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.

 

Some more on Native Americans

Learning Station - Mosaic Indian Corn - First we looked at some dried Indian corn to see the different colors and how the corn is in a row down the cob.  Then the kiddos got to glue some "corn"...

Dream Catcher Part 2 - Today we got to weave our dream catchers and put on beads and feathers.  The kiddos did a great job at lacing the beads and at weaving.  They remembered from one of our spider web activities.  Cool!

Pinch Pot - We talked about how the Native Americans made their own dishes, then we made a small pot.

Fall Votive -  We painted some jars with modge podge and then stuck tissue paper all over.

And here are our votives all lit up...

Place Mat Weaving - We tried our hand at weaving today.  The kiddos handled it well...

 I neglected to have the kiddos alternate the strips of paper.  Drat.  But the mats still turned out cute.

Harvest Bean Bin - I dumped the fall "table scatter" we used for sorting last week, into our bean bin.  It looks rather festive now.

 We have a crocodile that lives in our bean bin.  The kiddos like to feed him beans.  ha!  One of the kiddos was carefully scooping all the "scatter" out of the bean bin.

 

A week on Native Americans

Happy Veteran's Day to all the fabulous Vets out there who have served or who are serving our country.  Thanks!  My Dad, sister and brother are all vets. 

This week we are starting our preparation for Thanksgiving, so we are learning about our Native Americans.  In circle time we talked briefly about how the Native Americans were many different tribes of people who lived in America (and beyond) before any European settlers arrived, and that they helped many of those first groups of settlers survive in the new land.

Tortilla Tipis - I was so excited when I found this idea.  So dang cute.  We talked about what tipis are made from (buffalo skins) and why the Native Americans would make houses like these (travel - following the buffalo herds) and how they would decorate their tipis.  We drew on our tortillas with markers (a bit tricky) and then I hot glued them around two popsicle sticks I had previously glued.

 

Tp Totem Poles - Throughout the day I've been showing the kiddos pictures of the Native American things we talked about.  So when I started describing a totem pole, they were excited to get a look.  We talked about how these poles told stories about their tribe.  We looked at the different faces on several different poles and then we made our own.

 

Dream Catchers - Our next bit of Native American culture was to make a dream catcher.  We talked about how these catchers were made and hung above their beds to catch bad dream and to let the good dreams through.  Today we painted our catchers and slathered them with glue and glitter.

Headbands - For our learning station today, the kiddos trimmed pre-cut feathers to get them ready to make headbands.  They were so excited about the feathers that they couldn't wait, so we made the headbands next!  Great cutting practice, snipping the feathers.