Indians

Since Thanksgiving is on Thursday, I thought I would spend this week teaching Evan about the first Thanksgiving and do lots of little Thanksgiving projects.  I made a coloring book for him titled "The First Thanksgiving."  We read it together a couple of times and talked about the Indians, the Pilgrims, the Mayflower, Squanto, etc.  He really liked Squanto, which was great because I had planned to focus on the Indians today.  I had miniature pictures of the images in the coloring book for him to cut out and make his own book.  After he cut them all out, he matched the pictures to the images in the book and glued them onto some construction paper (which he had just cut out too).  Then we read back through the book and he followed along in his own book. 



Cutting out the mini 'Thanksgiving story' pictures.



Matching the mini pictures with the big pictures to create his own book.



Proud of his completed 'Thanksgiving' book.

 Then we made some Indian puppets.  Evan was so excited to make Squanto.  We named the girl Indian, Squanta, and we called the baby Indian, Squantito.  Evan just kept saying, "Ohhhhhh, those are cool names!"


Piecing together Squanto.

After we got the Indians put together, it was show time!  We made lots of Indian chanting sounds together.  When it was my turn to put on shows, I talked a lot about seeing the Mayflower approaching in the ocean and about watching the Pilgrims.  I talked about how Squanto was a big help to the Pilgrims.  Evan would then talk about all of this too in his shows. 
 

Putting on a puppet show with Squanto and Squanta.



Evan wanted to put Baby Squantito down for a nap in a bed of leaves.



Alan wanted to put on a show too!  He wanted to play the part of Squantito!



Daddy and Alan put on a show for me and Evan.

 We talked a little bit about what Indians lived in and then made a little teepee for Squanto and Squanta.  This then became a new prop in our puppet shows. 


Squanto and Squanta are going to lay down in their teepee.

Evan liked Squanto so much, that I made him his very own Indian headdress so that he could look like Squanto.



My little Squanto!

My evening ended by watching all three of my boys put on an Indian puppet show for me.  If only I had my video camera!  You can only imagine all the Indian sounds coming from our schoolroom!!!

One little, Two little, Three little Indians!