American Story I: Native Americans

We are using American Story I from Winterpromise for our history this year. Pumpkin, Bear and G-man are all studying the same subject (grades K and 2) together which has been nice. Obviously we will have to adjust some of the written assignments for Pumpkin but thankfully there are many activities she can do and she enjoys joining in almost as much as I enjoy not having to teach history separately!

This was a fun unit for us that actually took us several sessions to complete because we are not following a regular schedule with our American History.  It is a very hands-on crafty unit but that is helpful because of all of the reading that is involved.  We are reading Birchbark House during the Native American portion.

As a Native American craft we attempted to make a fringed pouch and moccasins. I say attempted because even with a kit it was a lot harder than I anticipated and I had to help the kids more than I initially planned. Still, it was a great illustration of how the Native Americans had to make everything they wore.

The highlight of our study was participating in the LIVE webcast of Scholastic’s Virtual Field Trip at Plimoth Plantation (that is the correct spelling of the site) which was just in time for Thanksgiving!  During the field trip we were able to watch an interview of a Wampanoag warrior and 2 colonists.  The interview was so realistic that the children were a bit confused and I had to keep explaining that they were actors pretending to be interviewed! We also enjoyed touring the Mayflower and comparing the daily lives of the early colonists vs the Wampanoag people.