Nomads Lesson

We are starting Story of the World over this year, she wasn't really ready last year. I am glad we did it as she had fun and we did some fun things but we will be starting at the beginning again. I went through the book with her to see if she remembered any and she remembers a few things but was interested enough to go through it again. So we started on nomads today.

We read the section, talked about it quite a bit and then did two activities. First, she made cave drawings on crumpled brown paper making outlines. She made one that illustrates a hunt and then another that illustrates their camp. They are still drying now! After painting she went outside and had to create a shelter from whatever was available to her. Her first attempt was to say it was already built since we have a fort in our swing set. I had to give her credit. But explained she needed to be able to make it herself. She went to work and used the slide as part of the shelter (I let it slide) and then took apart the playhouse we have and used the roof as walls. She fortified it with playtrucks and pieces of cardboard she found.

We talked about how they would not have those amterials available. She however did not have animal hides lying around either. Then I had her spend 15 minutes laying in her homemade shelter to think about what it would be like. I encouraged her to think about all different kinds of weather and reminded her of the terrible storm we had last night. We did not see the tornadoes in case you are worried and our house was fine, no damage.

When she was done she had to tell me how she thought it would work and what nomads live like. Rhiannon has asked me this year not to publish her work here without her permission so I am not going to share what she said but it was a great lesson and I think it stuck home with her. These activities were listed in the Story of the World Activity book, a must buy if you are using the SOTW for history.

Peace,
Tenn