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.

Watercolor paper lantern tutorial

This is an easy tutorial for paper lanterns from a watercolor painting. You can of course make a painting just for a lantern, or use any other kind of paper.

 

gather materials: Watercolor painting, scrap cardboard such as from a cereal box, scissors, glue stick, tape, x-acto knife, tissue paper, clothespin, wire for handle

make a line 1 1/2 inches up from bottom, cut paper below line as shown

cut shapes from paper with x-acto knife

 

coat back with glue

 

lay tissue on the back

it will look like this

 

 

fold up tabs toward back

 

apply glue to the edge of one side

 

clip one end, this will help in holding it in place, tape seam shut

 

trace around cylinder

  

 

 

 

draw a circle just slightly smaller than the one you traced, cut out smaller circle. Trace the one you cut out so that you have 2 cardboard circles

 

coat one side of each cardboard circle with glue. One goes on the inside, the other glue to the bottom

 

Put something heavy (like a jar or can) inside to weight it down until glue on cardboard circles dry

 

Now you can add a wire handle. If you are going to carry it on a stick or dowel, make a notch in you stick abput 1/2 an inch from the end. This will make a place for the handle to rest on the stick without slipping.

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.

 

easy paper folded doves, for Noah story or not

You need a square of paper. Any size or kind will do. You may not want to get above 9 or 10 inches as it would start to get too floppy.

Day of the Dead necklace tutorial

Super cute day of the dead necklace tutorial. The skulls are from salt dough, and the flowers are tissue paper. Most of us have all the stuff already on hand. What a sweet job Alpha Mom. This would make an awsome garland as well.

This years goldenrod dye pot

We have been dying things with goldenrod for a few years. Every year around Michaelmas every field, roadside, and neglected patch of land bursts with brilliant yellow as the goldenrod blooms. Goldenrod is a superb dye stuff. It can give shades of lemon yellow to deep gold, and even olive green with the addition of iron. Last year we dyed golden silk capes.  They have been washed numerous times and are still a brilliant yellow, so it is a very colorfast dye. This year we dyed about 15 yards of cotton muslin, some felted shooting star balls, a white dress that had been lightly stained,  a cotton velour hoodie, and some leggings. Everything turned out beautifully. 

I had 2 pots, one with goldenrod & alum, the other goldenrod, alum, and rusty nails. The nails put iron into the mix, and changed the PH to get the lovely olive green shade. I did a post about how to dye with goldenrod last year.     What I did to get the green is a bit different from what I posted last year. This year I had 2 pots of steeped goldenrod. One pot I put the rusty nails in, the other I left with just goldenrod & water.  I dyed all of my yellow stuff after I added the alum to one pot, and then mixed in the  alum/goldenrod water into the goldenrod/nails water. That is what gave the nice olive green. This will save you alum, which is not really expensive, but it will save you a couple of bucks. Goldenrod can also be dried for later use.

 

 

Simple flower silhouettes

Creative Jewish Mom did a nice tutorial on  flower silhouettes. I love these.  They are simple, inexpensive, and beautiful.

Homemade moonsand recipe

Skip to My Lou (one of my faves) has posted how to make homemade moonsand. You may have seen it before. It is a sculptable sand that comes in different colors. My daughter has asked for it before, but I am always sceptical of anything made with colors & chemicals in a foreign country with little oversight or concern as to what goes into a product. I like the idea of the sand remaining it’s natural color, but you can buy premade colored sand as she did, or you can get a huge bag of playsand at a home & garden store like Home Depot, and color it yourself. Last fall we did a tutorial on how to color your own sand for crafts.  You would simply color your sand, and skip the drying phase since it is used wet anyway. Her ratio of cornstarch to moonsand is 1:3.

Tutorial: easy pies for the doll house dollies

I found this tutorial for tiny pies at the Whimsy Love blog. So easy & so cute!

Great tutorial: how to make window stars

http://www.duofiberworks.com/journal/2009/1/5/window-star-tutorial.html