Homeschool: Native Americans (Week 15)

We just completed our fourteenth week of homeschool. You can view our daily schedule (including which curriculum we use for math and reading) by clicking the link. Below you'll find the art and science activities we did this week - focusing on Native Americans.

MONDAY:

• Book: Tapenum's Day by Kate Waters
• Activity: Native American Costumes

My boys were so excited about these outfits! They wore them all week. They are really easy to make. I bought a fleece sheet/blanket from Walmart and we cut out one large rectangle (loin cloth) and two thin and long rectangles (one for the belt and the other for the head piece). You put the bottom piece together as shown below.. 

For the head band, we talked about how the Native American's wrote in pictures instead of letters like we do today. We talked about the symbols and my boys practiced drawing them on their head piece. It was fun to hear their "story" of what they drew. It was mostly about war. ;) I downloaded the Native American writing sheet here. 

TUESDAY:  

• Book: Squanto and the First Thanksgiving
• Activity: Native American Necklaces 

To go along with our costumes, we made these Native American necklaces. Notice the "war symbol" in my six's necklace. We used wooden beads from Walmart and molded air dry clay for the center piece of the necklace. Before the clay dried, we used a long skewer to poke a hole in the center for the string to go through.

WEDNESDAY:

• Book: The First Thanksgiving Day by Laura Krauss Melmed
• Activity: Animal Tracks Book & Arrow Shooting Practicing

The Wampanoag Indians knew animal tracks and followed them to find food to hunt. We talked about and colored this Animal Tracks Booklet from Pre-Kinders. Afterward, we practiced shooting arrows with this Bow & Arrow Set.

THURSDAY:

• Book: A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting & Turkey Trouble by Wendi J Silvano
• Activity: Gratitude Turkey

These are two of my favorite books. We read them and talked about how Native Americans often hunted turkey to eat. We drew and cut out our turkeys and talked about things we're grateful for. My boys didn't want to write on their feathers, so we made a list on paper. My six is grateful for: Rolls, Reeksy, Family, House, Dogs, Crocodiles, and said "I'm most thankful my Heavenly Father loves me." My four said he's grateful for: pumpkin pie and swimming.

FRIDAY:

None.


Other Books we enjoyed: Sharing the Bread by Pat Zietlow Miller and Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes

Other Ideas: Thanksgiving 2019, Turkeys 2019, & Mayflower Hand Print Art