C's Totem Pole Tale

I almost forgot to post C's totem pole tale.  C and R each made their own totem pole as part of our Alaskan state study.  C wanted to write his own story about the animals that make up his totem pole.  Here it is:

A grizzly bear is sleeping in his den.  The wolf is eating snow.  The frog is playing with his friends on the lily pads.  The crab sees the frog playing, and he wants to play.  A raven is fishing for fish.

Alaska - Two More Books

Under Alaska's Midnight Sun by Deb Vanasse is a book about the summer solstice in Alaska.  A young girl is enjoying the longest day of the year with her mother and little brother, and she is excited because she can stay up all night.  It's a cute book and actually reminds me of how excited young children get for New Year's Eve and the possibility of staying up late.  The author's note states that in Barrow, Alaska, the sun rises in May and sets eighty-three days later; people refer to this as the midnight sun.  The sun also sets in mid-November and doesn't rise again until the end of January, sixty-seven days later.  C and R both found this very interesting, and C decided he wants to live in northern Alaska for one year!  I don't think I will be able to join him; it's cold enough in Massachusetts!

Wiggle - Waggle Woof!, Counting Sled Dogs in Alaska by Cherie B. Stihler is a fantastic book for preschoolers and early elementary aged children.  The author is actually a kindergarten teacher in Alaska, which explains why the book is so great for young children.  The book is a great introduction to sled dogs and mushing lingo, and it has the added bonus of being a counting book.  I strongly recommend this book for an Alaskan state study! 
 

Baked Alaska

We are currently studying the state of Alaska, and I love to make state specific foods for our state studies.  Yes, I know that Baked Alaska is not a traditional Alaskan food, but there is no way that C would ever eat salmon or Alaskan king crab.  I did read a nice analogy comparing the meringue on a Baked Alaska to an igloo because the meringue shields everything inside from the elements!  That seemed like a good enough reason to go ahead and make the dessert!

I followed directions found on the Betty Crocker website.  I'm not going to repeat the recipe here, but you can click here if you are interested in making this and would like the recipe.

This is what it looked like before we put the meringue on  the dessert.

The base of our Baked Alaska is a brownie and we made it from scratch following the above mentioned recipe.  For ice cream flavors, we used vanilla, cherry vanilla, and chocolate.

If you have never made Baked Alaska before, it is not an instant gratification dessert.  It took us two days from start to finish!  I don't really think I will make it again, but it was good.  I didn't eat the meringue though; I am a very paranoid pregnant person and I just don't trust that all of the egg whites were cooked enough in the three minutes they spent in the oven.  C and R ate the meringue though; I was surprised by this!  In my opinion, meringue looks SO much better than it tastes!!

Alaska - The Iditarod

We are currently studying the state of Alaska, and, of course, we have spent some time learning about the Iditarod and the sled dogs.  The 2011 Iditarod begins this Saturday, March 5th.  You can learn about the race, see great coverage, find teaching resources and curriculum ideas  (I love the map skills exercise and the checkpoint math, both for older children), and even take virtual field trips by visiting the official website of the Iditarod.

If you haven't seen the movie, Balto, I strongly recommend it because it is a heartwarming family movie.  Balto is based on the true story of the 1925 Nome Serum Run.  The town of Nome, Alaska was struck by a diphtheria epidemic and a dog sled relay delivered the necessary serum. The trail the dogs followed is part of the Iditarod Trail.

We borrowed the book, Mush, Across Alaska in the World's Longest Sled-Dog Race by Patricia Seibert from the library.  Usually, we will read a book about a specific topic before watching a related movie, but in this case I thought the movie would peak their interest in the book.  This was definitely the case!  The book is a little wordy for R, but she was interested and listened to most of it.  C enjoyed the book.  He was particularly interested in learning that the gold-rush contributed to the outbreak of diphtheria in Nome because of the crowded, dirty shacks that were built by people hoping to get rich quick.  C and R were both very interested in the details of the race.

C and R were very interested in the commands given to the dogs by the mushers (dog sled drivers), so we played a little game.  We took turns being the musher and would call out commands to our "dogs". 

"Mush" means start, "gee" means turn right, and "haw" means turn left.  We had some fun with this, and it was a good way to work on "left" and "right".  Why do kids love to pretend to be dogs?  Surprisingly, C and R have not tried to teach our dog, Kelly, these commands yet.  I'm sure they will though, and I'm sure that Kelly will look at them like they are crazy.

Easy Totem Pole Craft

I found an easy totem pole craft at the DLTK website.  I love DLTK for quick crafts.  This totem pole craft only required printing templates, and then having the children color, cut, and glue the templates onto toilet paper rolls.  Easy enough!

Click here to see the totem poles C and R designed earlier this week for our Alaska state study.

Totem Pole Art

The book on the left is Alaska ABC Book by Charlene Kreeger and Shannon Cartwright.  The book on the right is Totem Tale, A Tall Story from Alaska by Deb Vanasse and illustrated by Erik Brooks.

I am a big fan of tall tales and I love finding tall tales specific to states so that we can incorporate them into our Fifty States Project.  We have been fortunate to find them for quite a few states so far and Alaska is no exception.

This week we read Totem Tale, A Tall Story from Alaska by Deb Vanasse.  The tale takes place deep in a forest where a carver stacked totem animals and forgot them.  As the full moon rises, the totems (raven, grizzly, wolf, beaver, eagle, and frog) come to life.  They have a great time acting like the animals they represent, but as a hint of dawn appears in the sky, they remember that they must return to the pole or the rising sun will trap them in the land of in-between and never-there.  They had trouble remembering how they fit and each one wanted the place of honor at the top of the pole.  It isn't until the raven reminds them that together they told a story that they are able to take their places on the pole.

The author's note states that indigenous cultures of the Pacific Northwest and Southeast Alaska have carved totem poles to illustrate the stories of their clans for more than two hundred years.  According to the author, some of the best places to see totem poles include Wrangell, Sitka, Ketchikan, Seattle, and Vancouver Island.

I originally thought about printing up clip art animals for C and R to glue onto paper towel tubes, but they both wanted to paint their own totem poles.  I still might print the clip art for R - you will see why in a minute.

C put a lot of thought into how he wanted his totem pole to look.

Once he had a plan, he painted the paper towel tube and after it dried, he added details with a black Sharpie marker.

His totem pole, from top to bottom, includes a raven, crab, frog, wolf, and grizzly bear. 

R loves to paint and she went right to work on this project.  If you are a regular reader, then you know that R likes to do her own thing!

 When she was finished, she told me her totem pole is a scarf for C's animals!!!  She cracks me up.  I couldn't get her to smile or do anything other than be silly for this photo!

Our next step for this project is making up stories to go along with the totem poles.  I'll post them soon.

I am linking this to stArt at A Mommy's Adventures and Kids Get Crafty at Red Ted Art.

Bottle Stamped Forget-Me-Nots

The above photo is a page from Alaska ABC Book by Charlene Kreeger and Shannon Cartwright.  Alaska's state flower is the forget-me-not.

Last spring, we used the bottle stamping technique from Frugal Family Fun Blog to make flowers and I thought this technique would be perfect for making forget-me-nots.

C and R each used an empty 1 liter seltzer bottle and pressed the bottom of it into light blue paint.  Then, they stamped the design onto construction paper.

Once they were done with this step, we left the papers to dry.

When the blue paint was dry, they used the caps from the same seltzer bottles to create the center of the flowers.

They dipped the caps in yellow paint and then in the center of their flowers.  If your child is under three and will put the cap in his or her mouth, just leave it screwed onto the bottle for the stamping.

Alaska - Northern Lights Art

We are currently learning about the state of Alaska, and we began our state study by reading Alaska ABC Book by Charlene Kreeger and Shannon Cartwright.  The photo above is the "N" page from the book.  This book gave us some good facts and it was definitely age appropriate, but I was a little bothered by some of the silliness.  For example, P is for Polar Bear in a Parka and M is for Moose in Mukluks.

After reading the book, we watched this short, informative online segment about the northern lights and why they appear in the sky.  C mentioned that he saw an episode of Toot & Puddle about the northern lights.  I tried to find the episode online, but I was unsuccessful.

I gave C and R construction paper and oil pastels and told them to create their own northern lights.  Once they were done, they used black watercolor paint to create the dark sky all around the lights.

They were creating their art early in the morning and the kitchen was so bright that C had to wear his sunglasses!

This is C's interpretation of Aurora Borealis or the northern lights:

Here is R's interpretation:

I would love to see the real thing someday!  Amazing!