Exploring an Iroquoian Village

History is a favorite subject around our house. Part of the reason why the boys love it so much is that we keep it as hands on as possible. This year is no exception, we've been learning about Canada's Native Groups.

We had an opportunity to visit a reconstructed 15th century Iroquoian village. From 1973 to 1987, excavations uncovered 11 longhouses on the site and over 10 000 artifacts from day-to-day lives of the Iroquoian people who once lived in the village. Three of the longhouses have been reconstructed based on the archaeological findings. (source:www.conservationhalton.ca)

The boys were in awe and loved every minute of our visit. We didn't go with a group and just did the tour ourselves. It was a good way to review and make some of what they learned in the books come to life.

Inside one of the longhouses

Here, the boys are pretending to pound corn just as the Iroquois did. 

Exploring deer/moose antlers and animal hides.

We even got to look at a turtle shell. 

The boys surprisingly found the beds comfortable.

A baby carrier 

exploring all the different baskets and food they harvested and dried. 

The longhouses were massive and just impressive. 

I hope you enjoyed taking a little tour along with us. The boys want to revisit and see the one longhouse that was under construction. They got to also play a game of lacrosse which was invented by the Iroquois. I didn't get any pictures because my battery died :(. But if you live in the Toronto area this is one place you must visit.

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Weekly Wrap Up

Water Filtration Project

Hi guys! I hope you had a fabulous week. I wanted to share with you a fun water filtration project the kids and I did. This activity ties into our science and geography units. We followed the instructions in Apologia Exploring Creation with Physics and Chemistry. The boys loved ever minute of this project.

 

We started by going for a nature walk and collecting water from 

our local river. 

Here's the water we collected. 

When we got home we set up our filtration system. I won't go 

into details because it's part of the lesson in the book. 

The boys started pouring the dirty water through the filtration slowly. 

our container was really large so it's hard to see the water

but it was clean. Of course not clean enough to drink because it 

didn't go through the treatment process. 

This was an amazing lesson and the boys got to see first hand how to filter water. I hope you enjoyed seeing this project.

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Weekly Wrap Up

Apologia Chemistry and Physics

Hi guys! Today I wanted to share with you all the fun hands on activities we've done so for using Apologia's Chemistry and Physics book. We recently wrapped up the last chapter for chemistry, and we are moving on to the physics portion. In case some of you were looking into this curriculum I thought I would share just some of the activities we did. I know I like to see how other people are enjoying a curriculum before I purchase it.

1.Gas takes Up Space

 

2. Elephants Toothpaste (chemical reaction)

 

3. Atomic Model of Water

 

4. Atomic Bonding (with pipe cleaners and beads)

5. Polymer Molecules (Balloon and Bamboo Skewer)

6. Smoke Bomb

This was by far their favorite experiment. Shocker! 

7. Growing Crystals

This project took a week, but it was well worth it. The boys checked on it

daily.

These are just some of the fun activities I managed to capture. I'll share more as we work through the book.

Canada's Natives: Wampum Belts

Hi guys! We have been studying different native groups in Canada for history. We have loved learning about their history and traditions. The group we are focusing this time is the Eastern Woodland farmers. For this group the boys made a wampum belt.

What is a Wampum Belt?

Wampum beads were used to create intricate patterns on belts. These belts are used as a guide to narrate Haudenosaunee history, traditions and laws, The origins of wampum beads can be traced to Aiionwatha, commonly known as Hiawatha at the founding of the League of Five Nations.
 

The boys started off by first designing a pattern for their wampum belts. We used this printable here. 

Once they completed their designs, they strung the beads to their loom. 

Making the wampum belt took about an hour, but the boys found

it soothing. Well they made the belts we listened to our read aloud. 

Here is both boys completed belt.

To help us learn how to make this project we watched this video series. She walks you through how to set up your loom and step by step instructions on how to complete this project. It was very helpful. I hope you try out this activity!

Preschool Fall Activities

Hi guys! I can't believe it's already October. Today I wanted to share with you some of the fall themed activities my preschooler has been loving.

Literacy

Pumpkin seed letter formation. For this activity I gave him our Abeka

letter cards, a piece of orange felt (so that the seeds didn't move around) and 

some pumpkin seeds.

Beginning sound sensory bin. I filled our sensory bin with seeds, acorns,

pine cones, leaves, and apple beginning sound cards.He hunted for the picture that 

matched the sound on the apple baskets. 

This activity doesn't have a fall theme, but we worked on

rhyming words.

Letter formation with play dough and pony beads.

Math

Apple 1:1 correspondence. To add some fine motor practice I gave

him a bottle cap so that he could make round apples. 

Number bead stringing. I gave him number cards that had

pipe cleaners attached and some beads (yellow, red, and green). 

He would string the corresponding number of beads for each 

number.

Fall picture puzzle.

Fall leaf color sorting.

These were just some of the math and literacy activities I captured. I hope you guys are having a happy fall. :)

5 Hands On Name Activity Ideas

Hi guys! Today I wanted to share with you some activities that I've been doing with my preschooler to help him learn to recognize and spell his name. I've put together 5 hands on ideas that are fun and effective.

1. Name Puzzle

I am storing the name puzzle in a zip lock bag. He can pull it out

whenever he wants to work with this activity.

2. Name Lacing

This activity is both good for fine motor practice and name recognition.

3. Craft

 

Incorportae name practice into your theme. We did this fun rocket ship

name during our space theme.

4. Tracing 

You can go to this post to read more about this activity.

5. Bottle Cap/ Wooden Clips

My son really loves these two activities. I save the bottle caps 

and use them for all types of activities. 

I don't know about you guys but my son gets easily bored. With these 5 activities he has a variety of choices. I hope these activities have inspired you.