Mini Theme Week: Native Americans

With a four day weekend on my hands I felt like it was the perfect time for a mini-theme week!  Since we just moved to Maryland and as November is Native American Heritage Month, I decided we should study the different Native American tribes that originally lived in this area.  We read some amazing Native American folktales, did some Native American crafts and visited the fabulous Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

There are many wonderful retellings of Native American folktales. Here are few of the books that we read.

The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: The Iroquois Story of Creation, Retold by John Bierhorst, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker. Author and illustrator Paul Goble has written numerous stories about the Plains Indians including: The Return of the Buffaloes, Crow Chief, The Gift of the Sacred Dog and The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses.
One of my favorite Cinderella tales is taken from Algonquin folklore: "The Rough-Face Girl" by Rafe Martin, illustrated by David Shannon.

Tomie DePaula is well-known for his retelling of folktales, two of my favorites that focus on Native American stories are "The Legend of the Bluebonnet" and "The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush."

We also used many non-fiction books covering the life of the Native Americans in the Maryland area, specifically the Powhatan, as well as books on Native American crafts.

The woodland Native Americans lived in longhouses, so that was our first project. There are many wonderful examples of longhouse projects online. We went with a very simple idea of using a shoebox and ripped paper. The kids had a great time completing the project and it was not too overwhelming.


The Bullroarer was my favorite project.  The Bullroarer was used in Native American celebrations as a type of musical instrument.  The wood used for the instrument was usually taken from a tree that had been struck by lightning.  We used paint stirrers, which we painted brown and then decorated with animals and designs.  The best part of this project was the surprising low, loud moaning sound the Bullroarer makes when swung around!  My son said he could just picture twenty Native Americans spinning them all at the exact same time during a festival.

Our sunset paintings were inspired by the book "The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush" about a young boy who is trying to find all the colors in the sunset to make the perfect painting.  When he finds all the colors he completes his painting and the paintbrushes he leaves behind become beautiful flowers.









On the last day of our four day weekend we visited the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The kids loved the children's area which was very hands on and interactive. The kids got a passport which they stamped after completing an activity or exploring an aspect of Native American culture.  We also saw an exhibit on the importance of the horse in Native American culture and learned about how Native Americans continue to celebrate their culture today.

Completing a magnetic puzzle

Weaving a basket

Theme Week - Ocean Week

This was one of those weeks that I had a lot planned and we just didn't get to it all. The kids each picked an animal to focus on, but honestly we were not able to do as much with this as I had planned.  S picked the whale, C the hammerhead shark and J the penguin. We had a lot of fun reading ocean books, watching ocean movies, doing some ocean crafts and finishing up with a visit to the Dallas World Aquarium.

Some of the picture books we read:
Into the A, B Sea by Deborah Lee Rose, pictures by Steve Jenkins
The Deep Blue Sea: A Book of Colors: story by Audrey Wood, pictures by Bruce Wood

Dory Story by Jerry Pallotta, pictures by David Biedrzycki
Fidgety Fish and Friends by Paul Bright, pictures by Ruth Galloway

Some fun non-fiction books:
Wish for A Fish: All About Sea Creatures by Bonnie Worth, illustrated by Aristides Ruiz
A Whale of a Tale: All About Porpoises, Dolphins, and Whales by Bonnie Worth, illustrated by Aristides Ruiz and Joe Mathieu

Movies we watched:
Disney's Oceans, Bill Nye the Science Guy: Oceanography (My kids love this series. It is sometimes hard to find, but our library has a great collection of educational movies), The Magic School Bus Catches a Wave: Wet All Over (My kids also love anything Magic School Bus) and IMAX: Dolphins.

I loved the art project we did for this week.  I found a great book called Hand-Print Animal Art by Carolyn Carreiro.  We first painted our backgrounds and the next day added our animals.  I thought they turned out really neat--a bit of impressionistic color blending in the background.

Theme Weeks - Art Week

This is the first summer I have done a week dedicated only to Art, usually I incorporate art into whatever theme we are studying that week. I was inspired by two things:  my friend Holly's art blog hollysartcorner.blogspot.com and the fact there is a Picasso exhibit at the Kimball Art Museum near our home. I had a lot of fun with this week. It was not as organized as I like to be, but I found some wonderful art books and got a lot of ideas that I plan to work on for next year.

It was interesting to see what my kids came up with during their projects.  My oldest, a rule follower and not a great lover of art projects, gamely attempted everything I came up with, but was upset when some of his projects did not turn out exactly the way he hoped.  My daughter, who loves art and could do art projects all day long, had a great time the whole week.  My youngest, is a free spirit who doesn't like to spend too much time on any kind of project--which is reflected in his art works for the week.

Here are some of the art books we used:

Dickins, Rosie and Mari Griffith. The Usborne Introduction to Art. New York: Scholastic, 2003. -- A good very broad overview of art with internet links included

J's Japanese bridge

Venezia, Mike. The Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artist Series. Chicago: Children's Press, 1988. -- A series written in easy reader format with cartoon drawings interspersed with the text and photos of the original artworks.

S's circle study

Laurence Anholt. A series featuring various artists: Leonardo and the Flying Boy, Picasso and the Girl with the Ponytale, Degas and the Little Dancer, and Camille and the Sunflowers. -- A great series told in a picture book format using many of the artists original works. Each story uses an actual event in the artist life and brings it to life in an enganging way kids will enjoy.

Littlesugar, Amy. Marie in Fourth Position: The Story of Degas' "The Little Dancer." New York: Philomel Books, 1996.

Mayhew, James. Katie's Picture Show, Katie and the British Artists, Katie and the Spanish Princess, Katie Meets the Impressionists, New York: Scholastic.  --A picture book series featuring a young girl who visits various art museums.  In each book she jumps into different works of art and meets the people in them.  A bit contrived, but an easy fun way to intoduce kids to great works of art, artistic periods and artists.

Our still life pictures.

The Dot and Ish  by Peter Reynolds. --Two fun picture books showing how easy it is to produce art.  Wonderful wimsical illustrations and a great message for kids, especially those who think nothing they make is good enough.










Other Activities:

I especially loved J's still life showing
off his free spirit!

• learning about different artists 
• learning about different styles of art
• completing art projects (button mosaics, self-portraits, a still life, impressionist works, Van Gogh's Starry Night, a circle study. See hollyscartcorner.blogspot.com for more great ideas.)
• watching movies about different artists (This is a great series, but some of the concepts were a bit advanced for my kids so be sure to pick your movie carefully.  Got these a our local library: http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Cassatt-Impressionist-Amy-Brenneman/dp/B000F9UEFM/ref=pd_sim_v_2. Also this one about a young girl in Monet's Garden: http://www.amazon.com/Linnea-Monets-Garden-Heinz-Schachtner/dp/B00000IZ83/ref=pd_sim_d_9.)

• going to the art museum (Audio tours are the greatest things ever!  They make art museums fun and accessible for kids.)

My kids loved art week so much we are planning another Art Week later this summer to spend more time on modern art.

Theme Weeks: Space I --the Planets

J's solar system painting.

Each week of the summer I plan a weekly theme with books, crafts, cooking, and field trips.  The first week of this summer we are focusing on Space -- The Planets.  We decided there was so much to investigate in space we are spreading it over two weeks.  I love how excited my kids get about doing theme weeks, it allows me to slip in learning over the summer and they don't even mind!

C and S working on their solar system drawing.

For Planet Week each of my kids picked a planet to study.  S picked Neptune, C picked Mars and J picked Pluto, the dwarf planet.  The first thing we do at the beginning of a new theme week is head to the library and check out everything imaginable on our topic. Here are some of the things we picked up:

Solar System Books:
Kudlinski, Kathleen V. Boy, Were We Wrong about the Solar System! NY, NY: Dutton Children's Books, 2008.
Mattern, Joanne. The Pebble First Guide to the Solar System. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, 2010.
Sexton, Colleen. The Solar System. Minneapolis, MN: Bellwether Media, 2010.

Trammel, Howard K. The Solar System: A True Book. New York: Children's Press, 2010.

Neptune:

S with paper mache Neptune.

Brimmer, Larry Dane. Neptune: A True Book. New York: Children's Press, 1999.
Landau, Elaine. Neptune: A True Book. New York: Children's Press, 2008.
Rau, Dana Meachen. Neptune: Our Solar System. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point Books, 2003.
Simon, Seymour. Neptune. New York: Morrow Junior Books, 1991.






Mars:

C working on Mars.

Brimmer, Larry Dane. Mars A True Book. New York: Children's Press, 1998.
Feinstein, Stephen. The Solar System: Mars. Berkeley Heights, NJ: MyReportLink.com Books, 2005.
Leedy, Loreen and Andrew Schuerger. Message From Mars. New York: Holiday House, 2006.
Rau, Dana Meachen. Mars: Our Solar System. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point Books, 2002.

Pluto:
Rau, Dana Meachen. Pluto: Our Solar System. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point Books, 2003.
Landau, Elaine. Pluto From Planet to Dwarf: A True Book. New York: Children's Press, 2008.
Scott, Elaine. When is a Planet Not a Planet? The Story of Pluto. New York: Clarion Books, 2007.

J working on Pluto.

Kortenkamp, Steve. Why Isn't Pluto a Planet? A Book About Planets.  Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, 2007.

DVDs:
Bill Nye the Science Guy: Outer Space
The Magic School Bus Blasts Off

Websites:

World Book -- accessed through our local libraries webpage

National Geographic for Kids http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/

Here are some of the activities we did:

• Create power points on each of the planets, presented at the end of the week
• Make Moon Pies (Really have nothing to do with the moon, but were super fun to make! rhttp://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Southern-Moon-Pies/Detail.aspx)
• Make Paper Mache planets
• Take a trip to the planetarium at the Museum of Science and Nature
• Learn poems and songs about the solar system to recite at the end of the week. (A website with fun songs and poems about the solar system: http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems34.html)
• Painting and drawing space pictures
• Watching space movies

Can't wait to try the Moon Pies!

S, C, and J with Pluto, Mars and Neptune,
complete with icy caps and Neptune's black storm.