Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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The Alamo

How to Build the Alamo: Day 5 Hands-on Learning (Free Texas Unit Study)

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Learning how to build the Alamo was another fun change to our schedule as we have continued in our series of hands-on homeschooling learning.

We thought it would be fun to sketch a quick layout of the Alamo as we read about it.

Having studied about the Alamo before, we pulled out The Alamo, An Illustrated History, book by George Nelson and the other book, The Alamo, an Illustrated History by Edwin Hoyt to study a bit of the architecture.

We also looked at how to build the Alamo on ehow and Tiny liked that model.

We gathered a few supplies and needed some more:

  • 4 sugar cube boxes and we only did the outline of the wall. If you decide to do the interior walls as well, you will need double or triple that depending how thick you want the walls on your model.
  • we used an old pizza box
  • glue gun and glue
  • marker
  • ruler
  • spray paint of your choice
  • couple of straws

Again, though this project looks easy like simply gluing a bunch of sugar cubes together, but it really did require planning, calculating and deciphering to understand the bell shaped parapet.

Looking at the pictures The Alamo, An Illustrated History to view old drawings of the Alamo to learning its history helped to get an idea of how to build it.

Tiny really had fun making this. We grabbed some Spanish moss and miniature cactus after Tiny painted it and otherwise he really loved the break in our schedule while focusing on understanding the history of the Alamo.

I created a Texas lapbook with my older set of boys and it is a subscriber only freebie.

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Look at these other hands-on activities.

Day 1: Make a Hair Hygrometer,

Day 2: Desert Sand Art,

Day 3: Make Zopf (Swiss Style Bread),

Day 4: Exploring Edible Cactus (Learning about the Desert) and

365 Days Hands-On Homeschool Activities – One for EVERY Day of the Year

How to Build the Alamo. Learning about Texas. Grab your free unit study and lapbook @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Hugs and love ya

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

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

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.

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.

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.

51rj51ik8el-_sy391_bo1204203200_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.

  • 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.

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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.

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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.

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

If you need the Alamo resources, be sure to grab them here at my category for Texas and The Alamo Unit Study.

Hugs and love ya,

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Homeschool History Copywork – William B. Travis Quote

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Homeschool History Quote by William B. Travis for studying Texas or The Alamo Unit Study @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Today, I have the first activity to go with our Texas theme which is homeschool history copywork, a William B. Travis quote.

Copywork is a valuable skill way beyond the elementary years and I have continued copywork for my boys all the way through middle and high school.

Even at the middle and high school years, it’s still important to model writing that stirs the emotions. So copywork is not just for struggling writers.

The value of copywork goes beyond just copying the words, but it is memory work, learning history through sayings from people of the past and comprehending important events from the past.

In other words, if I can tie in memory work, history and language arts to a topic, it makes our unit study more complete and appealing.

For an older kid, copywork shouldn’t take the place of a well-researched essay, but it can be a segue to it. For my boys, copywork can be a brainstorming session and every good writer wants an abundance of brainstorming ideas.

As long as you don’t make copywork babyish, teens normally end up still enjoying it.

Using a cursive font for older kids is another way to have them practice and read cursive.

Today, Tiny read The Travis Letter – “Victory or Death” and then did some easy copywork.

Grab this first activity for our newest homeschool history unit study – The Alamo below.

Copywork William B. Travis quote for a Texas or Alamo Unit Study

Also, grab Homeschool History The Alamo – 17 Free Resources.

Hugs and love ya,

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