A week on Native Americans

Welcome to our week on Native Americans.  We are learning with the letter "A" (Americans).  Here are a few of the books we will enjoy this week and next:

Painted Vests - We chatted about what Native Americans made their clothes from (animal skins) and how they could decorate them with paint made from berries and flowers.  Then we painted our grocery sacks (soon to be vests).  We'll decorate them on Wednesday.

Drawing on our Vests -  We have been talking about how Native Americans used pictures to tell stories and to mark important events.  We decided to try it out on our vests.  The kiddos did a wonderful job of depicting traditional pictures.

Here is a canoe over a rain cloud.

 I found pictures of traditional Native American drawings online.

 
Corn Shakers -  We chatted about dances that Native Americans do, to tell stories, to help bring rain, to get them ready for battle.  We decided to make some shakers that we could dance with.  Ours are made from tp tubes and corn kernels.  The kiddos painted their tube with bingo paints, then we used colorful tape to seal up the ends.

Shaking and dancing!  The kiddos loved it!  They also loved working with the tape.  After their dancing, they came back to add more tape!  

 

Our Thankful Turkey - We started adding feathers to our turkey today.  As we worked on the shakers, the kiddos told me things they were thankful for, I wrote them on feathers and they stuck them on.

Journals - In our continuing chats about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans, David announced that he could draw the Mayflower.  Cool.  He did so in his journal.  Charly also drew it.  Both of them added a shark to the story.  Ha.

Thumb Pinch Pots - The kiddos created some pottery today.  A couple of the kiddos remembered how to make these pots from last year.  They were super cute about helping the others create theirs too.  Our pots are drying, we hope to paint them on Friday.

Science - Corn Kernel Removal - The kiddos were super intrigued by the idea of removing corn from these dried cobs.  I let them problem solve the removal.  They tried fingers, scissors and finally found that a long block (used like a hammer) was perfect (and noisy, and quite fun) to knock those stubborn kernels off.  I'm afraid we'll still be finding kernels even after Christmas time!  Ha!

The husks were super soft once all the kernels were removed.  The kiddos and I thought that was cool.

Tortilla Teepees - Back by request, today we made our own teepees from the hide of a flour tortilla.  Again the kiddos drew pictures to decorate with markers. 

Learning Station - Lacing Noodle Necklaces - A classic activity for fall, so much fun.  The kiddos enjoyed the fine motor work of lacing noodles to make beautiful "beaded" Native American necklaces.

This kiddos loved lacing the noodles on his fingers as well as the string.

 Love the colors...

Native American Kids - The kiddos added a face and decoration to the clothing of their Native American kid.  Here is a maiden and a brave.  For my toddler class, I attached the hair and eyes, and the kiddos did the rest!  Pretty darn cute!

 

Here are the preschooler's...

Tp Canoes - The kiddos laced the sides of their canoe, then they added Native American stick people.  Super cute.  I love how they each did their people differently.  

Learning Station - Pattern Making - We are just developing this skill.  We talked about making a pattern with colors or shapes.  Some kiddos got it and some are still working on it.  Fun to glue!  The shapes are ones I punched out of scrap paper.