American History
I became interested in forts while I was following the Oregon Trail on my computer. In this game you join people in their covered wagons and actually take the trip with them. You have to make good decisions about crossing streams and rivers and choose the best way to cross. You pick which food and supplies to take along, and before you reach Oregon, you need to stop at forts along the way to buy more food and supplies, or you won’t survive.
Making this fort helped me see what one might actually look like. It was fun putting it together, making the flag pole, and setting up the soldiers to protect the fort and people who come needing supplies.
I wish I could ride in a real covered wagon to see what it’s like! Both in The Little House on the Prairie books and on the Oregon Trail, people traveled in covered wagons. Even the wheels were made from wood. They did not have good roads or bridges, so the ride was bumpy and wheels sometimes broke off. This covered wagon was not too hard to put together. All I needed was glue, tiny nails, and a hammer.
Project completed by a third grade student. This project has given him many hours of learning about the history of our country as well as many hours of creative play, using his imagination to make up stories.
My American Journal
The link below will open a 33 page booklet that the White House has put together for students ages 6-11. This is a wonderful way to incorporate many topics that will give your child a long term project which you can print and put in a binder. There are sections on the students school, state, sports, favorite books, family, community service ideas and citizenship.
TimeLine
Time-lines are a great visual project that will help to anchor your students historical knowledge. Many types of time-lines are commercially available however, the most meaningful is to have your child make their own. Because this is a long-term project, it will promote lifelong learning and pictures, dates and other information can be added each year. For example, if you read about the Pilgrims and Squanto at Thanksgiving, this would be a good time to have your child depict this in a drawing on the time-line. If you happen to have a discussion about Egypt, then again, have your child draw a something about Egypt in the proper place on the time-line. Your timeline project does not need to be limited by the grade level curriculum, but by the topics that are of interest to you and your family.
The information entered can also include various famous people from science and math fields, as well as musicians, artists and sports figures. Family members dates of birth can be included as well as the child’s own birth-date and picture. This really gives the student a perspective of time when they can see their own family on this time-line in relation to other historical events. As your child adds people and events that are of interest to him/her, this timeline becomes very personal, and most will keep these timelines to use and enjoy throughout their school years.
To make this time-line begin by determining how many feet you can accommodate in your home. This is something that will need to be rolled out frequently in order to add items and to see the big picture. When not in use, it can be rolled up and put in the closet, or if you have an area where you display work and do schoolwork, you might have room there to hang this project. I will give directions here for 20, 30, 50 and 100 ft time-lines. The rolls are available at parent teacher stores and generally come in 100 ft rolls. They can be 12-18 inches in height. The directions assume you will begin at 3000 BC and continue to 2100 AD. This would be 60 centuries and each century would have the same amount of space allocated.
100 ft would allow 20 inches per century
50 ft would allow 10 inches per century
30 ft would allow 6 inches per century
20 ft would allow 4 inches per century
Please comment on how you use your timelines in your family.
Make Your Own Atlas
Try this map project with your students. Using a 3 ring binder and 7 dividers, have each divider represents a continent. The student will label each divider to represent a continent. The student will locate the continents on the globe to insure he/she has the full concept of the location of the continents. As you work on maps of your current area of study, when the map is complete, place it in the proper category in the binder. This will be a permanent record of map study and this binder will follow your child throughout their school years . Each time you add a new map to the Atlas, your child will see the maps already there. This puts to work the principle of review. It is hard to forget where Brazil ( or other countries you studied) is if each time he/she opens the binder, the map he/she made is there. You can customize this project to suit your style. You may want to use another criteria for each catagory. Feel free to make the changes to make this work for you and your child. Please post comments to this post as to how you make and utilize your Atlas.
Election Map Fun
Every 4 years the primaries and elections offer a perfect opportunity for parents to introduce children to the process of electing the president of the US. Many lessons can be taught about issues and the how the candidates present themselves, what is important to look for in a candidate and what the issues are. One fun project is to use a map of the US, and as each state holds a primary, that state can be colored and the statistics from that primary entered on the map. The home states of each candidate can be identified as well. Maps of the US measuring 24 by 36 inches can be found at the Parent Library. Ask for Karen.
WW II Project
What a great place to share ideas! Social Studies is definitely my love and I really enjoyed doing creative things with my children when I homeschooled.
Perhaps the most fun we had is when we created a giant map of WWII countries on our extended oak table. We took all our army men, risk pieces and moved them throughout Europe indicating where everyone (Germans, Russians, Brits and American etc)
was fighting.
We read a book that was a small synopsis on the war and readable to middle school students YET my youngest, a kindergartener at the time was riveted and she still remembers that time. Perhaps we had greatest culminating activity because we went to Europe in the Spring and saw several WWII sites…like Normandy and Dachou. Nevertheless, having a huge visual aid made history come alive for my kids!
What creative activities have you all tried with your children?
Karin Knutson
Jan 5, 6:58 PM —
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