I have a confession. I enjoy reading young adult books. Perhaps it is from teaching high school for so long and checking out the books my students were reading, or maybe now it is due to the fact that I have so little time to read for me and young adult books tend to be easy reads, but either way I tend to enjoy them. One of my friends got me hooked on the Twilight Saga and now I have the honor of sharing the first book in a series that I quite honestly say I enjoyed more than Twilight. The book is Wind Catcher by Jeff Altabef and Erynn Altabef. It is the first book in the Chosen Novel Series. The second book, Brink of Dawn, is coming out this fall, and I have to say I cannot wait to read it.
Wind Catcher -- Multicultural Young Adult Book Review
I have a confession. I enjoy reading young adult books. Perhaps it is from teaching high school for so long and checking out the books my students were reading, or maybe now it is due to the fact that I have so little time to read for me and young adult books tend to be easy reads, but either way I tend to enjoy them. One of my friends got me hooked on the Twilight Saga and now I have the honor of sharing the first book in a series that I quite honestly say I enjoyed more than Twilight. The book is Wind Catcher by Jeff Altabef and Erynn Altabef. It is the first book in the Chosen Novel Series. The second book, Brink of Dawn, is coming out this fall, and I have to say I cannot wait to read it.
Fry Bread -- Book Review & More
Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Today we are going to explore Native American fry bread and share a picture book about it. Fry bread is a bit controversial in the Native American society. Some love it and others hate it due to its history. When Native Americans were forced away from their ancestral lands, they took everything they owned and could carry and walked to new lands which were nothing like their original homelands. One such "walk" is known as the Trail of Tears. Thousands of people died on the long walk. After this displacement, some of which is still occurring, the Native people could not live the way they always had. They could not get the food they knew or even grow the food they usually grew. The United States Government subsidized some basic foods and it is said the Navajos were the first to create fry bread with flour, baking powder, salt and water.
Spirit of the Indian Warrior -- Fascinating Look at the Native American Warrior
Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Today I turn our focus back to Native American Heritage Month. I'm sharing a book that gives us a look at the true spirit of the warriors with quotes, photographs, and artwork. The book is Spirit of Indian Warrior edited by Michael Oren Fitzgerald and Joseph A. Fitzgerald.
Keepunumuk -- New Picture Book Written by Native Americans Sharing the Story of the First Thanksgiving
Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
It is hard to believe November is almost over and harder for me to believe that I have not shared any resources for Native American Heritage Month. It is one of my favorite heritage months! Although I do share various Native American books throughout the year, I almost always have something new for November! Today I get to share with you a wonderful new picture book written by Native Americans or First Peoples that share a Native American story of the first Thanksgiving based on stories from the Wampanoag. The book is Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story by Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry and Alexis Bunten and illustrated by Garry Meeches Sr. It is recommended for ages 3 to 7.
Protest! --Book Review and sharing about some of the Native American protests in the book
Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Protest! What comes to mind when you hear the word? There have been so many protests throughout history and many in recent times even during the world pandemic. Some protests are peaceful and some are not, but today's book will focus on peaceful ones. The book is Protest! How People Have Come Together to Change the World by Alice and Emily Haworth-Booth. This book is recommended for ages 8 to 12.
A Look at Wampum and How It Is Made -- Native American Heritage Month
Firekeeper's Daughter -- Powerful YA Novel with Native American Ties
Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
It is hard to find a contemporary story with strong Native American people in it. It is even harder to find a good one written by a Native American. Today I am sharing a powerful young adult novel that is just that. This book is definitely for young adults and older. There is sex, rape, drugs, violence, and swearing in it. However I found the story to be fascinating and learned some things about Native American life today that I did not know. The book is Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley.
Shi-shi-etko -- Book Review and Native Residential Schools
Imagine being a young girl and being forced to go away from your home and family to go to a boarding school. You have never left your neighborhood, but if you do not go your parents will be arrested. At the school they will not let you keep your name, religion or language. They will try to take away everything about your culture in your life. This is how life was for many Native Americans from around 1876 until the 1990's. Shi-shi-etko by Nicola I. Campbell and illustrated by Kim LaFave tells such a story about a young Native American girl named Shi-shi-etko.
P'esk'a and the First Salmon Ceremony -- Book Review & Learning about the Sts'ailes People -- Global Learning for Kids
November is Native American Heritage Month. With my love for Native American culture I love this heritage month!! I was thinking today about why I love Native American culture so much. It could be part of white man guilt over how they were treated (and are still being treated by our government), but I think it is more how they lived in harmony with the environment. I really love their stories and how they did not waste. The talents each group has was so amazing and it just seems so much more of what I see God wanting from us. They were usually good stewards of the earth.
Since it is Native American Heritage Month, Global Learning for Kids is focusing on Indigenous People of North America. Multicultural Kid Blogs is hosting its annual Native American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway. We will be participating in the blog series later this month, but you can enter the giveaway now and the book we are sharing today is in one of the prize packs! Today we are sharing P'esk'a and the First Salmon Ceremony by Scot Ritchie.
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the 4 Christmas DVDs!
Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week! I had such a hard time choosing the features this week since there were so many amazing ideas!! I hope you will take the time to check them all out! We had a tie for most clicked.
1) From Krafts and Kiddos: CD Turkey Craft
2) From Stimulating Learning with Rachel (",): Aliens, Robots and Monsters (lots of great learning ideas here!)
Since we set our Christmas tree up today I am getting into the Christmas spirit. I have been thinking about Christmas cookies, how to bring Jesus into Christmas more and we received an Elf on the Shelf yesterday as a gift (I was avoiding them for as long as I could an much rather our Mouse and the Miracle), so knowing that you will understand some of the features I picked this week. We have our Christmas Features and our non-Christmas Features!
Meet Rachel Sage Carapella of Native Sage Nutrition -- Native American Heritage Month
How is the weather where you are? We have been having a warm stretch and I have been enjoying it and not on here writing the posts I had planned. Sorry! However November is Native American Heritage Month and I love Native American culture and what to share it with you!! This year instead of doing research on Native American history and finding books, etc. I have changed it up by sharing Native American business owners and their businesses with you. This year has been tough on so many of us and especially on our small businesses. I am hoping by sharing these businesses with you, you will help support them! Last week we learned about Diane Tells His Name and her dolls and for Indigenous Peoples' Day I shared some of Aaron Carapella's posters from Tribal Nations Maps. Today I want you to meet Rachel Sage Carapella. She owns Native Sage Nutrition. In this post you will learn a bit about Rachel and her business and she provides some tips for us to stay healthy as flu season starts up among the Covid-19 pandemic.
Columbus Day--What does it mean to you?
I thought talking about this day, its history and the controversy would be a great way to celebrate Multicultural Monday as well as Columbus Day. So this day is to mark when Italian Christopher Columbus guided three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria to the "New World" backed by the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He of course was looking for China and did not know the Pacific Ocean existed. It is said he was the first European since the Vikings (who came in the 10th century) to come to the New World. And thus "discovered" the Americas in 1492.
Hazel's telescope we made from a cardboard roll from parchment paper, toilet paper roll, duct tape and yarn. |
Hazel and Daddy's Ships including one drawn completely by Hazel. |
However we look at the holiday, it is a day off. And Christopher Columbus landing in the Americas is part of my country's history. So if you are looking for some crafts to do with your children to teach them about the day, here are a few resources for you. All of the places we got the above projects are listed here.
- From Enchanted Learning: crafts, coloring pages, lessons, puzzles (including Native American crafts)
- Also from Enchanted Learning: Lessons on Christopher Columbus, the Explorer
- From Apple4the Teacher: Round up of many sources
- From Kaboose: Many activities, crafts and food
- From DLTK's Kids: Many activities, crafts, and everything you need to play the part of explorer
- From DLTK's Kids: Native American crafts
- From 123 Holiday: crafts
- From Kid Craft Zone: Games and Crafts
- From First School: Boat crafts
- From About.com: Crafts, games, activities including ocean crafts
- From Artist Helping Children: Many different crafts including Native American crafts.
- From A to Z Teacher Stuff: Activities, lessons, crafts (all with appropriate grade level)
- From All Kids Network: Boat craft for preschoolers with template
- From Bright Hub Education: Three Fun Activities to do with Preschoolers
- From Holly's Preschool Place: Lessons and Activities for Columbus Day for Preschoolers
More to Thanksgiving: Cranberries
I feel like so much of Thanksgiving is focused on the meal. We tend to forget the real reason for Thanksgiving. Most of us are no longer farmers and you can get just about anything you want to eat at any time of the year nowadays. I am going to take some time this week to look at things other than turkey and the pilgrims. Today's topic is still food, but it is one that is truly from Thanksgiving and Massachusetts. It is cranberries. We are going to look beyond using them for sauce (although I do love making a whole berry sauce each year). Hazel and I started with a book called Cranberries by William Jaspersohn. Now Hazel loves cranberries or at least dried cranberries, cranberry sauce and cranberry baked goods. She is not completely fond of cranberry juice, but will drink one of the cran-other fruit juices, so I picked up this book for that reason. Also when I was researching one of my favorite topics--Native Americans, I found some neat decorations using cranberries.
The book talks about the white blooms of the cranberry plants and how they reminded the pilgrims of cranes. They named them "crane-berries" which has been shortened to cranberries. In August the cranberries are a waxy green and in September they begin to turn red. The book also goes through the two ways of picking the cranberries depending on what will happen with the cranberries. It then goes through the whole process of packaging them.
Now according to an article in Better Homes and Gardens (November 2013, page 172), cranberries are loaded with nutrition from vitamin C to antioxidants and other health benefits. They quote one study showing that people who drank two glasses of low-sugar cranberry juice a day had significant drop in their blood pressure. They also can ward off urinary-tract infections, gum disease and stomach ulcers.
We decided to make a few cranberry decorations. The first we found at Ocean Spray's website. They have many crafts there that use their cranberries. We decided to do a simple one with a paper plate. We used white glue to glue the cranberries on and I have to say, it is not holding well. I would use tacky glue instead.
The second thing we did was great for a centerpiece. I found the idea on Many Hoops. Many Hoops is wonderful resource for Thanksgiving. It is a website devoted to uniting America and getting past our horrible history. It is a project that was run by two women: one a descendent of the pilgrims and the other a Native American. This is the simple idea of using candles and cranberries. Their glass dish looks so much better than our dish.
Of course there is also the other favorite of stringing popcorn and cranberries for the Christmas tree. Another great idea was shared at Sharing Saturday by Little Bins for Little Hands called Fine Motor Skills with Cranberries. She has many wonderful tools to use with the cranberries. What a fun way to play and bring Thanksgiving to her child.
So go get healthy and have some cranberries and maybe try a few of the great decorations out there. I hope you will join us tomorrow for our final Native American Cinderella tale. This one is from the Zuni Tribe. If you missed the last ones there have been two weeks of four similar tales from various Native American tribes and you can find them here and here. Later this week we will look at Squanto as well as other Native American crafts and history as well.
The Wampanoag Tribe
Exploring Navajo Nation or Dine Nation -- Global Learning for Kids & Multicultural Mathematics
November Events
Source |
It is hard to believe it is already November!! We have so many exciting things planned for the month. My mind however seems to already be on Christmas, so expect some Christmas ideas in November as well as a couple of Christmas product reviews and at least one giveaway. But do not worry we will also have plenty on Thanksgiving!! November is National Native American Month. We will be focuses on Native American fairy tales as well as other Native American crafts. My love for the various Native American cultures will shine through out November.
This month we are exploring Thailand with Around the World in 12 Dishes. We will start our exploration on Monday with a Thai Cinderella! Our recipe post for Around the World in 12 Dishes will be shared on November 19th! However the placemat and passport pages for Thailand are available (Thanks to Valerie over at Glittering Muffins!)
The author this month for Virtual Book Club for Kids is Karma Wilson! She is best known for her Bear books, but we are loving the Mortimer ones as well. She seems to have something for everyone--holidays, lessons, young and older. Have you discovered her yet?
We will be sharing our book and activities on November 11th. I hope you will join us for these great posts and more!
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Thank you to everyone who shared last week with us and a very special thank you to the ones who took the time to visit what others shared!! This week our most clicked was from Janis Cox: Crafting Saturday: Soap Carving Tadeo Turtle.
For the rest of our features this week I picked some Native American posts (it is Native American Heritage Month), Math posts and some of my favorites that include all the seasons!! There are MANY great Thanksgiving ideas shared last week if you are looking for any, please go check them all out!!
Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Native American Cinderella 2
Last week I shared two Native American versions of Cinderella and I promised two more this week. All four are very similar and I think they all come from the Algonquian Native American tribes. Since I gave you a quick history of some of the Algonquian tribes last week, I'm not going into it this week. These stories however seem to be from tribes in Canada rather than the United States.
The first story is called "The Indian Cinderella" and I found it in The Children's Book of Virtues edited by William J. Bennett. This story is definitely written to be an explanation of why the aspen leaves shake in the wind. In this story the tribe lives on a bay of the Atlantic Ocean. The second story is The Rough-Face Girl written by Rafe Martin and David Shannon. In this story the tribe lives on Lake Ontario.
Both stories are very similar. A few differences are that the girl comes from a poor family in one and is the daughter of a chief in the other. In both stories she is the youngest daughter of three and the older two are cruel to her. They dress her in rags and make her tend the fire or burn her with the coals to make her ugly. In both stories there is the Invisible Being who all the maidens want to marry. In one he got his magical power to be invisible from a god for whom he did good deeds. Similar to last week's stories, the sisters try to win the hand in marriage and fail. The youngest decides to try, but does not have the nice clothes or jewelry so she makes do with what she has and birch bark. In one story she is honest with the sister about not seeing the Invisible Being and is rewarded by being able to see him. In the other story she sees his face everywhere in the village. In both he has a bow made of the curve of the rainbow and the runner on his sleigh is the Milky Way. This is one of the few differences from last week's stories since sleighs/sleds were not mentioned in them. As in all the stories, she is able to see him and marries him. In one he turns her cruel sisters into aspen trees and he was called Strong Wind and this is why the leaves of the aspen shake so much in the wind. They fear him.
Next week I will share our last Native American Cinderella which is different from these four. It is from the Zuni culture. I hope you will join me!
Finding Family Treasure -- a Middle Grades Novel about Family History & More -- Review & Giveaway
Disclosure: I am working with The Children's Book Review, K.I. Knight, and Jane R. Wood and was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I am receiving a small stipend for this review.
Have you ever looked into your family history? Perhaps you have gone onto Ancestry or Family Search and looked up your relatives. Did you discover anything? Or perhaps your child needed to share a bit about the country your family comes from. Do you come from just one country? As what I call an American mutt, I cringe at those assignments. How do I pick one of the countries my family is from? When Hazel got that assignment, we went with Steven's family history since he is Italian American. Today I am going to share a middle grades book with you that a diverse class begins researching their own history. It is a tale of genealogy, family, connections and so much more. The book is Finding Family Treasure by K.L. Knight and Jane R. Wood. Oh, and there is a giveaway at the end of the post!
Earth Day Resources for 2020
It is a strange time and hard to believe Earth Day is next week. With all the stay at home orders around the world we are hearing about amazing things happening to our Earth like the Venice canals being clear (although not necessarily because the water is cleaner see here) and the skies above cities being clearer including in New Delhi, India, people are seeing the rare blue skies. The air in Los Angeles, California is even said to be clear. (Source) As scary as Covid-19 is it seems the Earth is enjoying a break from the craziness our society has been causing. But we know this break will end and we can choose to go back to the craziness or do something to help our Earth and keep our planet going for generations to come. Today I am going to share three books about people, places and ways to do just that. The first two are picture books. We will start with Solar Story: How One Community Lives Alongside the World's Biggest Solar Plant by Allan Drummond.