Catching up with lessons, excursions & other minutia

After we learned about the Ojibwe and their homes and land it was time for day of the dead. We did the typical day of the dead activities. We made pan de meurto. I liked the recipe we used this year better than any I had ever tried. It was easier than the others, and when you added the glaze it smelled & tasted like fresh doughnuts. I think I will make it again soon, but call it something else. We decorated with simple fold & cut papel picado. I still have not taken them down. I think I will make some red & green ones for Christmas. I thought it would be a good time to start learning spanish. We already knew some basic phrases, colors, numbers, and things like that, we need to learn more so that we can speak it conversationally. We are learning it through songs & movement. We take the words & phrases from the songs & make large cards with the words on them and hang them up. We try to use the new words in everyday life.   I decided since it was day of the dead that we would learn about the mud houses of the Aztecs. Day of the dead has it’s roots in Aztec culture. The Aztec commoners lived in simple one room homes make of pole frames covered in mud or mud bricks. They usually had a thatched roof.   The Aztecs used cocoa beans as money we discussed this very briefly, as we will be going back to it deeper when we do a measurement block on money. Th Mexicolore  website has a really wonderful page about cocoa as money. 3 cocoa beans would have been worth one avocado. I told my daughter the story of how the little blue frog brought cocoa to the people. We made a hot chocolate whisk called a “molinillo” from a piece of dowel & copper wire. All you do to make one is coil about 4 feet of wire around a dowel that is smaller than the one you are using for the handle. This will make your wire look like a spring. You need at least 3 of them. Then you just wrap the coils around the dowel/handle and wire on tightly. 

To make hot chocolate in the traditional way you rotate the molinillo between your two hands placed palm-sides together.  The twisting motion frothes the chocolate. We made hot chocolate in this way while singing a  traditional chant..

Spanish	English
Bate, bate, chocolate,	Stir, stir, chocolate,
Tu nariz de cacahuate	Your nose is a peanut.
Uno, dos, tres, CHO!	One, two, three, CHO!
Uno, dos, tres, CO!	One, two, three, CO!
Uno, dos, tres, LA!	One, two, three, LA!
Uno, dos, tres, TE!	One, two, three, TE!
Chocolate, chocolate!	Chocolate, chocolate!
Bate, bate, chocolate!	Stir, stir, the chocolate!
Bate, bate, bate, bate,	Stir, stir, stir, stir,
Bate, bate, CHOCOLATE!	Stir, stir, CHOCOLATE!

You can hear this chant & others for free at the Texas State Library Archives website.

“Chocolate”  is about 1/3 down the page. This is a great resource for anyone wanting to add spanish to your curriculum or circle time.

We made some easy ojo de dios, or God’s eyes. The Caron website has a nice tutorial if you would like to see how to make them.

My daughter kept asking me “where” these different people we are learning about live. This continued to be an issue. She could not reconcile what their  natural environment & climate was with where they were located. To me this was a huge issue that needed to be addressed.  I decided we needed a map. I printed out a map of North America, or “Turtle Island”  as many indigenous people called it. It was a completely blank map that we could color & fill in as we like. When we study a group of people and their homes we draw their house on the map where they live/d. You can print out a map in just about any size up to 7ft (I think). The one here is 3ft x 4ft. It prints out on regular printer paper & you just tape or glue it together.

The next people we studied were the Cherokee. We did not do any traditional school work with this group. Instead we went to where they lived (and still live & thrive). We went to the north Georgia Mountains. I love it there. We went to many little areas and saw the amazing sites. We went to Tallulah Gorge. This gorge is HUGE. I think they said 950ft. We were lucky enough to be there when they let the water loose. There was some really nice white water, and the kayakers were taking full advantage of it.  They have a small, but very nice museum, and info center. They had a great deal of information on the Cherokee inside, as well as some myths & legends you could read next to pictures & displays.  Outside they had a wonderful blacksmith by the name of David Little doing demonstrations for visitors.  David is a man of many talents. He does black smith demos, makes unbelievable lighting fixtures, rehabilitates birds of prey and works at the Hike Inn at Amicalola Falls, an Inn you have to hike 5 miles on foot to get to. While driving around we discovered a beautiful old water powered mill right outside of Helen, Ga on the Chattahoochee River call the Nora Mill Garnary Grist Mill. It has been there since 1876. They grind all kinds of grain with very old french burr stones that are powered by the river you see in the pic below. This was a perfect thing for a 3rd grader to see as it ties into so many of our lessons.

 While we were up there we went to a great little music festival called Hemlockfest. It is a 3 day camp out festival  put on every year to raise money to help save the hemlock trees which are being utterly devastated by a beetle. The proceeds go to university labs trying to save the Hemlocks. It was a great little festival. This was the view as we walked down the drive toward the festival.

Once we were in the festival it was alive with music & good cheer. The weather could not have been better. This festival is wonderful. They even had canoes you could take out onto the lake for free.  They had a tepee set up at the far end of the lake that you could go inside of.  That’s my husband playing violin on a rock by the lake.The sign read “western plains tepee lodge..come in, sit down, tell stories.” 

They let you bring your dog.  I have been to many music festivals, and this is the only one that is dog friendly. We heard Col. Bruce Hampton, and the Quark Alliance play on Saturday night, and all I can say is wow!! Great show…..I really loved this little festival. I will definitely be back next year.

Shortly after we came home we went on a field trip to Cypress Gardens in Moncks Corner, SC. This was a nice field trip. We all went out into the black water swamp on boats. They have a buttefly pavillion, and aquarium too. I managed to capture this wierd little butterfly with my camera.

Here’s another of the same species in larva form….

That is what we have been up to the past few weeks. We are still working on our shelters block. Right now we are learning about tepees of the plains.

This weeks lessons: the Ojibwe

This weeks lessons focused on the Ojibwe people of the great lakes region. I could have easily taken a month or two on them. I began with the story of Turtle Island, modern day north america. I told this story http://www.gct3.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/creation_story.pdf . It was a wonderful transition story to use to create a bridge from old testament legends  into our native american block. The Ojibwe creation story of Turtle Island is similar to the Noah story in that the earth is flooded by the creator because people had become wicked. Instead of a chalkboard illustration I decided to do a watercolor. I wish I could have taken more time on it, but it served it’s purpose. My DD put the story in  her new native stories main lesson  book.

We learned about how the pre-contact Ojibwe lived. We learned about birch trees that grow where they live/d, and how the bark is removed in sheets and used to create shelters called wigwams, canoes to travel through the lakes on, and buckets for harvesting things. My DD put a paragraph about wigwams, and an illustration in her shelters main lesson book. I put an Ojibwe prayer on the board, and we recited it throughout the week.

We talked very briefly about wild rice, a staple of the Ojibwe. We will return to it when we do our small block on the grains.

We had a great time making a dome shaped hut from newspapers. This was the part of our lessons that was enjoyed the most. It reminded me of the dome shape of a wigwam. It was pretty simple to make, not to mention the bonus of it being absolutely free! You can find a great tutorial at pepper paints blog . Throw a lightweight sheet on, and you have a cosy little hide away ready for hours of play.

We worked on the number 8, and it’s times table through rhymes & tossing a beanbag.  Since it’s halloween we made a spider mobile, and put the 8 times table numbers of the spiders bodies.

We also learned the story of the dream catcher, and Ojibwe legend. We made a dream catcher from things we had around the house. We went outside, and cut some vines that were growing around a tree to make the hoop, and used hemp string for the web. I used a combination of this story & this story to make one smooth Dream Catcher story. 

I also checked out a few picture books about Ojibwe legends from the library.

Windigo’s Return- Great story about a monster from Ojibwe legend who eats people. It’s kind of scary, but has a humorous ending.

The Legend of The Lady Slipper-Beautiful tale about a brave girl who ventures into the night to save her people from a sickness that has stricken her entire village. Were were going to make mocassins in conjunction to this story, but ran out of time.

Ladder To The Sky- Another Ojibwe story with similarities to an Old testament legend. In this story the people lived in peace without sickness, or death, until someone disobeys the creator, and consequence ensues.

On friday we went to Brookgreen Gardens, about 30 minutes from our house. The most amazing trees east of the Redwood Forests are here at Brookgreen. If I were to move from here it would be the trees my heart would ache for.

The trees in the pics are magnificent by any standards, but are not the most amazing in the gardens. These were all in the native species zoo. My camera battery went dead before we got into the gardens, which are just completely enchanted. If you are ever near the mid-South Carolina coast, Brookgreen is a must see.

 

Picking apples, and Mini German Caramel Apple Pancakes

We went on a field trip  a few hours north to a u-pick apple grove to see how apples were grown and pick a bushel for preserving. The whole picking process was fast. I wish it had been a longer experience, but at least my daughter did get the experience of pulling the apples from the tree with her own hands, apples she will process this week into dried apples, apple sauce, and fruit leather during next week’s lessons. At the orchard a mother pig had just had 5 babies a few days before. Baby pigs are pretty close to the cutest things on earth. You really have to see them in action. CUTE OVERLOAD!!! 

This morning I made everyone mini german apple pancakes from a few of the apples we picked. The recipe is below.

 

 

 

 

Fish & Birds on the 5th day

We finished up our week with the 5th day of creation. We heard the story, had a discussion about fish and how they use their swim bladder to go up & down, and then did 2 paintings. One was of the sea, and the other the sky. I made a little poem to go with the 5th day. I think I will have my daughter help make other rhymes for the other days, and we will put them in our book when we finish.

In the watery depths of the deep blue sea

a  shimmering rainbow of fish came to be

from the soft, green earth to the pale blue sky

creatures of wings, and feathers did fly

from great flightless birds to tiny crustaceans

all came to be on the 5th day of creation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  After our lesson was over we headed out for a field trip to our local aquarium to look at the creatures from the sea. These fish are from the Indo-Pacific region, and are mostly venomous, using razor-like barbs on their dorsal fins & tails to sting when they are threatened.

On the wall at the entrance, a quote by Goethe was displayed.

I managed to catch a spectacular shot of my favorite fish, the 9 year old Azure fish. This fish is somewhat elusive, and sassy, but  full of fun.

Jelly fish always look neat. They have no brains. They just go with the flow. The movements they make are caused by electrical pulses. They have  a very primitive nervous sytem.

I don’t know what these guys are called, but they like to travel in a school.

 

Besides the aquarium we did celebrate Rosh Hashana by making circular challah, and eating honeyed apples.

This morning we took some left over bread from last night’s dinner, and cast bits of it into the river. This casting away is called Tashlikh, and is meant  to symbolize the washing away of any misdeeds, mistakes, or unkind words from the old year.  I thought we should focus more on the future year rather than the past, and cast away any negative things, but also wish for things we would like to improve  apon this year. I focused on patience. I need more of it.

I will be back with a post on the book we create from the paintings of our  lessons on the Hebrew 7 days of creation.

This week in lessons

We officially started our 3rd grade lessons on September 1st. We started with a math review. We did math stories, and movement in order to help solidify our knowledge of the multiplication tables.  My daughter began a multiplication main lesson book. This week we began our first complete week with farming. I introduced the lesson with a story I made up about a family who live on and operate an organic farm. I used Mellissa Neilsens idea of using a container story for your lessons. The family is of mixed heritage with the father being Jewish, and the mother Cherokee. The lessons we do on farming will be about the family and the work they do on their farm throughout the year. The old testament stories will be told by the jewish grandma when she visits, and the native american stories which we will use for weaving, pottery & houses, will come from the mother. Here is the blackboard drawing I did of the family farmhouse for the first lesson.

The next part of their story was about the work they had to do in the late summer/early fall. They have to cut & bring in the hay & straw to feed the animals in winter. The wheat should be nearly ready. They have to plant some root crops & winter greens for their market garden. We also talked about chickens & my daughter sculpted some from beeswax. I added the father & the oldest son loading hay into the cart to the blackboard drawing, and she put these lessons into her farming main lesson book.

 Each moring we started our day with circle time. An opening verse, and some singing & movement. We worked on one multiplication table each day through hand clapping, stepping, jumping, and rhymes. My daughter then worked out the table on her multiplication board, and then put the tables shape into the book along with the actual table & an illustration that represents the number.

 This week we included several of the activities of farming family did into our own life. We prepared a raised bed for planting turnips for our fall turnip lanterns. Turnips are fast growers, only taking 50 days. Hopefully ours will be ready in time. If not we will buy some locally, and eat ours.  We harvested a bushel of  field peas, and dug up peanuts at my Dad’s house.  The field peas were much harder to shell than they were to pick, but they are beautiful, nutritious, and easy to dry & store to use in winter.

 

 

 On Friday our farm family prepared for their jewish grandmother’s visit. When their grandmas arrived they baked challah for Friday’s Shabbat dinner. She told the children a story from her sacred book. This was the opener to the old testament stories. I told my daughter the story of how lucifer and his angels were cast out of heaven in preparation for starting the story of the days of creation next week. I used the version in Jakob Streit’s book “And There Was Light”.  This story came exactly when it was needed. Last week my daughter started being sarcastic, and back talking us. It seemed as though she thought she was our equal. In the story, Lucifer thought his garment was a bright as God Father’s, and that he could be a god too, just like God Father. He got together a band of lesser angels who forged him a throne, and he became their little god. God Father offered him a chance to see the error of his ways, but he did not want to change, and was cast out of the heavens by Michael into the cold depths below. When I told her this story, I could see on her face that she “got it”.  I haven’t had any back talk today. We will see if it sticks. We also made some challah for what was our very first Shabbat we will celebrate in 3rd grade. I used this recipe. I did add an extra egg, and another 1/2 cup sugar, but it was still not very sweet. It was excellent, probably the best bread I had ever made, and my daughter loved rolling out the dough snakes, and braiding them into the loaf. We made 2 loaves. I will use the leftovers to make a bread pudding.  

This morning we went to our little local farmers market in downtown Conway. We were able to pick up some wonderful locally grown produce. My daughter was attracted to a table that has baskets of huge, red, shiny apples. Next to them was a nice lady who had some equally large, but kind of ugly apples. I took my daughter over to talk to her. Her apples were organic, and grown only a few miles form our house. They did not have the pesticides, and fungicides that the beautiful apples grown who knows where) did. We bought the ugly apples. They were unbelievably good. This lead to a discussion of what sustainability means. It was also a good lesson in that not every thing is what it seems on the outside. We also were able to buy some locally grown, and processed peanut butter, locally grown & milled corn meal, and some aromatic rice that was grown only 60 miles away. South Carolina is one of the few places in North America where rice can be grown successfully. Rice plantations are enjoying a huge resurgence here. I couldn’t ne happier about that. A rice field is a thing of beauty.

We went home and had some left over challah with our local peanut butter. It was heaven.

We had a very fruitful week in lessons. I will be back soon with pictures of main lesson books.

Day of the Dead celebration at the museum

We went to the annual dia de los muertos celebration at our local art museum. The museum hosts several cultural festivals through out the year.

They had several crafts for kids like calavera masks, papel picado cutting, and pre-molded sugar skulls for the kids to decorate. There was a mariachi band roaming around, and we had the pleasure of listening to them while my daughter decorated her sugar skull in the art studio. There was a traditional dance troupe called Ballet folklorico, and an Aztec man who told a story & did  a traditional dance while several children played all of his rhythm instruments. There were 2 offrendas set up. One honored Frida Kahlo, and the other was a more traditional one from the Aztec culture of Mexico. It was a great day. I am very thankful to museum for providing a great celebration to participate in each year.

A favorite book, and a nature walk

One of our favorite books for fall is “Woody, Hazel, and Little Pip” by Elsa Beskow. It’s about 3 mischievous forest children & their day of adventure.

 

It’s all going to the birds!

                                                            

Today we went to the beach to play and observe animals. We are working on a science unit that includes animals & their structures.  We mostly saw birds. Just the usual suspects, gulls, crows, and pigeons. We discussed how they are unique & why they adapted to become what they are. Tomorrow we will have a story about birds & a craft to tie it all together. I will post the story & craft also. It was a beautiful 90 degree day. We also collected sand to make homemade sandpaper with. I will do a how to post about making sandpaper next week when we do a week of Michaelmas activities.                                                               

 After the beach we went for a nature walk by the marsh where we met this perfectly adapted fellow in the picture below.

We looked a tiny hermit crabs & oysters, and talked about how their shells provide shelter & protection from creatures like this egret who would love to gobble them up.