Native Americans...

[momto2Cs]

Thanks to you ladies I found the books we'll use for science next year - we're doing biomes and someone in some post somewhere her mentioned the "One Small Square" series, which looks awesome, so thank you!

 

Now, I am looking for a good spine and/or series on Native Americans and early settlers. My kids will be in 3rd and 1st grades next year, and this is what they want to study. Recommendations please?

Edited November 5, 2008 by momto2Cs
edited for spelling... oops!

[5Youngs]

I have some older books that my 4th and 6th graders have enjoyed.

Sonia Bleeker has written 12 books on different tribes in the 1950s.

They are easy reading and contain cute b&w drawings and maps.

 

Navajo- herders, weavers and silversmiths

and

Horsemen of the Western Plateaus the Nez Perce Indians

are the two that I have.

 

The Pueblo by Charlotte and David Yue is good and in print.

The Life of John Ross Cherokee Chief by Electa Clark is also good.

 

Hope this helps!

[Pink Fairy]

We've been working on the Evan Moore History Pockets book on Native Americans. Today I downloaded from the Super Member Area at HOAC the lapbook on Native Americans. It looks great--very meaty--and I think it should be available for all members in a month or so. They have a level for younger ages and another level for the olders.

 

A caution: If I had to do it over, I'd skip the History Pockets. I don't see myself buying any more. It's a great concept, but it's almost all busy work. Coloring, cutting, and pasting pictures of Indians pretty much sums it up so far.

[lulubelle]

hi, I just decided to do american history for the k year - here is what we've used so far. Just individual books from the library.

 

The Very First Americans by Cara Ashrose

A Day in The Life Of A Native American by Helbrough

 

They were a great overview of the subject.

We also got into the explorers too - my ds really was into it: Columbus, Cabeza de Vaca, and DeSoto were our main focus.

There is an amazing book about de Vaca called We asked for Nothing - I strongly recommend it!

We followed with the Roanoke colony; Roanoke: the lost colony by Yolen and into Jamestown; Sam Collier and the founding of Jamestown by Ransom

Now we are on to the Mayflower; If you sailed oon the Mayflower in 1620,

If you lived in Colonial Times, Samuel Eaton's Day, and Three Young Pilgrims.

I just requested a bunch of books from the library on other colonies and about the 13 colonies as a hold, but haven't written them down yet.

Sorry this is not really a series or spine, but how we have done it, hope this is helpful, Lauren

[momto2Cs]

Thanks so much! My library has some of the Bleeker books so I will look into those, and The Very First Americans looks great!

 

I think we may, as cautioned, skip Evan Moor's Pockets. My kids are not huge on cutting and pasting! I think we'll try More Than Moccasins instead.

[Stacia]

You might like Who Really Discovered America?

 

The Oyate website also has a list of Native American resources that Native Americans recommend.

 

The Corps of Re-Discovery has American Indian resources/links too.

[Pink Fairy]

My dd loved More Than Moccasins! I checked it out from the library, even though we weren't studying Native Americans at the time, and she did many of the activities on her own just for fun. She's 11, btw, although your dc could do the activities with your help.

[Carol in Cal.]

I like "The Matchlock Gun" for sort of the settlers' view of Native Americans without getting all gory. As much as I think we need to look at the POV of the NA's, it is so pushed now that it is almost hard to convey the settlers' POV without going looking for it.

 

I like "The Wrath of Coyote" regarding CA Bay Area NA's around the time of the first contact with Europeans. I'm not sure whether it is still in print, though, and it's really for kids who are older than yours. I think that you would have to do some paraphrasing to read it to them.

 

"Island of the Blue Dolphins" is a great read aloud, even for that age. It is based on a true story of a CA Native American woman who was stranded alone on an island for a number of years and then brought to a Mission by the Spanish explorers. It is written as if it is an autobiography by that woman.

 

"Weaving an American Tradition" is a great book about California Indigenous culture that is persistent down to this day--I think it's important to remember and teach that the tribes have not entirely died out. They are not just gone forever.

 

For your own reading, "Ishii In Two Worlds" is great re. CA NA. "Hawaii" covers the Polynesian diaspora very effectively, and presents native Hawaiian culture very well. "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" is the definitive American History work from the NA POV. "The Conquest of Peru" is classic re. Inca culture, although it is more from the European POV and a little dated.