The First Thanksgiving!

For those of you who would like to know more, or freshen up their memory,

here is a nice site about the pilgrims that arrived on the Mayflower from Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts. You can watch video clips, view slideshows and read about The First Thanksgiving. Just click on the tabs and enjoy the journey through time! It's a  really nice and informative site.

That the storytellers are dressed historically just enhances the experience!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cleaning!

Our area was part of the parking lot, and the street behind the school.

Big garbage bags to fill!

Garbage is hiding in the bushes.

And on the sidewalks.

Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day so the whole school will be going outside to pick up litter and clean the area around the building. It's a sunny day so I think we'll have a nice time!

What are you doing for Earth Day?

The Story Teller!

Yesterday I told the story of the World Tree, Yggdrasil.

It was the opening lesson for our next project which is Norse Mythology.

I told about the Gods and the Giants, and about the Nine worlds that you can find in Yggdrasil.

The costume is a type of Viking Age clothing for women. A costume I actually have worn at a Viking festival in my hometown, some years back. Oh my, when I think about it - it's 16 years ago!!! Well, the outfit still fits! I'm glad I could use it again to make the lesson a little more interesting and authentic.

I think they all thought the story was quite interesting and exciting and I'm looking forward to working on this project with the students.

Native American Tribes!

Wednesday the students presented their group works on Native American Tribes. We started this project when we were at the park in October. There we made a lot of hands on-activities about Native Americans and some of these things we've had on display outside the school office.

Back at school the groups started their research work about four different tribes.

The tribes were: Lenape, Erie, Algonquin and Iroqois.

They had to find out about the kinds of food they ate, what clothes they wore, what kind of transportation they used and how they lived. Some of them also found out about certain games they played. For the presentation they made costumes and other props to show the audience what they learned.

We learned a lot about the tribes and all the groups did great presentations.

Here are some pictures of some of the things we have made during this project!

Ceremonial Rattles

Mosaics

Weaving

God's Eyes'

Our display in the hall.

Weavings, rattles, God's Eyes', pottery, mosaics on display.

For the presentations some of the students made specific props for their tribe.

A Lenape necklace in purple and white, originally made of shells, but here made of small beads.

And a long house from the Iroqouis.

Pretty nice work, isn't it?