Continuing from an earlier post, I want to document the older boys' history studies from this year. During the first weeks of our school year, Ben and Will spent time reading about Native Americans, with a focus on local tribes.
Our organizing spines for history this year were Joy Hakim's A History of US, which was mostly for Will and Charlie, and K12's American Odyssey, for much of Ben's reading.
After reading topics from the texts, the boys dug into various sources for in-depth information. Will began by choosing articles of interest from Cobblestone Magazine's Ojibwe of the Great Lakes issue. The area in which we live is one of the traditional homeland areas for the Ojibwe, or Anishinabe Indians. He combined this reading with info from Life in an Anishinabe Camp.
Ben also started off with some magazine articles from one of our long-time go-to publications, Learning Through History magazine.
To tie his learning in with local history, Ben read from An Account of the Battle of St. Croix Falls, by Rosemarie Vezina Braatz.
From the introduction:
The Battle of St. Croix Falls dealt the decisive blow to the Fox Indians, who thereafter gave up the fight against the encroaching Chippewas (Ojibwe, Anishinabe)...and it reduced the strength and prestige of the Sioux in this river valley, so that they retreated to the open country to the west. So great was this slaughter, that for years afterward, the Indians referred to this battleground as "The Valley of the Bones."
The wooded crags on the Dalles of the St. Croix, where this battle was fought, is right in the back yard of our favorite state park. As we walk the trail there, it is chilling to think of the story of this fight.
During this time our read alouds were Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruhac, and several Native American stories from Keepers of the Night, also by Bruhac and Michael J. Caduto.
Next up, Will's wigwam project.
No comments:
Post a Comment