Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Part 2

Continuing on with our learning American history, I have some hands-on history today. Also, look at Free American History Lapbook The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp.

Hands-on history as we are learning American history through the life of Wyatt Earp, we did one more easy peazy activity for our unit study opening.

We made soap.

Now I would have loved to have made one of these cutesy, full of fragrance, pink heart shaped soaps, but I have never been able to get one of my boys to make soap like that.

American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp

So I have to settle for the science of making home made soap, which is to make suds.

Too, this recipe calls for baking soda but baking soda is not plentiful here in Ecuador because they won’t sell it.  It’s almost like it’s banned here in this country.

I had to substitute with baking powder.

We did learn some chemistry with this because we learned we can substitute baking powder for baking soda but you can’t substitute baking soda when you need baking powder.

Easy ingredients for making soap.

1/4 cup salad oil. I just used what I had.
1/4 quarter cup baking soda. We had to substitute with 3x the amount of baking soda.
Glass jar.

Add oil and soda to a pan and warm it on low heat and stir.

When it thickens, remove from heat and let it cool.  Then add 1 tablespoon of mixture with 2 cups of hot tap water in the jar.

Shake until you see suds.

Though it may seem like simple science, it was good for Tiny to understand how the things we take for granted today like bubbles and suds just did not exist then.

Of course this would be even more meaningful if we had ashes, but then again reading about making soap in the olden days was a good reading assignment to do on his own.

Next, we were ready to start our unit study so I decided to use a history magazine as our spine.

As a side note, one of my very favorite history magazines, which was Learning through History that we used a lot on our unit studies, stopped printing issues.

I have most of the issues but after they stopped printing, I started receiving another subscription from History Magazine, though it wasn’t for kids. 

HANDS-ON HISTORY FOR KIDS

I do have to look it over when we get it, but because the boys were getting older, I wanted something that wasn’t just bare bones history.

So for this unit study we are using one of the articles out of our history magazine about Wyatt Earp.

Also because it is for adults, it helps to nurture a love of history for kids who are advanced in reading too.

After he read from the magazine, I had a website that I wanted us to look at together because it is the direction we needed to go in, which is to add some science and a bit of geography.

Though Wyatt Earp is known for his famous gun fight at the OK Corral, he lived most of his life traveling and living in the desert and Southwest area as a lawman.

Check out this website Wyatt Earp Desert Lawman, which talks about Earp living most of his life in the deserts of the Southwest.

Then, even though we are finished with our science book for the year,  I love to use free resources I already have to build my unit studies.

So I knew that I had a free science magazine that talked about animals and ecosystems of the Southwest.

I shared that link with you too before, which is Free Science Magazines and the science magazine is Animals and Ecosystems of the Southwestern United States.

Be sure you download it because your child will need it to fill in the minibooks about the desert.

One book is a minibook about the states that make up the Southwestern U.S. and the second book is a triple fold book.

On the triple fold book, your child lists 8 features of the Southwestern U.S.

Though hot temperatures and cacti come to mind, Tiny found that a few other things are characteristic of this area of the United States.

Having kicked off our unit study with some fun and easy hands-on ideas, he is ready to start doing a few printables to start building our lapbook.

MORE ACTIVITIES FOR LEARNING ABOUT WYATT EARP AND THE COWBOYS

• Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp – Hands-on Activities
• Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, The Cowboys Minibooks – American History
• Free Printable History Board Game – American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp
• American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp – Free Notebooking Pages
• Learning American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp Part 2
• Gunfight at O.K. Corral – American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp
• Free American History Lapbook The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp

HOW TO GET THE FREE WYATT EARP LAPBOOK, NOTEBOOKING PAGES & BOARD GAME

Update: The lapbook is now complete. Download all the freebies below.

• Art cards by Frederic Remington about Wyatt Earp
• Cover pages for the outside of notebooking pages 1800s and 1900s. Look here how to fold ordinary worksheets to interactive minibooks.
• 8 Features of the SW United States
• The 4 Southwestern states
• American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1800s notebooking page
• American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1900s notebooking pages
• Who was Wyatt Earp
• Who were the Cowboys
• Who Was Doc Holliday
• Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Tombstone, Arizona – About Tombstone – Ed Schieffelin
• Printable Game with Game Pieces – The Most Famous Shoot Out – Gunfight at O.K. Corral

Now, how to grab the free lapbook. This is a subscriber freebie.

 1) Sign up on my list.

2) Grab the freebie now.

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