More Fall - but more Winter too

 I know these photos are cut off a little bit on the right side but I decided it was worth it to see them this big. I like the red leaves the best and the bigger they look, the better.

 Place mats

 This last photo is a panorama (because my awesome camera can do that) from my front door. I really really like this photo, but I do admit there isn't really any thing special about it - besides the the sun on the mountains. I don't know.

Native Americans

I miserably failed this unit. MISERABLY. I could have done so many really cute things but I didn't.  First of all we read a ton of books about the pilgrims and Thanksgiving. That (and my assignment to run a Native American themed Pack Meeting) gave me the brilliant idea of organizing November into 3 separate mini-units - the Wampanoag Native Americans, the Pilgrims, and then Gratitude, obviously each theme helping us understand the first Thanksgiving, etc.

But none of my Native American ideas I used were actually from the Wampanoag tribe.

From the books we did talk about Somosat and Squanto and Massosoit. And so the kids knew who those Native Americans were and what they did. And Joshua and I talked about some interesting facts about the Wampanoag - things that Joshua wouldn't know about.  But all of the following activities (with exception of the paper dolls which I think are authentically dressed) really aren't culturally accurate to the Wampanoag.

This game is called Hubbub. It has nothing to do with the Wampanoag, but it is a Native American game.

 You can probably figure out how to play the game by this photo. You toss the plum pits (or cardboard circles) into your homemade pottery bowl (or onto a piece of colored paper) and count up your points, then you keep track of your points with your sticks (or toothpicks). We won 0 authenticity points here, but it was a lot of fun to play. Especially with a four year old.

We made some Native American Feather Headbands. The Wampanoag men actually did wear a feather in their hair (they also had mohawks) but I kind of doubt the women did. Abigail didn't wear hers for long anyway. I know there is a chance that I am offending a Wampanoag out there. Sorry about that.

 

 Joshua took a really long time making his look good. I think it does. I think everything they do looks good when they put effort into it. But, you know, I'm their mom. That's in my job description.

 I promise he really liked wearing it.

Here are the paper dolls. Abigail colored the girls and Joshua colored the boys. Joshua has a really hard time with the fact that these Native American's didn't wear enough clothing to be modest. That opened up an entirely different discussion, but that's ok. 

 The man in the red coat has yellow arms and orange shoulders. Joshua kept asking me, "Mom, did the Native American's really have orange shoulders back then?" Uh, no. Just because you colored it that way doesn't mean that was really how it was.

 I chose the paper doll activity because when I was a little girl my mother loved paper dolls and she was always trying to get us to play with them. I thought maybe as an adult my tastes would have changed, you know, like asparagus and broccoli. You know, I didn't like them then, and I still don't like them now. The clothes never stay on - even when I cut out about 5 extra tabs and strategically place them on the paper clothing. But we're going to do Pilgrim paper dolls next week to compliment these - and so we can play with them all together so I will bear them in silence for one more week.

 And finally (I know, we could have done so much more and so many BETTER things) we found a Native American. I'm pretty sure he's a Ute (not Ute like OO-teh my Ungeheuer - see next post - but like YUE-t as in Utah without the ah) close enough, I suppose.

The Letter U

Ute, Ursula, und Ullrich, die Ungeheuer
(Ute, Ursula, and Ullrich, the Monsters)

They worked on their Ungeheuer for AN HOUR!!!

 Joshua was a big help to Abigail

 This is Ute. She is a superhero monster as seen by her cape

Abigail's (Ursula) is not quite finished. Ursula has a beak.

And then they played and played and played with them

This is Ullrich (At first he was named Udo).  Ullrich is very complex.  He has eyes on his wings, a light purple hat, a really really long arm (the purple and pink thing tied together), a drink with a straw (that's the orange thing) and a handle (that's the light green thing under the orange thing).  Ullrich's father is a glow stick, but since the glow stick can't walk, Ullrich has to hold him with his long arm.

Family Photo before bed

Our monsters are scary...

 ...really scary!!

(So far this has been one of my favorite craft activities with the kids. I put out a bunch of stuff, gave them a few ideas, handed them the glue and let them go. I know we did Monsters for M with our mini monsters, but that craft was so mother-driven that it doesn't really even compare to this one. Plus, I couldn't think of another U word that I really wanted to do.)

The Letter T

It is nice sometimes to just take advantage of the season. T was a piece of cake.

Trick-or-Treating starts with T

Truthahn (Turkey) starts with T

Instead of tracing their hands, we painted their hands. It was so fun, they both wanted to do it twice.

And I saw this idea in a Thanksgiving idea book. I traced the shape of a turkey and then we went out and collected fall leaves to make the turkey's colorful tail. I liked this craft - mostly, I just liked being outside even if it was a little dreary. It reminded me of being a kid back in Washington (except most of our trees were evergreen and all the deciduous leaves were always wet and a little more decayed than beautiful.)

I meant pick out leave that had already fallen, but Joshua couldn't resist these, I guess.

see, kind of dreary (there is my dead garden)

I'm not sure why he is making this face. Although he has mentioned multiple times in the last few days that he was so angry, "du kannst es nicht glauben!" (you can't even believe it!)

I took this photo before Joshua colored it in. One of those red leaves is actually a "scout patch" that this turkey earned. Way to go turkey, let's all give it a cheer...

I "helped" Abigail with her turkey. :)

It's STILL Fall

Whenever I look outside and see the snow I get a little depressed. So my anti-depressant will be to look at these photos. They make me happy. I'm starting to feel like a photographer... kind of.

 

Halloween

Here are our photos. Halloween was a lot of fun.

  This wasn't on Halloween, but the grand opening day at the library where the kids got to wear their costumes and this was a cute photo.

Abigail, Joshua, Nathan, and Sarah at the library grand opening.

 This was Joshua's requested Halloween coloring page. He specifically wanted the skeleton wearing the cape blowing in the wind. (His is the one on the left with the "lightning", not the one on the right that actually looks like it has lightning on it.)

 Ghosts. (Joshua's is named Spensti)

  I wanted to put glow in the dark paint on them but never got around to it.

Right before heading out - the obligatory photos in the costumes

  Our litty piggy - carrying her own little piggy

The utahraptor - I added the letters on his shirt earlier that day because Joshua was concerned that nobody knew what he was. I love his costume. It turned out so well, I think.

  Knocking at our first house - our landlady upstairs

We got about 45 minutes out and Abigail was done. She refused to get out of the stroller until she missed out on candy at one house because she wouldn't go to the door. After that she was sure to get out of the stroller at each house, and promptly get right back in.  Near the end Abby's candy bag was so heavy she was pushing her candy bag around in the stroller. Joshua's candy bucket was full to the top so he left his bag in the stroller and just went to the door without and, collected his candy, and returned to put his new candy in the stroller next to his candy bucket. We were out for 2 1/2 hours!! Here are some photos of their "earnings."

 Abigail's bag - it was really really heavy, as you can see.

 Here they are eating one piece and then we hurried them off to bed. (Please ignore the lady -me- in the orange shirt. I didn't know this photos was being taken, otherwise I would have quickly scooted out of the way)