History fair.

Today we went for our first history fair with the girls. It didn't take us too long to figure our what period of American history we want to make the exhibit about.
We LOVE Native American culture. As a matter of fact, both I and Mirek, literally grew up devouring books about Native Americans. My favorite were J.F. Cooper's novels, like "Last of the Mohican's". Mirek really adored Karl May and his absolutely beloved book is "Winettou". He told me that he and his friend wanted to become blood brothers (just like in the story), with cutting each a hand and swapping the drops of blood (try to do it now with all the things you know about diseases transmitted by blood! No way!) But when we were kids, we used to do the impossible.

We visited a Pocono Indian Museum that is right around the corner from us and got some inspiration there. We picked up a few books, postcards of famous chiefs, a punch out panorama of an Indian village, and a dream catcher. I had previously made the costumes for the girls, and braided hair with feathers in them was a final touch.
Since it was our very first time participating in an event of that kind, I wasn't too sure what was expected from us. But since our oldest is 6 and I wanted her to help with the display, we decided to kind of keep it on their level. Ivana helped me to type some info about how the Plains Indians are usually divided into two big groups. One, called nomadic, those tribes that spent all their lives on horses following the herds of buffalo. And the second group, semi-sedentary, who spent half of the time growing food and half of the time following the buffalo. We chose font together and also wrote all the names of the tribes. Then we decided to print ten Indian Commandments and an Indian prayer. A couple of toy horses and colorful tee pees were a great eye catcher for the little kids.
We were also asked to prepare an activity at our booth, related to the topic, so that children would have something to take home with them. We were making paper tee pees with them. With coloring, cutting, and gluing it was an age appropriate activity.
There were other great exhibits at the fair. We really thought that The Great Depression booth was funny. To begin with, it was presented by a family with 7 (YES!) children, expecting their 8th one in April. They had a projector display, very visual source of info for little (and not so little) ones. Then there was a soup kitchen and simple (flour, water, salt and baking soda kind of recipe) bread making and tasting.
California Gold Rush booth was an absolute smash! With real gold searching in a muddy "river"! And the table was covered with items "For sale", that cost more than gold. Like an egg for $3.00, or a can of sardines for $4.00, etc.
Among other exhibits were the World War II, 1960's with their hippie movement, a cowboy both where the kids got to make a "Wanted" poster with their Polaroid picture on it (so cool!), presidents, American Revolution, tracing your ancestors and making a family tree, and another tribe of Native Americans (The Iroquois) with a bow making activity, and a blacksmith outside the hall.
Another wonderful part of the fair was the time when the children got the chance to practice their public speaking skills. Everybody had something to recite, sing, say or read. Here is our Ivana reading out loud the Ten Indian Commandments.
When we were having dinner at home that evening, I asked the girls what they had learned. Leona said, "Nothing", and Ivana's response was, "Mom, I wasn't reading, I was just having a great time with my friend and looking around!"
Well, we had an awesome time together and I'm sure there was some kind of info stuck in their little heads, even those Leona was denying learning anything. Now we have our posters hanging on the wall in our craft room for all to see!