Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Activity, Change, Progress

hands-on activities

10 Westward Expansion History Fun Coloring Pages

| Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have 10 Westward Expansion coloring pages that enhance all the free unit studies here or ones that you’re planning. Also, you love my page BEST Westward Ho Unit Study and Lapbook!

Sometimes the boys want to create their own covers for the lapbooks or notebooks from coloring pages.

10 Westward Expansion History Fun Coloring Pages. If you're studying about The Oregon Trail, Lewis and Clark or Westward Ho, your kids will love these pages. Click here to grab them!

I know with younger children, it can be hard to find history coloring pages based on everyday life.

But these coloring pages work well with middle and high school too if your kid still loves to color.

WESTWARD HO HISTORY FUN COLORING PAGES

I made sure they have no baby-ish looking clip art.

I have always tried to use museum quality coloring pages when the coloring mood did strike with my boys.

Also, instead of me adding titles on pages or naming the pages, this allows you to use the clip art/coloring pages any way you want to.

Whether it is a cover page, notebooking page, journal page or just to enrich a topic. You have the flexibility.

HOW TO EASILY BRING HISTORY ALIVE

Here is what the 10 page download contains. I put a few key words to explain each picture on the page. This way you can use the coloring pages as title pages too.

Page 3:  Native American on horseback,
Page 4: Lewis and Clark Trek,
Page 5: Lewis and Clark and The Piegan,
Page 6: Lewis and Clark Exploring Rivers,
Page 7: The Plains Indians,
Page 8: Pioneer Life,
Page 9: Moving West,
Page 10: Westward Ho,
Page 11: Settlers, and
Page 12: Fur Trappers and Mountainmen

Grab your fun copy below!

10 Westward Expansion History Fun Coloring Pages. If you're studying about The Oregon Trail, Lewis and Clark or Westward Ho, your kids will love these pages. Click here to grab them!

Also, these coloring pages go well with these free unit studies and lapbooks:

Hugs and love ya,

Texas Native American History Quick Unit Study (Middle School)

| 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I’m sharing a few links for a Texas Native American history unit study. Also, look at my page Homeschool Middle School for more fun tips. Also, look at my Native American Unit Study to learn about other Native Americans.

Since the time my kids were little we’ve always incorporated some of our Texas heritage and history.

Studying Texas history has so many topics to choose from.

Texas Native American History Quick Unit Study (Middle School)

However, studying about Native Americans will help to keep Texas history in a manageable chunk.

First, look at ten of the tribes native to Texas.

I’ve tried to hone in on these in this roundup so this topic doesn’t become overwhelming.

10 Tribes Native to Texas.

  • Apache
  • Atakapa
  • Caddo
  • Coahuiltecan Region
  • Comanche
  • Jumano
  • Karankawa
  • Kiowa
  • Tonkawa
  • Wichita

Glancing at the geography of Texas will help your kids to understand how each group adjusted to their surroundings.

Geography of Texas

The Geography of Texas.
Learn about the plant and animal life.

Texas Native American History Lesson Plans/Guides/Resources/

Download these lesson plans for activities and background information.
Download this 17 page free guide for background information about Texas Native Americans: The Texas Revolution: Exactly Who Where the Texans.
Brief overview of the major tribes that existed at the time of the first European exploration.

Fascinating background information about the Karankawa. A free 10 page download.

Heads up: You’ll want to look this over and glean the points you want to teach your child because it addresses all issues the Karankawa faced including very intimate ones.

And no, there are no pictures, just text. But I’ve listed it because it is so comprehensive in helping us to understand their every day life and one of the better resources I found.

Even though it’s says it’s a fourth grade lesson plan, it really is helpful for comparing tribes.

Texas Native American History Quick Unit Study (Middle School). Click here to grab it!

Understand the importance of the buffalo to the Comanche. Grab this free curriculum guide.
Learn about smoke signals like the Karankawa used.

Free Native Tribes of Texas 26 page download with facts and pictures.
Texas Indians: Southeastern and Gulf Cultures.
Background information on Jumano, Caddo, Karankawa, and Comanche.

Texas Native American Hands-on Ideas

Make a grinding tool from a flat rock.
Cook corn soup like the Caddo.
Make teepee cupcakes like the Comanche and Apache (okay maybe not cupcakes)
If you’re real adventurous make this wiki-up like the semi-permanent homes of the Coahuiltecans and Karankawa.		Paint on pebbles.
Make a Caddo circle book.
Make a pipecleaner wigwam.
Eat prickly pear like the Coahuiltecans.
The Comanche dominated the Plains of Texas and were great warriors and horsemen. Grab this free horse lapbook.

Also, grab my free Plains Indians unit study and lapbook.

▼ Exploring to Revolution - Plains Indians lapbook and HUGE homeschool unit study.

Karankawa YouTube
Comanche YouTube
Apache YouTube

Texas Beyond History – Virtual Museum of Texas’ Cultural Heritage. From an interactive map, to games to lesson plans to history, this site is one of the ones we have enjoyed most and spent hours on. Prepare to stay here on this site for days.

From the website: Texas Beyond History covers not only the prehistory and history of Texas’ true native peoples, but also much of the early history of the Spanish, French, Mexican, and Anglo explorers, missionaries, soldiers, miners, traders, and settlers who lived and often died in Texas. And later history, too—that of German farmers, Black freedmen, and Mexican-American laborers among many others.

Caddo. Be sure to click through to learn their history and how they live today. Also, click on the games page and download this printable free board game.

Language Arts

Plains Indians Free Writing Prompts. For Elementary, Middle and High School Homeschooled Kids

Books

Texas Field Trips

The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.
San Jacinto Museum. Also grab the HUGE 449 page free Educator’s Guide with lesson plans, pictures, and activity ideas.
Washington on the Brazos Historic Site. We’ve been many times because it’s a great place to visit. It is the final home of the last president of the Republic of Texas along with a hands on history room and museum. Be sure to download the educator’s guides at the bottom of the page.

Also, you may love to use my 10 Westward Expansion History Fun Coloring Pages! You know the quality of my work here and I don’t use baby-ish clip art. The coloring pages are suitable for middle school even in high school.

Here is what the 10 page download contains. I put a few key words to explain each picture on the page. This way you can use the coloring pages as title pages too.

Page 3:  Native American on horseback,
4: Lewis and Clark Trek,
5: Lewis and Clark and The Piegan,
6: Lewis and Clark Exploring Rivers,
7: The Plains Indians,
8: Pioneer Life,
9: Moving West,
10: Westward Ho,
11: Settlers, and
12: Fur Trappers and Mountainmen

You can grab them below!

Texas Native American History Quick Unit Study (Middle School). Your middle school kids will love this free AWESOME unit study to learn about the first Native Americans of Texas. Click here to grab it!

You may also love these hands-on ideas that can bring this unit study alive!

This is suppose to be a quick unit study but we love studying about Texas history. So I hope you’ll find a few of these resources inspiring and helpful.

Hugs and love ya,

20 Ancient Civilization History Coloring Pages

| 13 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have 20 ancient civilization history coloring pages that match up to my units here on my blog. Also, look at my page Ancient Civilizations for more ideas. The coloring pages were free for a limited time, but I think you’ll still want them.

Sometimes the boys want to create their own covers for the lapbooks or notebooks from coloring pages.

I know with younger children, it can be hard to find history coloring pages based on everyday life.

20 Ancient Civilization History Coloring Pages

But these coloring pages work well with middle and high school too if your kid still loves to color. I made sure they have no baby-ish looking clip art.

I have always tried to use museum quality coloring pages when the coloring mood did strike with my boys.

Ancient Civilization History Activities

First, look at these ancient history posts.

We have used various museum quality history coloring books through the years that have made a big difference in how my boys understood history in the early years.

20 Ancient Civilization History Coloring Pages at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus. You'll love adding these to your unit studies or notebooking.

I think clip art should be as real as possible and based on real events in history. They are not always easy to find. I wish I could draw my own history clip art, but you don’t want me to draw for you. Just saying.

Anyway, I collect the clip art as I find it.

Here is what the 20 page download contains. I put a few key words to explain each picture on the page. This way you can use the coloring pages as title pages too.

Learning History Through Coloring

Page 3: Ancient Egypt Court,
Page 4: Ancient Egypt Spinning,
Page 5: Ancient Egypt Life of the Royals,
Page 6: Ancient Egypt Battles,
Page 7: Ancient Egypt The Nile,
Page 8: Life Along the River – The Nile,
Page 9: Metal Workers & Crafts of Ancient Egypt,
Page 10: Egyptian Hieroglyphics,
Page 11: Egyptian Queen Cleopatra,
Page 12: Aztecs Floating Gardens,
Page 13: Aztecs,
Page 14: Aztec Life,
Page 15: Mayans,
Page 16: Ancient Greece Wedding,
Page 17: Ancient Greek Galley,
Page 18: Ancient Greece Crafts,
Page 19: Ancient Greece Bank,
Page 20: Athens,
Page 21: Spartan Warrior and
Page 22: The Vikings.

Grab your fun copy below!

20 Free Ancient Civilization History Coloring Pages @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Also, instead of me adding titles on pages or naming the pages, this allows you to use the clip art/coloring pages any way you want to.

Whether it is a cover page, notebooking page, journal page or just to enrich a topic, you have the flexibility.

20 Ancient Civilization Coloring Pages. Grab these AWESOME pages at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Also, you’ll want to download

Hugs and you know I love ya,

Hands-On Ancient Greece Study: Politics and Pottery

| 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have an Ancient Greece pottery and politics hands-on idea. Also, you’ll love my two Ancient Greece Lapbooks. Go here to Fun Ancient Greece Homeschool Unit Study and Lapbook and Free Awesome Ancient Greece Lapbook and Fun Hands-on Activities to grab both free lapbooks.

My boys have been in love with the Percy Jackson books series for years now.

It began with my oldest binge reading every single book and, soon after, my youngest was reenacting mythological Greek monster slayings.

Because they are older (ages 14 and 11) finding hands-on learning activities has been a bit of a challenge. The good news is, it’s totally worth it.

I find my boys are not only much more engaged in the material, but also retain so much more when we incorporate hands-on learning activities.

Because they already have a natural interest in Greek Mythology and Ancient Greece, this hands-on activity has been one of our most successful to date.

Ancient Greece Study: Politics and Pottery

An ostracon  is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or some other container.

In archaeology, ostraca refer to small pieces of stone or pottery that have writing scratched onto them.

Usually these pieces were broken before the writing was added – broken pieces of pottery were everywhere and easily re-used for writing. (Recycling in ancient times!)

Ancient Greece Pottery Activity

In Classical Athenian politics, when the decision at hand was to banish or exile a certain member of society, the citizens would vote by writing the name of the person on a broken piece of pottery.

If the citizens voted to do so, the person was exiled for a period of ten years from the city (this is where we get the term ostracism).

After convincing my boys that it was not an option to vote to ostracise one another, and reviewing the historic significance of ostraca, we set about making our own examples – complete with Ancient Greek writing.

Hands-On Ancient Greece Pottery Activity

For this activity, you will need the following:

  • A broken pot, or if none are available, air-dry clay to create your own ‘pottery pieces’
  • Tempura paint and paint brushes
  • A sharp instrument to carve letters (we used a ceramics tool, but many kitchen implements will also work)
  • Printable Greek Alphabet 

Our first step was finding broken pieces of pottery. In our backyard, this is not difficult to do as my sons enjoy a wide array of outdoor activities that may or may not break things from time to time.

Just in case, we also used air-dry clay to quickly create our own, easier to carve, “pottery pieces.”

Painting Ancient Grecian Pottery

After the pieces dried, we painted the pottery lightly, and then sanded it to make it appear as if the paint had worn off over time.

It was then time to carve Greek letters onto our newly formed Ostraca.

Using the sample printable, my boys experimented with greek lettering. We discussed the differences between our own and that of the ancients.

Making Letters in Greek Pottery

When we were all finished up, the boys and I were pretty impressed with the outcome.

Our pottery pieces really did look like something you might see in a book or museum.

To make it official, my youngest actually buried them and then dug them back up – not only to get them authentically dirty but to pretend to be an archeologist for the afternoon.

Ancient Greece Pottery and Greek Alphabet Writing

Overall, this hands-on activity worked well for us.

The chance to learn a bit more about Ancient Greece and politics in a new democracy was certainly educational (even for me) and the pottery activity made it so much more engaging and fun!

Hands-on History Ancient Greece Activity - Politics and Pottery. Bring the study of Ancient Greece alive with this fun hands-on activity. Your kids will love learning about the meaning of the broken pieces of pottery! Click here to learn about this fun activity and oh pssst learn a bit of history!

To learn more about Ancient Greece with the kids, try these other hands-on Grecian learning activities!

Written by Shawna at Not the Former Things.

Hands-On Literature: Make Alice in Wonderland Easy Cupcakes

| Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Alice in Wonderland is probably one of my very favorite children’s books. It’s truly a great piece of literature.

And, while it’s often held up as a young children’s book, I think it’s a fantastic work for older elementary and middle school students to examine.

There are so many great lines in it. Some of my favorites are:

If you're looking for a fun and easy hands on idea to go with learning about Alice in Wonderland, your kids will love these Eat Me Cupcakes. Click here to see how to make them. Yum!

“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

“I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I am not myself.”

And the best line in the entire book: “It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” (You could write a graduate thesis about all the possible meanings of that quote.)

Since the book is such a great story, I thought it’d also be fun to add a hands-on literature activity. So we made up some Alice in Wonderland Eat Me Cupcakes!

MORE ALICE IN WONDERLAND ACTIVITIES

See how to make these with your kids!

Hands-On Literature: Make Alice in Wonderland Eat Me Cupcakes

I’ll admit: I’m not much of a home baker. So I used a few shortcuts, namely, boxed cake mix and prepared frosting. You could always make this from scratch if you wanted.

But I wanted our cupcakes to be fun and that calls for Funfetti baking mix!

Alice in Wonderland Cupcake Supplies

I also wanted them to be bright and cheery, so we went with bright blue frosting and hot pink cupcake liners.

Here’s the actual supply list:

  • One box Funfetti baking mix (You’ll need the ingredients on the box as well: eggs and vegetable oil)
  • One can Funfetti Aqua Blue Vanilla frosting (I didn’t use the fish sprinkles.)
  • Colored cupcake liners
  • White sugar pearls
Alice in Wonderland Cupcake Batter

Just a tip here: I learned (from somewhere) that using an ice cream scoop to divide the batter makes it easier to make the cupcakes even. It totally works.

Alice in Wonderland Baked Cupcakes

We baked the cupcakes according to the directions on the box.

Frosted Alice in Wonderland Cupcakes

And then frosted them with the blue frosting. Now it was time to add the decorations!

Alice in Wonderland Eat Me Cupcakes

And that’s where the sugar pearls come in! We sprinkled a few of them over the cupcakes and, on one of them, we spelled out the words “EAT ME”.

When Alice finishes drinking the potion from the bottle with the label that says “DRINK ME”, she comes across a small cake with the words “EAT ME” spelled out in raisins. After she eats the cake, she starts growing and is soon too big to fit back through the garden door.

Making Alice in Wonderland Cupcakes

That didn’t happen with us, thankfully. And it’s important to discuss why children should never, never, never eat or drink anything just because it’s there. But we knew what was in these, so we didn’t have any reason to hold back.

Baking Alice in Wonderland Eat Me Cupcakes

Chomp! They were so, so good, too.

These were so fun to make and eat! If you wanted to really have an Alice in Wonderland party, you could have a tea party and serve these alongside. Just make sure no one acts too “mad” at teatime!

If you're looking for a fun and easy hands on idea to go with learning about Alice in Wonderland, your kids will love these Eat Me Cupcakes. Click here to see how to make them! Yum.

Looking for more ways to bring literature to life? Try these ideas!