Archive for the 'History' Category

Oct 03 2008

Go native! Reading about and eating with the North American Indians

the iroquois native american histories Nathan’s class is learning about the Native Americans and has to do a report on their favorite American Indian tribe. Nathan liked the North Eastern tribes, so we chose to study the Iroquois, a group of six tribes located in New York State, Ontario, Canada, and Wisconsin.

Research and books

The Internet is full of junk when it comes to Native American topics. Since the Wikipedia section on the Iroquois is locked for “vandalism,” I questioned the information there. Luckily, our local library has a healthy selection of books on Native American culture just for children. We checked out:

The report assignment

Native North American Foods and Recipes As part of their project they have to do an oral report and artwork or a craft of some kind. My husband had the brilliant idea that Nathan make some Native American food to serve his class. I liked this idea because it was relatively inexpensive and I didn’t have to store a diorama after the project was over. I thought that Nathan’s classmates would enjoy eating Native American food, too.

I checked out another children’s book, Native North American Foods and Recipes by Bobbie Kalman. Since this book had more facts than recipes I also reserved two adult Native American cookbooks:

  • Foods of the Americas: Native Recipes and Traditions by Fernando and Marlene Divina and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. This book is in traditional cookbook format with chapters broken up into appetizers, soups, meats, birds, game, breads, desserts and beverages.
  • Spirit of the Harvest: North American Indian Cooking by Beverly Cox and Martin Jacobs. This cookbook is divided into geographic regions, so we found this more helpful for the project. Nathan and I decided to make maple syrup candy and Algonquian Maple Popcorn Balls. Yes, the Algonquians are not part of the Iroquois Confederacy. However, all Northeastern Indians had access to corn and maple syrup, so I think we can fudge it. I’m sure all native Northeastern peoples did some sort of popcorn and maple dish.

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Sep 26 2008

Election 2008: More books for kids on politics and American History

Published by Anne-Marie under Activities,Books,History

With the election coming up, it’s wonderful to see all book publishers releasing new books for families and children on the election process and American history. Here are a few more to add to the list:

There are a few more book suggestions at my post Join me at the DNC: children’s books on politics, presidents, and elections. And if you’re more into videos than books, check out Election 2008: Schoolhouse Rock! The Election Collection.

Help children explore the political process

Here are some online resources for you to help your children learn more about democracy and the election:

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Sep 25 2008

Election 2008: Schoolhouse Rock! The Election Collection

Published by Anne-Marie under History,Television

school house rock election collection Yesterday, Disney released Schoolhouse Rock: The Election Collection, a special limited edition DVD collection of the ABC three-minute animated shorts we used to watch on Saturday mornings back in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Schoolhouse Rock: The Election Collection features classic election-themed tunes including “I’m Just a Bill,” “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” and “I’m Gonna Send Your Vote to College.” The DVD also features a new-to-DVD song called “Presidential Minute” with two surprise endings and an Election Tracking Kit with stickers to help you keep track of the actual voting results in all 50 states with your children on election night.

Not only will this collection bring back memories for all you Gen X and Gen Y parents out there, this is a great way to share the political process with your children.

Here’s a sample:

(Thanks to Click-comm.com for the review copy.)

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Aug 23 2008

Join me at the DNC: children’s books on politics, presidents, and elections

Published by Anne-Marie under Activities,Books,History

big tent I’ll be blogging at MOTHERS Book Bag for MOTHERS and the National Association of Mothers’ Centers (NAMC) this week at The Big Tent in Denver during the Democratic National Convention. So, I will be too busy to blog here. However, I urge parents – no matter what their political affiliation – to watch the convention, read the newspaper and Internet coverage, and talk with your children about it.

There will be a lot of speeches of course, (click here for the schedule) so you may just want to save up your viewing time for Barack Obama’s acceptance speech on Thursday live from Invesco Field in Denver. (Rumor has it that Bruce Springsteen will be warming up the crowd.)

I’ll be home with Nathan and Lucie watching the hoopla and dancing to The Boss.

In the meanwhile, check out these children’s books on politics, presidents and elections:

  • presidential elections adn other cool factsPresidential Elections: And Other Cool Facts by Syl Sobel for ages  nine to 12. Young readers will learn: Who can run for president? Who can vote? What is the Electoral College? What is a third-party candidate? What if something happens to the president? Some of the unusual facts they’ll discover include: Which Republican president had a Democrat for his vice president? How many candidates have won the popular vote but lost the election? You may learn some things, too.
  • America Votes: How Our President Is Elected by Linda Granfield for ages nine to 12. Granfield breaks down information about the American electoral process into manageable chunks. Subjects range from qualifications for voting, the troubled history of voting rights, the Electoral College, campaign finance, and election fraud. Granfield delights devotes the chapter “Animal Farm” to animal metaphors, including the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant, and “Pass the ‘Lection Cake, Please!” to foods associated with various presidents.
  • If I Ran For PresidentIf I Ran For President by Catherine Stier for ages four to eight, Six  children take turns explaining the election process as if they were running for president. They discuss their decision to run, campaigning, primaries and conventions, debating, being interviewed, meeting the public, voting, and being sworn in on Inauguration Day.
  • Grace for President by Kelly Dipucchio for ages four to eight. Grace discovers that no women have ever been president, and decides she’ll be president one day. A teacher at her school decides to stage a school-wide election for president to teach the kids about the electoral process.
  • If I Were President by Catherine Stier. This book provides an introduction to the responsibilities of the present for children ages four to eight. 
  • Duck for President by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin. The book has been updated for the 2008 election:

duck for president 2008Our fellow Americans, It is our pleasure, our honor, our duty as citizens to present to you Duck for president in 2008.

Here is a duck who began in a humble pond, who worked his way up to farmer, to governor, and now perhaps the highest office in the land.

Some say if he walks like a duck and talks like a duck, he is a duck.

We say if he walks like a duck and talks like a duck, he will be the next president of the United States of America.

Thank you for your vote.

It’s my favorite election book of all. See the video based on the Duck for President book.

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Aug 07 2008

Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami | Olympic cooking and book activities for children

Published by Anne-Marie under Activities,History,Movies

Muhammad Ali Made in Miami

Click here for a round up of Olympic themed children’s book activities and children’s cooking activities.

Just in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, PBS Home Video is releasing Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami. The movie examines the time Ali spent in Miami after he returned from the 1960 Rome Olympics. It was a crucial time of transformation for him, not only from an amateur boxer to a pro, but his personal journey from being Cassius Clay into the legendary Muhammad Ali.

Though original footage and interviews we see Ali’s life in Overtown, the African-American side of Miami that was considered the “Harlem South” of its day. We learn about his training at the famous Fifth Street Gym in Miami Beach from the people he worked with like his trainer, Angelo Dundee. The movie also explores Ali’s relationship to the Nation of Islam, his friendship with Malcolm X, and his refusal to be drafted and fight in the Vietnam War.

It’s amazing in a time where a presidential candidate’s Muslim sounding name stirs up so much prejudice to realize how influential Muhammad Ali was and how loved he still is today. Ali’s story reflects so much going on in the early ’60s – the fight for civil rights, the black separatist movement, and the resistance by so many young people to the Vietnam War.

Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami is an amazing documentary. I just wish it was longer. Also, it is appropriate for older children, but does deal with adult subjects like prejudice, the assassination of Malcolm X, and shows some fairly brutal boxing footage. For more information on the DVD, see Richard Marcus at BlogCritics review.

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Feb 16 2008

Exploring your Jewish ancestry through TV and food

Recently in school, Nathan had to write the story of his ancestry. It was part of what his class was learning about the United States as a nation of immigrants. Since Paul and my families’ backgrounds are complex – we have ancestors from England, Wales, Scotland, France, Denmark, Germany and Greece who immigrated as long ago as the 1600s and as recently as 1960 – the paper ended up being two pages. Needless to say this was a fairly intense assignment for a second grader. (It’s part of the Core Knowledge curriculum – see What Your Second Grader Needs to Know.)

the jewish americansNathan had a hard time understanding that my father, who was born in England, was both English and Jewish. It was even more confusing that my dad became a citizen when he was a kid and was more American than English having grown up in Brooklyn in the ’20s and ’30s and serving as an American soldier in World War II.

Exploring through TV and video

Just around this time, PBS was showing their wonderful documentary, The Jewish Americans. If Nathan was older, I would have had him watch watch it with me to understand more about Jewish immigrants and how they contributed to American society. I only caught the first marvelous episode, so I was happy to receive a review copy from Click-Comm.com of the newly released DVD so I could watch the episodes I missed. The description:

The Jewish Americans is a three-night (6 hour) documentary that explores 350 years of Jewish American history. Written and directed by award-winning filmmaker David Grubin, The Jewish Americans is a journey through time, from the first settlement in 1654 to the present. It is about the struggle of a tiny minority who make their way into the American mainstream while, at the same time, maintaining a sense of their own identity as Jews. Focusing on the tension between identity and assimilation, The Jewish Americans is quintessentially an American story, which other minority groups will find surprisingly familiar. Louis D. Brandeis, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Henry Morgenthau, Hank Greenberg, Betty Friedan, Molly Goldberg, Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar, and Tony Kushner are all interviewed for the documentary.

PBS’s The Jewish Americans website also has video outtakes, links to the history of being Jewish in America, and a place to share your own story.

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Nov 13 2007

What did they eat at the first Thanksgiving feast?

Published by Anne-Marie under History,Holidays,Recipes

We tend to think that Thanksgiving is all about pumpkin pie, turkey, mashed potatoes, yams and cranberries. In reality, the first Thanksgiving meal in 1621 celebrated by the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians didn’t feature any of those items. Historians know for certain that they ate venison and wild fowl. They probably didn’t have much in the way of vegetables that time of year, and they didn’t have ovens in which to make cakes and pies. In fact, there were probably too stuffed on meat to care about eating something sweet. (For more information about the First Thanksgiving, go to History.com and EnjoyMA)

So what could have been on the menu? This comes from Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation via History.com.

Foods that may have been on the menu

pilgrim-thanksgiving-feastSeafood: cod, eel, clams, lobster (now this is my idea of a great feast!)
Wild Fowl: wild turkey, goose, duck, crane, swan, partridge, eagles
Meat: venison (deer or elk), seal
Grain: wheat flour, Indian corn
Vegetables: pumpkin, peas, beans, onions, lettuce, radishes, carrots
Fruit: plums, grapes

Foods not on the menu

Ham: There is no evidence that the colonists had butchered their pigs though they had brought such animals with them from England.
Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes: These were not common.
Corn on the Cob: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year.
Cranberry Sauce: The colonists had cranberries but no sugar.
Pumpkin Pie: Hard to make without sugar, plus the recipe didn’t exist at this time. However, the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin.
Chicken/Eggs: We know that the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it’s unknown how many they had left at this point or whether the hens were still laying.
Milk: No cows had been aboard the Mayflower, though it’s possible that the colonists used goat milk to make cheese.

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