Friday, July 8, 2011

Native American Culture Activities for Kids


Any time I can include food in teaching I try to do it--so here's my attempt.  This is so wonderful to eat. When I lived out west (Colorado and Utah) they served something similar to this (a yeast bread) and called it scones.  It was served with honey butter.

Fry Bread
Vegetable oil for frying
1 c. self-rising flour
1/2 c. hot water
In a heavy skillet, heat about 1/2-inch vegetable oil over medium-high heat.  In a medium bowl, combine flour and hot water.  Blend well.  (Mixture will be sticky.)  Turn out on a lightly floured surface.  Turn once to coat with flour.  Knead dough until smooth, about 10 turns.  Roll out to about 1/8- to 1/4-inch thickness.  Cut into squares.  Stretch each square slightly.  Fry to light golden brown on one side.  Turn and brown on other side. Makes 6 to 8 fry breads.

Two Favorites from My Library:
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush (0590447068), retold and illustrated by Tomie dePaola
Indian Legends Unit
Legend of the Indian Paintbrush Lesson
About the Book


The First Dog (0590994433), written and illustrated by Jan Brett
Book-Related Activities
Teaching with Jan Brett Books

The shown badge (top) was left over from a Girl Scout Activity Day long-since over when I became the troop leader.  I decided to do a Native American homeschool unit with my three children to use up the leftover badges.  We often went to the Kolomoki Mounds State Park in nearby Blakely, Georgia so our interest in Native American history was already peaked.
They have camping facilities, but we mostly liked to go to their museum which featured an open mound.  My kids liked it so much they made their own replica of the inside of an Native American mound.
One of the activities for our badge was to make a Native American musical instrument.  So we made drums and drew "Indian-like" drawings on them.
The kids enjoyed making tepees--instructions are included in the unit below.




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