Thanksgiving Crafts and fun

Yes...we sort of stalled out on the start of Jamestown...and are working on the actual Pilgrims themselves this month.  It's November, so not a total wash out.  Pilgrim study...November...they just go together.
But still, we should have finished Daniel Boone already and been starting on Lewis & Clark right now. Just for the record, I can already tell you we will, yet again, be stalled out on Daniel Boone.  I have a clan of Daniel Boone followers here.  We will definitely have to extend that unit beyond 6 weeks just to appease the masses here!

Ok...pilgrims:
Cindy Downes and Oklahoma Homeschool....love this site.  I get a good start to my idea planning here.
A neat find from Amazon...a cut-n-build 3D Mayflower!
Activity Village pages for all manner of Thanksgiving fun...crafts, puzzles and more!
The Toy Maker has some fun crafts for the Thanksgiving theme
a sort of origami turkey...
Artists Helping Children site...well worth a look-thru the whole site, but today my focuse was Mayflower boats to build (a fun foam one here)
and a milk carton one...Martha Stewart has a small version here...a walnut shell Mayflower...another walnut shell version...
more folding paper boats (an ehow video)
Pitara makes one using a cork...
origami boats...and several other origami crafts...
Pilgrim Centerpiece made from styrofoam balls...
or one made with condiment bottles....
coffee filter turkeys...
BHG's Pilgrim Family and Indian Family paper tube people...
Parents Magazine shares how to make napkin ring turkeys (I'm thinking colored cardstock instead of foam)
how about paper serving baskets? or small ones filled with a treat to share with neighbors and family?
marshmellow pilgrim hat treat :o)
Easy Fun School, of course...

and for later, with our pioneers and Little House studies....a covered wagon :o)

and no Thanksgiving plans should be without the reading of An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott.  The movie version...while not bad, is just not the story and well, it's really shouldn't be called the same :o(

Adding to my POE Jamestown/Colonial links

I thought I was done.  I really did.  I mean, I have units here with notebooking pages, lapbooking components, I have the entire POE unit printed....2 older sets, 2 younger sets, and 2 sets of assorted pages that we can use with David and Emily (trust me...my printer is smokin' after all this printing.  I'm on ink cartridge #3 and I believe paper pack 5, but I lost count on that....it's ALOT...I really need a good duplex printer I think...)

Either way, I stumbled on some more...and I have yet to really sit down with it all and piece it into some coherent footprint for us to use!

Someone want to share with me some good reasons as to why I do this?
Why, when I have a perfectly good curriculum all right in front of me, complete with books, a few projects, all the papers needed, my bookcases full of math and English studies, WHY WHY WHY must I always start tweaking and adding????
What's wrong with being a boxed curriculum sort of mom?
What guilt is there in simply using the curriculum I've paid good money for AS-IS??

Ok.  Doesn't matter now.  I've done strolled 'net land and found things that I simply must add in.  I have found pages of creative, fun, witty homeschool moms sharing such interesting goodies, I just can't avoid the inevitable portion of my nature that causes me to tweak almost endlessly.  There are just too many great ideas out there.  Too many to dismiss.

And after all I've added so far...here are some more:

Our Journey Westward blog...
The 42Explore Thematic Pathfinders site has a great Colonial America page I'll be using to lay things out and glean ideas from...
and this neat yarn boat...sure, it's a sailboat, but that's ok...it's going to be our Mayflower anyway!
And a paper mache boat we can easily turn into the Mayflower...

I'm going to have to stop wandering and say enough is enough....stick to what you have...stop looking over the fence at other folks' school yards...

unless, of course, you have some other pages I might want to check out....just to be neighborly, you know...

More POE Jamestown/Mayflower Notes

Granted, when you go a bout looking at various unit studies, information, resources for extra reading, projects and the like for something like Jamestown and The Mayflower and the Pilgrims, you are pretty much going to find a lot of repeated stuff.  I mean, it's history -- it all happened the way it happened, and folks have been there/done that with lesson plans for years using the same dried up facts.  As they say, there is nothing new under the sun (or under THE SON)...

But, nonetheless, I keep googling under various terms to see what new sites pop up.  And I'll share what I find, repeated projects and information or not, and when our time begins on this path of lessons, we will pick and choose ideas from all of them.  So, here are more "stepping stones" as it were along our Paths of Exploration studies:

Us History Lesson Plans and Resources -- they have links for all time frames, not just Colonial
Carole Hurst Literature Site -- discussion starters, book listings, etc.  We will print her list and check out the library for added reading opportunities
This TeacherLink site has some books and outline ideas based on them
This ProTeacher site has some offerings
EasyFunSchool....of course!
The Teacher's Corner...

HSLDA even has a page of information and links we will be looking into between the Pilgrims and beginning the Revolutionary War

And I keep coming back to Homeschool in The Woods' products, like their History Through The Ages: Time Travelers Colonial Life.  I really think we will order it.  It will add alot to our fun, I'm sure.

Danielle's Place has several craft goodies we will go through and keep bookmarked
The Kids Kreate site is the same...definitely a bookmark page for the littles
Just for fun and future reference, the Craft Tales site offers free projects, start to finish...

There's just so much out there that looks fun!  I need to really lay out a plan before we get started on/around late July!!

POE: Jamestown, The Mayflower, Pilgrims, etc.

While I'm waiting on a mega download of new printer drivers for this mini (I love this thing, but oh how I miss having a disk drive!!!!) I started scanning around for some extra books to add to our coming Jamestown portion of Paths of Exploration study. Here's what I have so far -- if anyone has any favorites or other suggestions, do share!!
(I may come back to this same page and update things...any changes will be marked in red text)

BOOKS:
Almost Home: A Story Based on The Life of The Mayflower's Mary Chilton, Wendy Lawton (A Daughters of The Faith series)
The Captive Princess: A Story Based on The Life of Young Pocahontas, Wendy Lawton (a Daughters of The Faith series)
Blood on The River: James Town, 1607, Elisa Carbone
Surviving Jamestown: The Adventures of Sam Collier, Gail Karwoski
1607: A New Look at Jamestown, Karen Lange
The Lost Colony of Roanoke, Jean Fritz
Mystery of the Lost Colony (Roanoke), Lee Miller
Pocahontas, Joseph Bruchac  (and later, for Lewis & Clark: Sacajawea, by him as well)
The Landing of The Pilgrims, James Daugherty
A Gathering of Days, Joan W. Blos
The Story of Liberty: So You Will Comprehend What Liberty Has Cost...And What It's Worth, Charles Carleton Coffin
Mayflower 1620: A New Look at a Pilgrim Voyage, Peter Arenstam
Tapenum's Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy's Day in Pilgrim Times, Kate Waters
   We will probably check out Sarah Morton's Day and Samuel Eaton's Day, and On The Mayflower as well...they are favorites!)
Three Young Pilgrims, Cheryl Harness
The Mayflower and The Pilgrim's New World, Nathaniel Philbrick
Squanto: Friend of The Pilgrims and A Lion To Guide Us, Clyde Robert Bulla
Stories of The Pilgrims, Margaret B. Pumphrey
A Journey To The New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower 1620 (a Dear America series)
The Starving Time: Elizabeth's Jamestown Colony Diary (A My America series), Patricia Hermes
Sign of The Beaver, Elizabeth George Speare is a great read-aloud
The Felicity series (American Girls)
We have selected chapters in This Country of Ours, H.E. Marshall (parts 2 & 3 for sure...) and
The Story of The World, vol. 3 (chapter 15+)
I'd like to check into the Besty Maestro series of history stories as well...
And maybe some of the various "If You Lived..." books that would coincide with our studies...

We might find something worth using on Wowio, to use as well.


LAPBOOK/NOTEBOOK:
I am interested in The Colonial Life set from Homeschool In The Woods, but I don't know if we'll order it. I have a couple other unit study/lapbook sets here already that will probably prove more than enough. We have a History Scribe set on Indians we can pull some pages from, as well as a 17th Century Life lapbook set. I just love CurrClick!
Highland Heritage Homeschool has a unit on Colonial America...among several other great pages!
Learning Through History Newsletter, Pocahontas Study
Instructor Web, Jamestown Lesson Plan

Social Studies for Kids site, Jamestown

CRAFTING:
We will definitely be creating the Jamestown Replica!
Colonial Craft Day
Ye Olde Colonial Craft Book (probably give the entire site a good once over with the children)
A Book In Time has some crafting ideas, as well as a great listing of books, ideas and the like: The 1600's, The 1700's, The 1800's, The 1900's
I'd like to add the books in the Hands-On America series to our home library....crafts and handwork projects covering all peoples, countries and such. 
Suite 101 has some links I want to check out, even if just to glean more ideas
The Teen listing at LibraryPoint

OTHER:
Old Time Radio Shows has several You Are There programs to listen to as well...great resource!
Edupicks is a terrific coloring page, timeline art, etc. site.  They have EVERYTHING, I swear!
Passport To Colonial Times site...looks really neat, we might do this.

POE Work quick update

We are over halfway through Columbus, and I think we might break between so that we are in Jamestown during late October and November, to tie in some craft fun with pilgrims and Thanksgiving.  I need to get it laid out and run the calender first.

I ordered several mini units through CurrClick today and they look to be fun additions to our full unit here. I have also set up my list over at Homeschool in The Woods and we will be getting their Colonial Life Time Travelers History Study unit as well.

Has anyone ever used the Homeschool in The Woods products?  What about History Pockets?

Paths of Exploration: Jamestown

Gathering some ideas to supplement our next unit in Paths...

Hotchalk Lesson Plans on Jamestown
JamesQuest 
     JamesQuest has some wonderful links I'm sure we'll put to use
Homeschool In The Woods has several great products we have been talking about trying out...a replica of Jamestown to put together, and a whole slew of Time Travelers packs...
Creative Learning Connection has a couple we are pondering...Jamestown The Birth of a Nation, Jamestown Lapbook components....looks like a neat site to order from.

We will probably go back and look around at Sea Scholars Lessons Plans, too.

Various sub-topics will include things like oceans and seas, Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Lost Colony at Roanoke, lifestyle during the 1600's (dress, everyday life, customs, religions, etc).  And, of course, look at native tribes and Indians (who studies the Pilgrims without reading about Pocahontas??)

We will be studying climates, elevation, physical maps, latitude/longitude, comparing the climate of England with that of Seattle, Washington.  We will continue with clouds and wind currents, water cycles, evaporation and such.  And mammals of all kinds, which will work into our drawing and nature notebooks.