Native American day and tadpoles!

Wow, what a great day we had today, full of suprises. The boys got their first letters off their new penpals from America this morning, so they were excited as the penpals are home schooled too.
Then we had a look at the tadpoles we collected a few weeks ago to see if they had grown and they now have back legs, whilst looking at the tadpoles we spotted a frog, he must of returned from last year and lots of big water snails. On the downside we spotted a hole in the pond liner so that will have to be fixed, thankfully its near the top so the water hasnt leaked out.

After a question by my youngest about why didnt the cowboys and native americans live together in peace, we ended up having a long chat and listening to native american music and learning all about what really happened, we have a native american friend on the net thats been really wonderful. The boys then started on their crafts

This is half way through, they made shields, tommahawks, necklaces, wristbands and head bands, they learned about the picture symbols they used and decorated the headbands to tell the story of our family through the pictures.

we also made popcorn and i told the native american story about the spirits in popcorn.

The folklore of some Native American tribes told of spirits who lived inside each kernel of popcorn. The spirits were quiet and content to live on their own, but grew angry if their houses were heated. The hotter their homes became, the angrier they'd get - shaking the kernels until the heat was too much. Finally, they would burst out of their homes and into the air as a disgruntled puff of steam.

The boys played for ages after and they posed for this picture as they crossed weapon sign is the sign for freindship.

Hopefully we are going to make a teepee later on this week and carry on learning about Native Americans.

I found a great site full of games, recipes, stories, beadwork, arts and loads of other really interesting things. http://www.nativetech.org/ My boys loved it.