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history resources

Free Ancient Egypt Mehen Printable Board Game (Hands-on History)

March 11, 2017 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I created a free Ancient Egypt Mehen printable board game to go with our Ancient Civilizations – Egypt Unit Study.

We have been reading through the book Cleopatra: Queen of Egypt (Historical Notebooks) and I whipped back out the Ancient Egypt Mehen printable board game I made when we studied Ancient Egypt the third time. 

Look on my page history games for more fun ideas.

Grab this free and fun printable board game when studying Ancient Egypt. It's Mehen or the snake game for hands on history. Get it over @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Then, I realized something just awful which is I hadn’t shared the free printable Mehen board game here with you.

First, look at some of these books about Ancient Egypt.

17 Ancient Egypt Books & Resources for Kids Who Love Reading and Being Read To

Add some of these books to your home library and use them for a day of learning or for unit studies.

Image for The Egypt Game

The Egypt Game

The first time Melanie Ross meets April Hall, she’s not sure they have anything in common. But she soon discovers that they both love anything to do with ancient Egypt. When they stumble upon a deserted storage yard, Melanie and April decide it’s the perfect spot for the Egypt Game. Before long there are six Egyptians, and they all meet to wear costumes, hold ceremonies, and work on their secret code. Everyone thinks it’s just a game until strange things start happening. Has the Egypt Game gone too far?

Image for Tales of Ancient Egypt (Puffin Classics)

Tales of Ancient Egypt (Puffin Classics)

These stories include the great myths - of Amen-Ra, who created all the creatures in the world; of Isis, seaching the waters for her dead husband Osiris; of the Bennu Bird and the Book of Thoth. But there are also tales told for pleasure about magic, treasure and adventure - even the first ever Cinderella story.

Image for The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt (Landmark Books)

The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt (Landmark Books)

For more than 3,000 years, Egypt was a great civilization that thrived along the banks of the Nile River. But when its cities crumbled to dust, Egypt’s culture and the secrets of its hieroglyphic writings were also lost. The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt explains how archaeologists have pieced together their discoveries to slowly reveal the history of Egypt’s people, its pharaohs, and its golden days.

Image for The Buildings of Ancient Egypt

The Buildings of Ancient Egypt

Uses archeological evidence to describe the construction, decoration, and furnishings of ancient Egyptian tombs, pyramids, and homes

Image for Science in Ancient Egypt (Science of the Past)

Science in Ancient Egypt (Science of the Past)

Discusses the achievements of the ancient Egyptians in science, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, agriculture, and technology.

Image for Great Ancient Egypt Projects: You Can Build Yourself

Great Ancient Egypt Projects: You Can Build Yourself

From reed boats, papyrus, and amulets, to pyramids, pharaohs, and mummies, Great Ancient Egypt Projects You Can Build Yourself explores the fascinating lives of ancient Egyptians through more than25 hands-on building projects and activities. Great Ancient Egypt Projects You Can Build Yourself gives readers today a chance to experience how the ancient Egyptians lived, cooked, worked, worshipped, entertained themselves, and interacted with their neighbors through building projects that use common household supplies.Detailed step-by-step instructions, diagrams, and templates for creating each project are combined with historical facts and anecdotes, biographies, and trivia for the real-life models of each project. Together they give kids a first-hand look at daily life in ancient Egypt.

Image for The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt (Dover Children's Classics)

The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt (Dover Children's Classics)

Chebron, the young son of an Egyptian high priest, and Amuba, a young slave in the boy's household, are close friends; but their lives are greatly altered when Chebron accidentally kills a cat, an animal held sacred by the ancient Egyptians. Forced to flee for their safety, the boys and their companions begin a long and dangerous journey. A thrilling adventure story, this is also a tale packed with historical facts. Among other fascinating details, young readers learn about the Egyptian religion and geography, how the Nile was used for irrigation, and how the Egyptians made war and were prepared for burial. A captivating book that accurately describes life in a once magnificent civilization, this volume will especially appeal to youngsters fascinated by the life and customs of ancient Egypt.

Image for A History of Ancient Egypt: From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid (A History of Ancient Egypt, 1)

A History of Ancient Egypt: From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid (A History of Ancient Egypt, 1)

The ancient world comes to life in the first volume in a two book series on the history of Egypt, spanning the first farmers to the construction of the pyramids. Famed archaeologist John Romer draws on a lifetime of research to tell one history's greatest stories; how, over more than a thousand years, a society of farmers created a rich, vivid world where one of the most astounding of all human-made landmarks, the Great Pyramid, was built. Immersing the reader in the Egypt of the past, Romer examines and challenges the long-held theories about what archaeological finds mean and what stories they tell about how the Egyptians lived. More than just an account of one of the most fascinating periods of history, this engrossing book asks readers to take a step back and question what they've learned about Egypt in the past. Fans of Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra and history buffs will be captivated by this re-telling of Egyptian history, written by one of the top Egyptologists in the world.

Image for Boy of the Pyramids

Boy of the Pyramids

The pictured wall of an Egyptian tomb supplied the inspiration for this unusual story, which takes place during the building of the Great Pyramid of Khufu more than 4,000 years ago. Kaffe and Sari, an Egyptian noble's son and a slave girl from the nomadic Sand People of the Sinai region, help solve a troublesome mystery and trap its culprit. All told against a colorfully detailed backdrop of ancient Egypt.

Image for The Golden Goblet

The Golden Goblet

Ranofer wants only one thing in the world: to be a master goldsmith like his beloved father was. But how can he when he is all but imprisoned by his evil half brother, Gebu? Ranofer knows the only way he can escape Gebu's abuse is by changing his destiny. But can a poor boy with no skills survive on the cutthroat streets of ancient Thebes? Then Ranofer finds a priceless golden goblet in Gebu's room and he knows his luck−and his destiny−are about to change.

Image for Seeker of Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Seeker of Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphs

In 1802, Jean-Francois Champollion was eleven years old. That year, he vowed to be the first person to read Egypt’s ancient hieroglyphs. Champollion’s dream was to sail up the Nile in Egypt and uncover the secrets of the past, and he dedicated the next twenty years to the challenge.James Rumford introduces the remarkable man who deciphered the ancient Egyptian script and fulfilled a lifelong dream in the process. Stunning watercolors bring Champollion’s adventure to life in a story that challenges the mind and touches the heart.

Image for The Egyptian Cinderella

The Egyptian Cinderella

This Egyptian spin on the classic Cinderella tale was initially recorded in the first century by a Roman historian and is retold here by folklorist Shirley Climo.

Poor Rhodopis! She has nothing—no mother or father, and no friends. She is a slave, from the far-off country of Greece. Only the beautiful rose-red slippers her master gives her can make Rhodopis smile.

So when a falcon swoops down and snatches one of the slippers away, Rhodopis is heartbroken. For how is she to know that the slipper will land in the lap of the great Pharaoh himself? And who would ever guess that the Pharaoh has promised to find the slipper’s owner and make her queen of all Egypt?

Image for Augustus Caesar's World

Augustus Caesar's World

In her unique approach, Foster weaves a story of the world around her central character; rather than focusing exclusively on geo-political events, as most textbooks do, she includes stories of scientific discovery and invention, music, literature, art, and religion. Her keen intuition for stories will especially delight and amuse youthful readers. In Augustus Caesar's World, Foster traces the seven major civilizations of Rome, Greece, Israel, Egypt, China, India, and Persia from 4500 B.C. to the time of Augustus Caesar in 44 B.C. and culminating in 14 A.D. Within this timeframe readers will learn not only the stories of Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, and Marc Antony, but also the historian Livy and how Virgil came to write the Aeneid. Foster will then take her readers all over the world to learn what was happening at this same time in China, Persia, India and so on. Foster's detailed pen and ink drawings are fresh and appealing, and her illustrated timelines give a clear sense of chronology, enriching the engaging text.

Image for The Lost Queen of Egypt: The Tomb of Nefertiti

The Lost Queen of Egypt: The Tomb of Nefertiti

For professor of Egyptology Henry Markham, this would be the crowning glory of his career: an intact tomb of Nefertiti, the great royal wife of Akhenaten and the heretic pharaoh of eighteenth dynasty Egypt, whose bust of exquisite beauty resides in the Berlin Museum, which he had searched for the last ten years. He had an unspoken passion for her only excelled by his young assistant, Steven Sinclair, whose visions and dreams of her haunted him, much to the annoyance of Helen Carter, the freelance journalist on-site who, with her business partner Mike Mitcham, the digs photographer, saw Nefertiti as a rival for his affections. Thanks to a gambling debt, Mike finds himself the proud owner of a large luxury mobile home that four Mossad agents are interested in, along with Emil Brogini, who did a drug deal with two Mossad rogue agents since deceased. The arrival of Henry's estranged sister, Millicent, with her friend Jane Evesham, a gifted clairvoyant, does nothing to improve his temper, especially when Jane tells him they are in great danger. Can the danger come from four renegade Mossad agents or Emil Bratislav Brogini, Mr. Big in Cairo, into every racket going? Jane discovers that Helen has a latent gift of clairvoyance which, with their combined powers in a séance, sends them back to the eighteenth dynasty with Nefertiti, Akhenaten, and danger around every corner as they try to discover who is trying to kill them all using a large band of Libyan bandits. They survive ambushes, assassin's knives, and chariot chases, finally getting back to their own time with Nefertiti.

Image for Pyramid

Pyramid

Pyramid is a strong resource for readers looking to expand their knowledge of ancient Egyptian civilization, history, and architecture.

Award-winning author-illustrator David Macaulay explores the philosophy of life and death in ancient Egypt through richly detailed black-and-white illustrations and clear, concise text.

Though created with middle grade readers in mind, all with interest in the topic will enjoy this impressive look at what many consider to be one of the most awesome of humankind's creations.

Image for Pharaoh's Boat

Pharaoh's Boat

With poetic language and striking illustrations, Weitzman tells the story of how one of the greatest boats of ancient Egypt came to be built and built again.In the shadow of the Great Pyramid at Giza, the most skilled shipwrights in all of Egypt are building an enormous vessel that will transport Cheops, the mighty pharaoh, across the winding waterway and into a new world. Pharaoh's boat will be a wonder to behold, and well prepared for the voyage ahead. But no one, not even the Egyptian king himself, could have imagined just where the journey of Pharaoh's boat would ultimately lead.

Image for The Winged Cat

The Winged Cat

Merit is a servant girl in the temple of cat goddesses. In a rage, Waha, the High Priest, kills a sacred car, and Merit sees him do it.But when Merit reports the evil deed to Pharaoh, Waha denies that he is guilty.

Hands-on Ancient Egypt

Though the ancient Egyptians had many games, Mehen, the snake game was popular.

(Pic. attribution)

The game was called snake because the stone board represented a coiled serpent with its head in the middle.

This could easily be made with clay too and it would probably look a little more ancient, but it would be easy enough to make if you wanted to go all out for a unit study about Ancient Egypt.

So we read up on a few rules we found and I created a game board.

We had some crafting jewels in the house and we grabbed them to use as tokens.

I wasn’t sure how this game would go over with the kids so I let the pros check it out.

Too, we all agreed it was a nice break to our day and it was  pretty inexpensive to make because I printed it off on cardstock.

I wanted it on letter size paper in case we wanted to store it in our lapbook or notebook. I put a few final touches on it and overall we had a great last few days as we took off time and played games.

Also, I love using ALL of the fun interactive lapbooks and history craft ideas by Home School in the Woods. I know you will too.

Plus, your kids will love the book Cleopatra: Queen of Egypt (Historical Notebooks) with all of it’s lift flaps and pull out maps.

Also, remember to look at our first time we studied Ancient Egypt here with this big homeschool unit study.

You’ll love these other links:

  • Ancient Egypt Narmer Crown Dough Activity
  • How to Make Smokin’ Hot Egyptian Pillars Out of Cardboard
  • Ancient Egyptian Mathematics: Build a LEGO Math Calculator

GRAB THE FREE ANCIENT EGYPT PRINTABLE BOARD GAME BELOW

Now, how to grab the free game. It’s a subscriber freebie.

That means when you sign up to follow me, you get my emails in your inbox and you get this freebie.

1) Sign up on my email list.

2) Grab the freebie now.

3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


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2 CommentsFiled Under: 1. My FREE Learning Printables {Any Topic}, Ancient Civilizations, Free Homeschool Resources, Hands-On Activities, History Based, History Resources Tagged With: ancient civilizations, ancientegypt, hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources

How to Teach History in 14 Lessons (From Daunting to Doable)

January 13, 2017 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Teaching history in 14 lessons is doable. I was so excited to review this curriculum and use it. Also, look at my page Ancient Civilizations for my ideas!

It’s hard for me to believe that I could’ve born a child who loathed history, but I did.

Beginning to teach him the same way I had his older brother, my history hater pushed back.

And he let me know there is absolutely no reason to learn history.

Explaining that history is all about the present, that fascinating treasure troves can be unearthed when we tap into the minds of brilliant people of the past and learning from both triumphs and tragedies in history sounded eloquent to only me.

However, my history naysayer wasn’t budging from his mindset or attitude.

How to Teach History in 14 Lessons (from daunting to doable). Some kids don't want all the details. Click here to read how to keep it simple.

Two things had to change (for me) and one thing was not going to change.

One change was my expectations.

Second, I had to put aside curriculum, which taught too many details.

Teach History in 14 Lessons

But what absolutely couldn’t change or that I wouldn’t compromise on was giving him a solid foundation in history.

Like all subjects, a thorough, but basic foundation is necessary because every child deserves that.

Little did I know that back when I reviewed What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization that I would refer it to many years afterward.

And it would help my highschooler cement time periods.

Although it’s written for a middle grade student, it helped my teen with the Ancient periods.

You can look at what I wrote then about how I used What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press.

History in a Nutshell

Look at three things I learned since then.

ONE/ Teaching history in broad strokes makes it manageable for those who either get overwhelmed by the details or need to know immediately the value of learning history.

It didn’t mean that my son wasn’t interested at all in history.

He needed to see the practical value immediately instead of covering it for a year chronologically.

Even though my history hater has graduated, to this day he still wants people to get to the point of what they are saying instead of patiently listening to details or a story.

Are you sure this kid is mine? I always have time to dawdle over the details of any story and especially history.

Now that my history hater is grown though, I realize that is part of his personality. Not only do we need the detailed people, but we need people who see the big picture.

I learned that it’s not just history that he could hate.

But when he learned other things, he wanted them in a nutshell first.

TWO/ Forget the story or at least for the immediate time.

A story approach works for a lot of kids and it did for my other two boys, but such a detailed approach is not necessary to form the basic cornerstones of understanding history. Move on, it’s okay.

Learn Major History Periods First

When my son wanted to learn more about a famous person or event, then he would ask to. Otherwise, I moved on to the next topic.

THREE/ Let him choose which topics or activities he wants to do, if any.

Though a hands-on approach to history is always a favorite of mine and I feel it teaches way beyond books, I allowed my son the right to make choices in how he wanted to absorb the information.

Choices or options on subjects that I am not so crazy over (math) empowers me to take information in at my leisure. Kids are not any different.

When given the option, I learned that many times my son would do the hands-on activities I suggested because he is a hands-on learner.

Value of History Broad Strokes

What I liked the most about What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization is that it breathed life into our day.

When we wanted to cover one area of history without getting overwhelmed with every event or person in a time period, we were able to do this.

And the history hat cards, which have a famous person to remember in each time period honed in on valuable cornerstones to form a framework for history.

Look at the picture below so you can see the broad sweeping time periods covered. Such a huge help to teaching history. I put the civilizations so you can see how helpful they are.

Yes, history should really be this easy and streamlined.

Key broad stokes teach history without overwhelming kids. And history hats to remember key persons in each time period @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

And What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization  is a great help if you don’t feel adequate to teach history.

Remembering 14 points about Western Civilization is a lot less intimidating than covering one time period of history in depth.

Form a framework first with the broad strokes in history, then sketch in the details, people and events at your leisure.

Fast History Approach

The curriculum is for 5th to 8th grade.

But you can easily hand it to your high school teen. It will give him a framework.

If you have a history hater, don’t feel qualified to teach history or want to cover it in broad strokes, but not compromise on the significant big picture, you’ll love What Every Child Needs to Know about Western Civilization .

Look at my original Review of What Every Child Needs to Know About Western Civilization by BrimWood Press, and these other ways to cover history, which are 10 ways to Hook Homeschooled Kids On History and 8 Ways to Teach Homeschool History Other Than Chronologically.

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


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How to Teach History in 14 Lessons to a History Hater @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

1 CommentFiled Under: Teach Homeschool History Tagged With: early American history, high school, history, history resources, historyspine, homeschool, medieval homeschool history, middleschool

Pioneer Living and Cloth Dyeing (Hands-on History)

December 22, 2016 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

If you’re learning about pioneer living or westward expansion, you’ll love this cloth dyeing hands-on history activity. Also, look at my BEST Westward Ho Unit Study and Lapbook.

I wanted to focus on a science activity that pioneers living during that time would do, which is cloth dyeing.

Pioneer Living and Cloth Dyeing (Hands-on History)

Pioneer living and cloth dyeing go hand in hand though I’m sure pioneers of that time weren’t too concerned about many different colors in their clothes.

They normally just had a few pieces of clothing.

However, when they did want color, they knew a lot about nature and how to get the colors they wanted.

Pioneer Living | Hands-on History

Pioneers and Native Americans living on the frontier knew about insects, flowers and vegetables that could be cooked up and used for color.

This method of dyeing cloths has been used from ancient civilizations down to modern times.

In our Ancient Civilization unit study (studying Pirates) we learned about how Phoenicians used a shellfish, called a Murex to make purple dye.

The name Phoenician comes from a Greek word that means purple men. Purple has come to symbolize wealth, royalty and high office.

Pioneer Living and Cloth Dyeing (Hands-on History)

Also, though when we lived in South America, we learned about natural dyeing when we took a family field trip to a family owned weaving and dyeing business.

It is always a fascinating project to learn about and we thought we would try it again with some things we had in our refrigerator and one or two things we bought (I can’t stand beets – yuck) to experiment with.

Pioneer Living and Cloth Dyeing (Hands-on History)

Look at what we gathered up.

  • Walnuts. Since we’ve done this before, we wanted to experiment with a different color than black from the opened hull. So we added whole walnuts to some cracked hulls and got a really pretty golden color.
  • Kale. This was the first time for this and we loved the lighter color and wonder what we could have added to make it brighter or maybe boiled it longer.
  • Onion skins. We used a red onion because we had them and it made an orange-ish color.
  • Beets. We loved the lighter color.
  • Blackberries. We added salt and vinegar to it to get a more vibrant color.
  • Old or new diaper. Clean of course (wink). We used an old one to cut up into blocks for fabric swatches.
Pioneer Living and Cloth Dyeing (Hands-on History)

Then we added water to four pots or pans and brought it to a boil.

After it boiled, we turned the burner down and let it simmer for about an hour on real low.

More Pioneer Living Crafts

  • National Prairie Day Easy Popsicle Stick Wagon Craft
  • Dried Apple Crafts: Hands-on Fun Shrunken Head Apple Craft for Kids
  • 7 Educational Movies for Kids About Westward Expansion
  • Pioneer Peg Dolls For Kids Westward Expansion Hands On Activities
  • No Sew Pioneer Rag Doll For Kids Westward Expansion Activity
  • 10 Westward Expansion History Fun Coloring Pages
Pioneer Living and Cloth Dyeing (Hands-on History)

We’re thinking, the longer it simmers, the darker the color after we read about how Native Americans did it.

Then we soaked the cotton fabric in the solution overnight.

There is no limit to natural materials you can use to explore and have fun with. We really had a lot of fun with this.

Pioneer Living and Cloth Dyeing (Hands-on History)

And, we found inspiration from this post on Pioneer Thinking: Making Natural Dyes from Plants, which categorizes colors by natural material to use. It is a great post to get some ideas and tips from.

Too, you may want to check out my post that goes great with this unit study, which is How To Make An Easy Ink pot & Quill Pen with Berry Ink.

I think all of your kids will love this activity and especially if you let them pick out the flowers, nuts and vegetables they want to use and do some color mixing too.

This is such a great open ended exploration activity to include all ages.

Hands-on History. Cloth dyeing has been used since ancient civilization through to frontier living @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

4 CommentsFiled Under: Geography Based, Hands-On Activities, History Based, History Resources, Science Based Tagged With: hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources, homeschoolhistory

10 Westward Expansion Hands-on History Activities

November 14, 2016 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

You’ll love these 10 westward expansion hands-on history activities. Look at my BEST Westward Ho Unit Study and Lapbook!

The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 opened up the way for westward expansion. From 1803 up to about 1840 millions of settlers and pioneers migrated west.

10 Westward Expansion Hands-on History Activities @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Hands-on Homeschool History

Life was hard back then because most of day to day life was about chores and surviving. So we have focused on hands-on activities that kids would have done while on the trail.

Today, I have rounded up 10 westward expansion activities we have done on various unit studies so that most of them are in one place for you. I use the term most loosely because we are always adding an activity or two, but these 10 hands-on history ideas will kick start your study of the westward expansion.

1. Make soap.

Look at my post here about learning history through the life of Wyatt Earp, Part 2 to make soap.

2. Make an easy ink pot, quill pen and berry ink.

Making an ink pot, quill pen and berry ink is another easy hands-on history project my sons did as we learned about westward expansion.

3. Make butter and hard tack.

Learning history through the life of Wyatt Earp, Part 1, we made butter and hardtack.

4. Play a free printable board game.

Look at our huge Westward Ho lapbook unit study and activities to print a free board game and make your own diy pioneer journal.

5. Make a diy pioneer journal.

6. Make buttermilk biscuits.

In our Lewis and Clark unit study that we revisited, we learned about cooking on the trail and made buttermilk biscuits.

7. Make an edible Louisiana Purchase map.

The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States and pioneers headed west to settle the wild frontier. Grab the activity here at the Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map.

8. Make a char cloth.

A char cloth is used to ignite tinder on fire. Look at my post here Lewis and Clark: Hands-on History. Make a Char Cloth.

9. Rent a history traveling trunk.

Traveling trunks make great additions to a unit study and museums all over have them and have different guidelines for using them. Look at my post here at 3 Homeschool Co-op History Resources Worth Exploring.

10. Make maple snow candy.

One of the most recent hands-on westward expansion activities we’ve done is attempting to make maple snow candy.

Also, don’t forget to grab the huge and free Westward Ho Homeschool Unit Study we did because it has some more ideas to spark your creativity.

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Hands-On Activities, History Resources Tagged With: hands on history, hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources, homeschoolhistory, westward expansion

Hands-on History: Make Maple Snow Candy – Pioneer Activity

November 11, 2016 | 8 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

We have done a lot of hands-on history pioneer activities while studying the pioneer period in history and we never get tired of doing them to kick off a homeschool unit study. Today, we’re making maple snow candy. Also, look at my page BEST Westward Ho Unit Study and Lapbook for more ideas.

A lot of the hands-on history activities come from a book we love, which is Heading West: Life with the Pioneers, 21 Activities (For Kids series).

Studying about pioneer life in Texas and reading about the Alamo, Tiny grabbed another easy hands-on idea from that book.

He made maple snow candy.

Pioneer Activity - Make maple snow candy when learning about pioneer life. Check out how to make it @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Now you know a good part of Texas never has snow, but we wouldn’t let a thing like that hold us back.

Because Tiny could do this without me and because it was easy and I think because it was sweet, he didn’t mind doing it.

I do have a few more hands-on history ideas planned for him to do as he studies the Alamo, but making maple snow candy was easy and fun today.

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Look at what you need and you probably get tired of me saying it, but hands-on history is always better when you have all the ingredients on hand. And we did.

Make Maple Snow Candy

  • cookie sheet – we used a disposable pan we had
  • pure maple syrup anywhere from 1/4 cup to 1 cup.
  • snow (of course vanilla ice cream works too). I was worried about wasting a good container of vanilla ice cream, but this is in the name of education, right?
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Tiny spread the “snow” or ice cream on the pan and put it back in the freezer to harden and get cold.

2-make-maple-snow-candy-for-learning-about-pioneer-times-tinas-dynamic-homeschool-plus

Next, depending on how much candy you want, you need to boil about a one-fourth of a cup to 1 cup of syrup.

After it comes to a boil, let it boil 3 or 4 minutes for soft and chewy candy and about 6 minutes for brittle candy.

3-make-maple-snow-candy-for-learning-about-pioneer-times-tinas-dynamic-homeschool-plus

Stir it every few minutes. Then carefully dribble the syrup in a thin line over your snow. It should harden instantly.

Tiny really didn’t follow any making candy kitchen rules so I’m not sure it turned out how he wanted it too, but he enjoyed making it.

And like I said, I liked the fact I didn’t have to do too much with it.

4-make-maple-snow-candy-for-learning-about-pioneer-times-tinas-dynamic-homeschool-plus

But activities like these always gives your kids a glimpse of life in the past. Hope you try this easy hands-on history.

More Pioneer Living Crafts

  • Pioneer Living and Cloth Dyeing (Hands-on History)
  • National Prairie Day Easy Popsicle Stick Wagon Craft
  • Dried Apple Crafts: Hands-on Fun Shrunken Head Apple Craft for Kids
  • 7 Educational Movies for Kids About Westward Expansion
  • Pioneer Peg Dolls For Kids Westward Expansion Hands On Activities
  • No Sew Pioneer Rag Doll For Kids Westward Expansion Activity
  • 10 Westward Expansion History Fun Coloring Pages

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8 CommentsFiled Under: Hands-On Activities, History Based, History Resources Tagged With: hands on history, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, history resources, Texas, texasunit, The Alamo

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