Americans

Early Americans
	Our first major social studies unit involved looking at Americans through history. Starting with Native Americans we reviewed shelters, food, transportation, clothing, and school. This began our chart to compare Americans over time. The children looked at Colonists, Pioneers, and the lifestyles of Americans today.


	The kids had a lot of fun studying about the pioneers. They brought in quilts from their families to share.
Miss Serra came and explained how quilts are made! She explained the math and measurement behind making a quilt.Miss Serra volunteered in our room last year and we are lucky that she joins us again this year!


Miss Serra showed the kids how each piece is shown. She used a thimble to push the needle through. It's funny that the phonics books still show a "thimble" for the "th" digraph...yet kids haven't seen a real one!	Miss Serra showed the kids you can see the pattern from the stitches on the back of the quilt. The kids asked her a lot of really good questions!
	Here are some close ups of the patterns in the quilt Miss Serra showed us. It was a lot of hard work. The pioneers didn't go to Kohl's and pick one out. They had to hand make it!

We learned a lot about the pioneers. One fact is they did not have many of the conveniences we have today. The pioneers weren't able to go to HYVEE or Jewel and buy butter. They had to make it themselves. When traveling westward the pioneers would place the cream in a bucket on the side of the wagon. It would shake as they traveled and turn to butter. The butter churn was packed safely on the wagon. We decided to see if we could make our own butter!


The kids stayed focused and shook the cream until it changed into butter. This was a great science experiment for changing state of matter. The liquid cream changed into the solid butter. We sampled it on homemade cornbread muffins. Now that's pioneer style!



When finished with all the ITBS and COGAT testing we created project teams. We were working together on different pieces to build a wagon. Teams created "real wood" effects, made wheels, and ribs for the wagon.



	It might appear that the wagon survived an attack last night when circled up with the others. The children were mighty pleased with their team effort!

The pioneers did not possess a lot of things. They were also really good at recycling. The next project the kids made were pioneer dolls. These dolls were made from scraps of left over material from clothes. Remember there wasn't a WalMart or Target store to go buy clothes. The pioneers had to make them. Pioneers didn't have the same quantity of clothes that we have today. I don't think I would have been a good pioneer. Particularly when they didn't have many pairs of shoes.


	The children did a nice job of asking each other for help when needed. You would not believe how quiet the room was! The final activity was to sample homemade apple pie. If you wanted to eat, it was made from scratch! The kids decided they are happier to be Americans today than long ago!