Dangerous Wonder

Jun. 23, 2008

History Pockets: Moving West Part 4

In the previous entry about Moving West, I shared about our last history group time together at a nature center. I know that we will be riding this time period of history for quite some time! Anyway, I wanted to continue sharing our projects and adventures we've had along the way. One of the things we did was make cute wood models from Nature's Workshop Plus! We made the incredibly cute covered wagon and the fort. We also have the log cabins but haven't made them yet. These awesome kits are inexpensive ($4.50 or $4.00 with purchase of 5 or more) and require wood glue and happy kids! We placed a piece of wax paper on the table for each kid to work on so all that glue didn't stick to the table and other things. Forming the box for the wagon. DD9 with her wheels on the wagon! DD5 holding the "tongue" of the wagon in place. Cute wagon all done! DS7 making his fort. A steady hand and perfect amount of glue is helpful! Isn't that cute!?! We had a really fun time making these simple projects and you can too!

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Jun. 13, 2008

History Pockets: Moving West Part 3

Our long journey west was completed a few weeks ago. We were all very happy to finish this journey of 10 weeks together. We had tons of fun and loads of adventures. Week 8 we studied the Gold Rush. The older kids "panned" for gold outside and did a few other activities. The younger kids hunted for gold in my home after we read stories, colored pictures and talked about fools gold and real gold. True treasure in the hands of a child! Week 9 we talked about homesteading on the prairie and I had the pleasure of teaching the older kids that week. I shared portions of a wonderful historical diary called  Butter in the Well by Linda K. Hubalek. I had read the entire thing to my kids a few days before the class in 3 or 4 hours because it was so fascinating to all of us. They didn't want me to stop reading! I highly recommend it! Our 10th and final class was about the Railroad expansion to the west! We talked about Casey Jones and John Henry and watched the classic Disney film about both of these characters. We also looked through a lot of books about trains (especially steam trains) and played with our Thomas the Tank train set and made a humongous track! It was a fantastic time with the little ones! The final "program" for this year wasn't a festival like we have done in the past with the medieval and renaissance studies. We went to a nature center in a nearby city and explored with the nature center guide about pioneer life. There was a camp fire and hot dogs (before the rain down poured!) and then all sorts of fun with pioneer games and hands on learning. We made butter, saw baby chicks, touched turtles and bunnies and shared all our projects we had made over the previous 10 weeks. The dads and some grandparents were there to share in the excitement as well! It was a wonderful ending to a lot of learning! My ds and his friends around the campfire. I love this picture! It cracks me up! Here's my dd5 (in brown dress) with some of her friends. DD9 playing with a pioneer toy of some sort. Our nature guide talking about bunnies. DS7 playing with a noise maker. DD5 wearing a dress I wore when I was little. After the rain had cleared we headed out on the fishing dock. Saw a rainbow! An end to a wonderful time together studying the pioneers!

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May. 13, 2008

Chuck Wagon Cook Out

We've been studying the pioneers around here this spring. We enjoyed a "chuck wagon" cook out with our history study group. There were baked beans and bacon, johnny cakes and coffee and yummy biscuits! We also roasted hot dogs over the fire for good measure! We also played a crazy game of  Buffalo Hunter...a.k.a. Marco Polo... so the kids who were the hunters were blindfolded and the rest were the buffalo...very funny! Here's one of our friends looking for some buffalo! It was a fun day outside in our yard!

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Apr. 11, 2008

History Pockets: Moving West Part 2

Our history group has been going great and we have been having loads of fun. You can read my first entry about this group here. Orphan Train Our "Orphans" have been learning about where we live in the U.S. and learning more states as we travel west. We read the book Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney and then looked at an atlas to get a feel for using maps. We also have been using coloring pages and US puzzles to help build our geography skills. To become more familiar with our own great state of Minnesota, we have been utilizing the fantastic curriculum called Minnesota for Mini-Sotans by Debby Anderson (she's usually at the MACHE conference) and we have also been using this great pdf coloring book from MN Dept of Natural Resources for learning our state symbols. We are making a lapbook with the pieces we have been learning about in our History Pockets: Moving West.  (click here to see part 1) Here are some photos to continue our journey of making this lapbook. Here is where we left off... Now flip the yellow piece of paper to the right and you will find this... The Small Journal was made out of black and brown cardstock and small pieces of paper bound together with some basic string from my kitchen. I cut out the journal entries with my deckle (fancy) scissors and then inked the paper with a sponge and mustardy yellow ink to make it look old. My kids really got into that part! Glued them on to the paper (I used the free mini-templates from notebookingpages.com) and then I just drew a basic picture that seemed to relate to the entry of "Kitty." Here is my sons journal. He did a larger size (regular 8.5 x 11 paper folded in half). Because of it's larger size, it was easier for him to draw inside. I absolutely love my kids pictures they draw! So incredibly cute!!! Oh I love my yummy kids! Well, that's all for now! Keep checking back for more fun!

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Mar. 18, 2008

History Pockets: Moving West

The last 2 years we have studied Medieval and Renaissance time periods in the springtime and I have shared photos and articles of our fun here and here. I am just realizing that I didn't share photos from last years fun! Ooops! I'll post that after this post! This spring, several families from our homeschool coop at church are studying the Westward Expansion of the U.S. every-other week. We are basing our study off of the curriculum, History Pockets: Moving West While this curriculum is for 4-6 grade, we are using it with 6-13 year olds. We are using it as a jumping off point  with lots of other projects to go with it. We have downloaded the book for easy printing from our home computer over at CurrClick and are enjoying this series! Here are some pictures of my oldest daughter's History Pocket in progress. Pocket #1 Pocket #2 The concept of the History Pockets is fabulous. We have history facts, coloring sheets and other fun crafts in this series. My only draw back has been the sheer size of the pockets themselves. It calls for a 12x18 sheet of construction paper or cardstock/poster board that is folded 6 inches up and then is stapled to make a pocket. I have found that while it looks cool, the paper is easily torn if using construction paper and the size is awkward if you want to store it. So some of our creative moms have come up with using sheet protectors as the pocket and putting it in a 3-ring binder or just using a pocket divider instead of the sheet protector. Our Study Group One of our fabulous mom's who has spearheaded this study group for the last 3 years has come up with wonderful ideas to supplement the History Pockets as she teaches our group of kids. First thing she did was to have all of the children draw a pioneer name from a hat that was associated with a fictional family group. Now the kids are divided into family groups that they use during our 2 hour class time as their small group for projects and assignments during class time. The first at-home project was to write an autobiographic journal of their fictional character as they make the decision to go west, during the journey and when they arrive at their destination. For instance, my son who is 7, is the 49 year old father of his family group. We laugh a lot when we think about it and as I help him journal. My daughter is an orphan living with her cousins. So we had to brainstorm together how she became an orphan and what her circumstances were. It has been loads of fun to be creative together and see what they come up with! This will be quite the treasure when we finish it! The Orphan Train At the moment, I am in charge of the younger siblings that can't quite hang in there for the older kids discussion and activities. We are calling them the Orphans or the Orphan Train as their family group. We thought it would be too difficult to keep track of their fictional characters at this age! We have been reading picture books, playing with legos and puzzles, coloring, singing, learning some Spanish words from one of our bi-lingual mama's, and watching pioneer videos that pertain to the topic of the day. We are trying to parallel the older kids as much as we can to keep the family history project unified! What I have done for the 4-6 year olds that are needing something just for them and more user friendly, because they can't read yet and worksheets are beyond them, is to make a lapbook out of the pieces in the History Pocket book. We are working on it and it is not complete yet, but here is the beginning stages of the design I have come up with: Cover Page #1 I used cardstock to mount the printables on for durability, but construction paper will work fine too. I also used clear packing tape on both sides of the flaps so it would not tear out of the lapbook. Everything else is glued down using a permanent glue stick. #2 The first flap has the fast facts on the back. The history about Moving west (blue) is taped at the top of the page so it can flip up for our fun things underneath! #3 I assembled the time line and put just the last of the 3 panels on cardstock so the other 2 can be pulled out to the side for a view of the entire time line. When  book is closed the time line is folded up. The map is part of a worksheet in the Pocket #1 section. #4 Now we are looking at the back of the Pocket #2 title flap (blue). The page is designed much like the first with the history of the New Frontier (green) taped at the top of the page. #5 Notice that the green paper has another story on the back and is now flipped up. The yellow paper has one more story and is taped on the right-hand side so that it may open up and reveal what is underneath as well! I have more to do for the next pockets and will keep you posted! My goal is to use one page of the file folder for each pocket. I will be adding folders to this project so we can complete it! More pictures, more ideas! Keep your eyes on the horizon and we'll get there!

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