Our Colonial Unit begins…
And just in time for Thanksgiving.
We started by reading a couple of chapters in Kris’s book, Great Colonial American Projects You Can Build Yourself. We’ve already covered this information, but it was good review, and it made GB feel very knowledgeable.
Then we wanted to do one of the early projects in the book, so we decided to make the wampum. The Native Americans used wampum as a unit of trade. The word ‘wampum’ is short for wampumpeag or wampumpeake, which is an Algonquian Indian word meaning a “string of white shell beads.”
We started with a clean meat tray. We used a soda cap to twist the circle shape into the Styrofoam. Then we cut out all the little circles.
Then GB colored them all with magic markers. We were supposed to use a hole punch to make a nice little hole in the center, but my meat try was a little too thick for the hole punch, so I just jabbed a pen through each circle. Worked great.
Then we put the colored circles on a foil covered cookie sheet and baked them in the oven for about six minutes.
They shrunk down to about half their original sizes and got much harder.
Next, GB strung the beads on some embroidery string.
They kind of have a fruit loop appeal, don’t they? I just love that face!
Tomorrow I think we’ll crack open the cd I got from Homeschool in the Woods.
So, Kris, did we do you proud?
VERY cool!
Comment by
tribeofautodidacts — November 20, 2007 @ 10:36 am
Oh, indeed!
Looks fantastic. Keep on with the updates!
Comment by
paradisefound — November 20, 2007 @ 12:30 pm
We made our wampum yesterday, too. Ours seemed to have gotten smaller than yours, though. And, I found out that my toaster oven doesn’t heat evenly - one corner of the sheet shrunk a lot faster than the other! My dh had my good camera, so I didn’t get any photos.
We’re really enjoying this book, too!
Comment by Dana — November 20, 2007 @ 10:32 pm