A Co-op Review (Fall 2008)

I finally sat down to chronicle Ruth's history class from the Fall 2008 co-op. We studied Native American tribes touching on 8 of the more well known ones. I used a book by Evan-Moor that utilizes hands on projects and pockets to hold the information. I thought it was kind of lame, but the kids totally got into it. So, I'm glad I stuck it out to the end.

The first pocket in Ruth's binder holds her information sheets. There is a map, where we located each tribe, the charts where we compared each tribes food, lodging and clothing and last, but not least, her vocabulary packet.

The first tribe was the Inuit. For the projects about this tribe, she had an Igluviak shaped book where she wrote her own story (story telling is a huge part of this tribe's way of life) and a fishing pole and fish, reminding her that the Inuit do quite a lot of ice fishing.

Next was the Iroquois. Here we talked about wampum and she made a Wampum Wish List, or basically had to list out things that she would use her wampum for, were she an Iroquois. We also talked about the Three Sisters (Squash, Corn and Beans). The three most important crops to the Iroquois and usually grown together.

The Tlingit, another northern tribe, had us studying Totem poles and ceremonial masks. Each animal on the totem pole represents a person in the family of the Tlingit, so Ruth had a totem pole that she had to fill out, picking a person from her family that fit each animal.

The Nez Perce were next. Here Ruth learned about Chief Joseph, as well as the Appaloosa horses that the Nez Perce were known for. The colorful project on the left is a replica of an ornament that would adorn prized Appaloosas.

And then we have the Maidu of California. The kids got a great chuckle at the woman with the basket in front of her. She is wearing no shirt and to keep it family friendly, she holds a basket and her naked child peeks out from behind her legs. But, I digress. Here we talked about seed beaters (a contraption used for....beating seeds out of bushes) and the bear.

The Sioux, the kids told me, are what Native Americans really look like. I do believe that every steriotyped Native American looks like them. Fringed buckskins, feathers in the hair...Here we talked about the buffalo and all it's many uses and how important it was to the Sioux, as well as the fact that like the Iroquois, the Sioux were actually a name for several tribes (let's see, I think they're Lakota, Nakota and Dakota?)

Last, but not least, we have the Navajo. Here the kids made a colorful "rug" and a necklace from "silver" (aka foil over a piece of cardboard and a stylis to dent it).

Oh. Except the Seminole are last. Silly me. The Seminole. I feel compelled to sing a John Anderson song everytime I think about this class. Anyway....here we talked about ceremonial headdresses as well as hominy. Unfortunately, I didn't get to bring the kids hominy like I would have liked to do.