Throughout the year we have been working on our Native American History Pockets. This was something all 3 of my kids could work on as a group & I loved teaching them all together.

We used construction paper & yarn to create the books. Super simple & inexpensive.

We learned about 8 different tribes throughout the US & Canada.

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The cover of Farm Kid2’s book.
It is a 12″ x 18″ piece of construction paper cut to 12″ x 12″.

We began each pocket with the kids coloring the pieces specific to the tribe we were studying, while I read the information booklet.

This book has 9 pockets, each made from 12″ x 18″ construction paper. I folded up the bottom 6″ inches of the construction paper & stapled the sides to create the pockets.

The first pocket includes a picture dictionary, a map showing the shelters from each tribe & a comparison chart.

Throughout the year I read stories about Native Americans, typically legends. The books weren’t always on the specific tribe we were studying, but they were from a nearby area. I thought this would help the kids get a visual of the types of clothes they wore & the environment they lived in. Two of the books we enjoyed were The Story of Blue Elk and The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush. Have I mentioned how much I love Tomie dePaola? Well, I do. I think his books are fabulous.

Each pocket had an activity or two specific to the tribe, such as this mask from the Tlingit.

It was especially fun to see real life examples of masks and other items used by the Native Americans when we visited the Portland Art Museum and the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center.

In The Seminole tribe pocket, there is a recipe to make hominy. We didn’t make it.

But, in the Navajo booklet it mentions that they ate fry bread with most meals. I did attempt making fry bread. It was delicious, but not very flat.

We tried the fry bread two ways – one with cinnamon & sugar, the other with lunch served taco style.

We worked on these pockets throughout the year. When possible we did a pocket to go along with other units of study. For example, we completed The Inuit pocket during the winter when we were reading Jan Brett’s Three Snow Bears. You can find a mural to print of The Three Snow Bears on Jan Brett’s website.

I enjoyed the freedom of homeschooling & changed things up to fit our needs a couple times.

#1: The tribe the publishers chose for the NE part of the US was The Iroquis. But, I wanted to tie this unit in with Thanksgiving, so I switched the tribe we studied to the Wampanoag. I found my own information about the Wampanoag to share with the kids, but they were still able to do The Iroquis activites.

#2: This History Pocket book was geared towards grades 1-3, so some of it was a bit easy for my 11 year old. Because of this, I came up with a few activities I thought he would enjoy. The book has a wampum craft for this pocket, but I chose to have the kids make a wampum belt instead.

Since the kids were learning about the shelters of each tribe, I wanted them to craft at least one shelter. I chose a teepee when we were studying The Sioux.

I am a fan of History Pockets, & this one did not disappoint. The tribe booklets were thorough enough that the kids learned a few key things about each tribe without being overwhelmed. I especially liked that it included the first pocket, which was a quick way to see where the various tribes lived & we could easily compare their lifestyles.

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Back in November we learned about Life in Plymouth Colony using Evan Moor’s History Pockets. This was a great way for the kids to learn a little more about the pilgrims. There was reading, vocabulary, crafts & activities with very little prep from me, which was nice.

Making the Book

The book is made from 12″ x 18″ sheet of construction paper.

The cover is cut to 12″ x 12″.

To create pockets for each topic, the bottom of the 12″ x 18″ paper is folded up & stapled to make a pocket to hold all the goodies. This book had 8 pockets.

The front cover, back cover & eight pocket pages were hole punched and tied together with hand dyed yarn.

Each pocket had “words to know.” We would read the information pages to figure out what the words meant & then the boys would write down what they learned.

Each pocket also had an activity or two such as making hasty pudding (which we didn’t like) and building a keeping room

Voyage to the New World

Building a Village
The boys pretended they were the town crier. They had to think about news worthy events of the time & then stand at the front of the room & read them to the rest of us in loud voices. They loved doing this!

Working in Plymouth Colony

 The Family

What Did the Pligrims Give Us?
At the end of the unit they wrote an acrostic poem to the Pilgrims, using the words thank you. They also made a paper version of a game the pilgrims typically created from wood.

This was a quick unit completed right at Thanksgiving. I didn’t add much to it. I didn’t need to. It was just the right amount of information for the time we had.

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As part of our Westward Movement Unit, we worked on Evan-Moor’s Moving West History Pockets. I was impressed with the variety explored in this book.

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I created the books using paper grocery bags & yarn. The front cover is about 12″ x 12″. The inside pockets were cut to about 12″ x 16″. The 16″ side is folded up from the bottom 4″ and stapled to create the pocket. After each pocket was made, I hole punched them & tied them together with yarn we dyed.

There were a number of maps from the Scholastic book, Interactive 3-D Maps: American History, that we added to our pockets.

Moving West Intro Pocket
Each pocket came with great historical information, a writing project & a craft.

Exploring the Wilderness Pocket
We spent quite a bit of time on this pocket – mostly because it included Lewis & Clark. We went on two field trips to learn more about these famous fellows and the Corps of Discovery. We went to the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center in Washington and to Fort Clatsop in Oregon.

The boys each made a map from Scholastic’s 3-D map book.

We learned about the Westward Journey Nickel series from the US mint. We made rubbings of the front & back of each nickel… although, they didn’t turn out quite as well as I hoped.

We also rubbed a golden Sacajawea dollar. Years ago I worked in downtown Portland & would take the MAX to work, which is our light rail system. If you were due change after paying for your ticket, dollars were issued to you in the Sacajawea coin. I always thought that was cool.

I bought the Lewis and Clark Expedition Coloring Book at a trinket shop at the beach. The kids each colored a few pages and added them to their pocket.

Our favorite books to go along with this unit were Seaman’s Journal, the expedition told through the dog’s eyes, and American Slave, American Hero, the story of William Clark’s slave York.

The Gold Rush Pocket
On our road trip, we stopped at Columbia State Historic Park and explored a “real” mining town. It is in California, right off Highway 49. It was a great field trip to go with this pocket.

Oregon Trail Pocket
The Oregon Trail pocket got a little extra attention. It is kind of a big deal around here, since we are near the end. We even visited the End of the Oregon Trail historical site.

Native American Struggles Pocket
We learned about how the Native Americans used the land and how white man basically took it all away from them.

We added a Trail of Tears map from the Scholastic book.

And, 5 More Pockets
We worked on 5 other pockets, as well, including Homesteading the Great Plains (which I loved mainly due to Laura Ingalls Wilder) & Building the Railroads.

I enjoyed this unit a lot. The activities from the History Pockets book were great, and made even better with our additions. We made a Covered Wagon Craft that I have always wanted to do. I could have expanded on this subject all year. But, we had other things to learn…

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