We Love the Prairie Primer: Little House in the Big Woods

Prairie Primer/Little House in the Big Woods - Week 4

California Gold Rush

Women in the Gold Rush

Fun Facts About the Gold Rush

Gold Rush Lesson Plans

Gold - From the Mine To You (Lesson Plans)

The History of Gold is the History of the World

Fun Activities That Teach Children About Gold

The Many Uses of Gold

We are finishing up reading Little House in the Big Woods this week. For the past four weeks, we have been working on activities that will go into a Little House in the Big Woods lapbook. Here's a video that explains how we put it together and I'll post pictures of our finished product soon!

We had a great time with this book and we look forward to reading the next one!

Prairie Primer/Little House in the Big Woods - Week 3

We read this week in Little House in the Big Woods that Ma made homemade cheese so we watched a video on how to make cheese...

We also read that Pa harvested honey from bees so we learned about harvesting honey...

Here's a few more topics we studied about this week...

The Moon

The Moon @ Enchanted Learning
Data Record - Moon Observation
Moon Crossword Puzzle
Shape Book - If I Lived On The Moon

Yellow Jackets

Yellow Jackets at Enchanted Learning
How To Treat a Yellow Jacket Sting
Yellow Jackets at Wikipedia

Ma weaved straw hats for her family so we watched a video of women from Ecuador that have perfected this craft...

How To Make Your Own Straw Hat
Cowboy Straw Hats
Cousin Ed's Straw Hat

OATS

Eat More Oats
Make a Pine Cone Bird Feeder
Quaker Oats (Recipes and More)
Health Benefits of Oats

And last but not least, we learned how to make Johnny cakes, similar to what Ma used to make...

Video on About.com
Pioneer Cooking at Easy Fun School
History of Johnny Cakes

Prairie Primer/Little House in the Big Woods - Week 2

Pa's grandfather made his own maple syrup. Here is a video about making maple syrup...

How To Make Maple Syrup

The Ingalls girls loved to hear Pa playing his fiddle. We listened to fiddle and folk music on pandora.com by searching for "Old Man Tucker" - a favorite song sung by Pa.

Laura and Mary said this prayer every night. It reminds me of the prayer I used to say when I was little, too. My girlz memorized it when they were younger but have since forgotten it so we are re-learning it this week.

Pa kept a loaded gun above the doorway of his house so we studied about gun safety...

The Ingalls family went to a grand party at Pa's father's house where they had a great time eating and dancing. Being city girlz, I had to educate my girlz as to what square dancing was...

Children in pioneer days learned how to knit at a very young age. My girlz know how to crochet but I think they would like to learn how to knit, as well...

SKIN

Prairie Primer/Little House in the Big Woods - Week 1

Pa whittles wood in the Little House in the Big Woods so we watched a video of a man whittling wood and heard about the tools he uses for his craft...

The Ingalls family had a brindle bulldog. So we studied bulldogs...

http://www.loveyourdog.com/bulldog.html

http://members.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/mammals/dog/Bulldog.shtml

http://www.cartooncritters.com/drawbulldog.htm

http://www.akc.org/breeds/bulldog/index.cfm

This is a video of a bulldog giving birth...

Ma churned her own butter. Here is a video of someone making butter...

Pa had several run-ins with bears so we studied bears & hibernation:

http://www.saskschools.ca/%7Egregory/winter/win2.html

http://members.enchantedlearning.com/coloring/Hibernate.shtml

http://members.enchantedlearning.com/painting/Hibernate.shtml

http://members.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/mammals/bear/

http://atozkidsestore.com/hibernation.html

http://www.atozkidsstuff.com/hibernation.html

The Ingall's lived off the land and grew their own crops so we learned about nutrition and eating healthy. We've been reading Food and You - an American Girl book about making wise food choices. Great book with lots of colorful photos!

The Ingalls girls loved to make dolls from corn husks. Here's directions for making your own...

http://www.ehow.com/how_2057762_make-corn-cob-doll.html

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-thanskgiving-corn-husk-dolls-258084/view/

http://www.michigan.gov/mikids/0,1607,7-163-15941_20571---,00.html

Ma had to preserve much of their food to last them through the cold winters when they couldn't go looking for food. Here are a few sites on food preservation...