the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims had a three day feast to celebrate the harvest and having survived another year.   Here you'll see several Wampanoag brave's carrying a deer in for the feast.  (Please note, the deer has it's legs tied to a pole and is upside down.  The deer's head/antlers are at the bottom of the drawing.)

Books we used:

Squanto's Journey, by Joseph Bruchac
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving, by Eric Metaxasz
Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims, by Clyde Robert Bulla

Movies we used:
Squanto, A Warriors Tale, by Walt Disney

We also worked on the usual, reading, writing, Latin, math and Bible.   This was a three day week for us.  Monday, as I stated was a hospital kind of day.  Friday we're playing hooky from co-op and heading out of town to hear Kenneth and Gloria Copeland preach.

I hope everyone's week went well.  Special thanks to Krsi at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for posting my Weekly Wrap Up while I was away.

Wampanoag Wrap Up

This week in our Thanksgiving unit study, we've focused on the Wampanoag's.  Because of where they lived, the Wampanoag were one of the first people to see the sun rise in the east every morning.  The word Wampanoag means "People of the First Light".

The Wampanoag didn't live in tee-pee's, but instead they lived in a wetu (pronounced wee-too).  The girls and I made a miniature version of one.  My original plan was to use dried pine needles glued onto torn brown grocery bags to give the appearance of woven cattail mats...yeah well, that wasn't working so well...so we went with the bag being deer hides, as would be the case in winter months.  Although we did complete the door covering out of pine needles.

This is what it SHOULD look like.

Here is our infrastructure:

Olivia helped me to build the infrastructure.  Both Lindsey and Olivia worked hard on the pine needles...I somehow failed to get a photo of Olivia.

Here is the finished product, with some very colorful Wampanoag folks.

Books we used:

Wampanoag, by Barbara A. Gray-Kanatiiosh
The Wampanoag, The People of the First Light, by Janet Riehecky
People of the Breaking Day, by Marcia Sewall
We also learned about the "three sisters", beans-corn-squash.  The girls completed pumpkin life cycle cards, and as a science project we started some pumpkin seeds to see how long it takes them to sprout.

As I've mentioned before, we use Awana as our main Bible curriculum during the school year.  I totally love the program, however I'm super frustrated with Olivia's class right now.  She's in her second year of Sparks, and we're having issues with the leaders not giving children the time to recite all their memory verses each week.  Olivia currently has 6 verses that she's needing to recite and get signed off on so that we can move on.  I had a discussion with her leader this week and am hoping that it's resolved.  If not I'll have to speak with the club commander next week. 

There is no co-op this week, woohooo!!  Olivia had ballet from 4:30 - 5:30 and then we headed to the local children's museum for a field trip with the girls Prims class from church. 

I hope everyone else had a great week.  Skip gleefully over to WUS for the Weekly Wrap Up to see how everyone  got along this week.