Monday, November 14, 2011

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Thanksgiving & Native Americans!

One of the positives of homeschooling is the amount of things I learn as I teach and prepare activities. :) This year, I have discovered so many interesting details and facts about Thanksgiving! We spent a good deal of time one week on the Pilgrims and now have spent some more time learning about the Native Americans involved in the story.



When reading about the Wampanoag indians, I learned they would make belt and headband designs from purple and white shells.  Thus, one of the first things we did was to make a purple and white headband.  Here is a picture of mine (top) and my daughter's headband (below).  If you would like to make one too, you can download the pattern for free here.



 I also decided this seemed like a wonderful unit for encouraging my daughter to learn how to perform simple hand weaving (only we used paper to make our indian basket). After some guidance from me, she just took off with this and did a terrific job!



To make our woven mat into a basket/purse, I simply folded one end up a bit, glued it in place, hole punched the edges and added some jute.  :)



I saw a cute activity on Pinterest involving bubble wrap and indian corn and thought we would try it as well. Unfortunately, I could not find some small bubble wrap, so I improvised and glued some cheerios to a piece of cardboard. We then painted the cheerios and stamped the paper. This seemed to work just fine for us and when they were done drying, my daughter cut out the corn shapes, and we glued the corn and leaf pieces together to make our very own indian corn!



What better place to store our indian corn than in our very own handmade indian bag/basket?  :)



Another of our activities was to make a real purse from suede.  I found a kit at our local hobby store and helped my daughter complete it!

Of course, good books are a must, and we learned SO much from reading some of the ones below!  :)



Linking up to:
www.abcand123learning.com
www.letkidscreate.blogspot.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
www.momontimeout.com
This post is linked to No Ordinary Blog Hop
http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/
http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/
http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2011/11/introducing-fun-stuff-fridays.html
Tip Junkie handmade projects Hip Homeschool Hop ButtonIt's Playtime at hands on : as we grow

9 comments:

  1. Sounds like fun and educational lessons and such cute creations! Thanks for sharing! Stopping by from Tip Junkie...

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  2. LOVE the corn! Great arts and crafts!

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  3. What a great ideas! They are so creative! I hope you will link this post to my Thanksgiving Traditions link up!

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  4. We did the bubble wrap painting for the corn. http://readysetread2me.blogspot.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-craft-corn-wreaths.html
    I found it on pinterest too. I love your idea for using the cheerios. Very resourceful.

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  5. Love these ideas! And I'm going to the library today to get some of those books for my kiddos! :)

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  6. What a great collection of fun and festive projects for Thanksgiving! Very cute ideas!
    Would you please link up to our Fun Stuff Fridays linky party so we can share this adorable post with our readers???

    http://www.toysinthedryer.com/2011/11/introducing-fun-stuff-fridays.html

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  7. fun that you get to learn so much while teaching your children. Thanks for sharing on Monday Madness.

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  8. What fun, I love the woven purse and the technique used on making the corn. It looks fantastice. Thanks for sharing these fun ideas on Monday Madness - can't wait to see what you share next time.

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  9. I'm writing because I run a sensory site and am looking for great ideas for Thanksgiving. And as any parent, we’re looking for terrific Thanksgiving crafts and ideas for kids with Sensory Processing Disorder and on the Autism Spectrum. Would you add a link to a craft idea or two on our blog? Here's the link to share and get more traffic to your site…

    http://thesensoryspectrumblog.com/2012/11/04/calling-all-bloggers-fun-family-thanksgiving-crafts-ideas-wanted/

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