How to Make a Felt Teepee

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We will be working through some American history this year, from a preschool-kindergarten perspective. Most of the learning will be from reading living books, playing with themed small worlds and sensory bins (Safari Ltd. TOOBS will definitely be used!), along with many hands-on activities and crafts. For the past month we have been working on our first month-long unit study! To begin American history, we definitely had to start with Native Americans. I have always loved learning about their beliefs, culture and history. We have a few relatives who are Native American, but they live on the other side of the country and sadly we have been unable to visit them in years (kinda hard to drive that far with two little ones). However, I have many great memories of spending summers with them, sleeping in tipis, going to Pow-Wows and watching Sun Dances (I was too young to participate). I used to listen to the Medicine Man tell stories and teach me about plants and how they were used for ceremonies and healing. During one of the ceremonies, it began raining and the Medicine Man parted the rain out of the circle. It sounds crazy, but it actually happened. Even my dad was shocked and we were just talking about it the other day. It was truly wonderful and I hope my children will be able to share similar experiences some day. 

In order to teach my children about Native American history, I wanted to make them some felt creations that they could use for small world play. Since I have actual experience living in a tipi (or tepee or teepee, however you want to spell it), I knew that was where I wanted to begin. I looked at old pictures of the tipi I stayed in and decided to model my felt tipi after them. The only part I left out was the door flap, because it's summer time. However I will likely add a flap that can be rolled up or folded over in the future. 

To make a tipi you will need:

Felt - I used cream colored felt

Thread - Ecru and brown colored DMC Embroidery Floss

Embroidery Needle

Sharp Scissors - fabric scissors work best

Disappearing Ink Pen - for tracing pattern

Fabric Markers (optional) 

Watercolor Paints (optional) 

Bamboo Skewers - for the lodge poles 

Paper and pen/pencil for tracing pattern

I began by tracing a large circle on thick paper (easier to use as a template for tracing). I did not want to make the tipis too big, because they are made out of felt and I wanted them to be stable and able to stand on their own. Then I cut out the circle and folded it into quarters.

I drew three circles of the same size along one of the folds. The circle in the middle will be the top of the tipi where the smoke escapes from. The circles on the ends will be the two sides of the opening to get in and out of the tipi. You can customize the size of the tipi to fit your needs. We made them kind of small, but we will likely make larger ones in the future. The small tipis fit two Safari Ltd Powhatan Indians TOOB figures comfortably (standing or laying down). Tipis typically could house a whole family.

Fold the template in half, along the line of small circles and cut out the small circles. Then you can use that as your template, or you can trace that onto another piece of paper. It should look like the picture below.

Trace the pattern on your felt and cut it out. If you use a disappearing ink pen the trace lines will fade.

Felt usually has a soft side and a rough side, so I made sure the soft side was on the inside of the tipi and the rough side was on the outside (easier for painting). It should look like this when it is standing up (below).

You can whip stitch or blanket stitch the edges of the tipi (use thread that matches the color of the felt). Stay close to the edge, but not close enough that the stitches will pull out.

Then add your wooden lacing pin details with a brown thread. You can either whip stitch them (like below) for an easier design, or if you scroll down, you can see on the tipi with triangles, how I stitched them to look more like wooden lacing pins.

I made three teepees (tipis, tepees), all with different patterns. One we kept relatively plain and the others we decorated using watercolors. Yep, you heard that right. Watercolors. We used Faber-Castell Watercolors, because they are seriously the BEST. We tested them out on wood too and in both cases they worked great! Just be sure not to use a lot of water and paint carefully. The paint will bleed out if it is too moist, because felt is incredibly fibrous and it will spread like wildfire. So take your time. Maybe even test it out on a piece of scrap felt before attempting it. The effects were exactly what we were hoping for! The paint is flexible and nothing peels off, although it is slightly stiff, but honestly that's a good thing! I let them dry overnight before I let the kids play with them.

I tested the watercolors and fabric markers on a piece of scrap felt before attempting to paint the teepees. The red and orange are watercolors. In the middle is what black fabric marker (Tee Juice) looks like. I found that the marker ink seeped into the felt and while it was dark on the other side, it looked grayer on the front side. 

We created our own patterns using colors that were symbolic to Native Americans. I tried to keep them more to the theme, but for the most part I asked the kids what kind of pattern they wanted and did my best to make it work. You can use a disappearing ink pen to draw a pattern first, if you want. We used a black fabric marker to mark a few lines that we intended to paint over with black paint after. And you should be aware that anything you paint will end up folding up into a cone shape, so don't be like me and paint an off-center circle around the top. :)

This is the pattern that Munchkin had requested: "lots of triangles and dots!" He also chose a red, black, orange and yellow color scheme. The two detailed tipis have their smoke flaps sewn open. I simply folded them over and line stitched along the fold.

You can glue the lodge poles to the felt using Elmer's Craft Bond Glue (it's flexible and durable) if you want it to be permanent, but we chose not to. This way the kids can pretend to take down the tipi and pack it up for travel. I kept the pointed ends of the lodge poles on the bottom, so they can easily press them into dirt or play dough, whatever medium they are using for a surface of their small worlds. You can just as easily cut off the tips so that no one accidentally pokes themselves.

Bean's teepee is the one with the yellow base. She had wanted a buffalo and a "man with a shield". She drew out the pictures on paper using crayons and I did my best to copy her art on the felt.

Here's a little small world Bean set up the morning after I finished making them (before I measured and cut the lodge poles). I love that they are so sturdy! And they were a great addition to our unit study and small world play.

WriteShop Review

WriteShop is an incremental writing program for children that inspires them to become successful writers! They offer resources for children in grades Kindergarten through High School and materials for teachers and homeschooling parents. We had the opportunity to review WriteShop Primary: Book A Set, which is the first book in their Primary set. The A-C set is ideal for children ages 5-9, or K-3. WriteShop also offers Junior sets D-E, which is for grades 4-6, or 9-11 year olds. 

The student book consists of 25 pages, and the teacher guide consists of 186 pages.The physical version is a soft-cover book with plastic-coil binding that lies flat. You can purchase the Activity Set Worksheet Pack separately and choose the print or E-book version. Our Teacher Guide and Activity Pack were both E-book versions. You would need to print off the students pages, and you could use a tablet or computer/laptop for the teacher's book (or print that as well).

WriteShop Primary was developed for children grades K-3 and for parents to work closely with their children. This writing program is flexible and easily accommodates to your child's needs. So if they need more review or they want a more challenging activity, you can do that. Each book was developed to work together, but if your child is more advanced, you can start at a later book. Book A introduces several writing concepts that you will see develop through the rest of the Primary sets as your child learns more.

Price: $29.95

Since we are still in the beginning stages of reading and writing, Book A was perfect for our starting point. We used this product mostly for oral lessons and I wrote down their answers. Bean watching closely while I wrote down words, and would copy words new words onto her dry-erase board or ask me to tell her what the word said. She would then sound out the syllables and practice writing the word. We add "learned words" to our writing journal afterwards with a simple sentence example of how the word is used.

Book A is recommended for children in kindergarten or first grade and works well with pre-writers, beginning and developing writers. My son is at the pre-writing stage and my daughter is in the beginning stage. The lessons teach simple writing processes that are engaging and include various creative activities, such as crafts and working with picture books. There is no pressure on the child to write immediately and you can take your time working on oral lessons and then work up to writing lessons as they become more familiar and comfortable with their own writing progress. We supplement our literacy activities with reading and spelling curriculums, but so far my children are not comfortable writing sentences. My daughter writes letters and occasionally short words, while my son only writes a handful of letters and numbers. We will continue using this curriculum and will re-start from the beginning when they are more proficient writers, before moving on to the next level.

Because fine motor skills are important to developing the skills to become proficient writers, we always started our lessons with a fine motor busy bag (lacing shapes, spools and marbles, sewing shapes, and a few others). They are not necessary for this product, but we found them to be a relaxing exercise that worked on their fine motor skills. This helps them learn how to hold a pencil correctly and works out their muscles and improves their grip.

You can customize your lesson schedule to accommodate your child's grade or skill level. The lessons are divided into 8 activities that work at the pace of the child, so there is no pressure for the child. We really love that this writing curriculum does not force the child to learn faster than their comprehension can keep up. Each set includes a guided writing practice and sets 2-8 include an activity or project. The activity sets are broken down as so (below) and gradually become harder and include a final set that more advanced writers will appreciate.

We do not spend a set amount of time on any of the activities. If they want to cut a lesson short or work on it longer, I go along with them. Since my children see me writing often, they love sitting beside me and work on their own writing activities. I go over everything with them and help them step-by-step. Bean is incredibly independent, so as soon as I am done explaining and showing her examples, she starts off on her own. I can tell when she is struggling, so I'm able to assist her, despite the fact that she rarely ever actually asks for help. Bean mainly enjoys writing about superhero adventures that she goes on with her brother and retelling her dreams.

Set A focuses on personal writing, choosing topics and titles, understanding beginning, middle and end, as well as sequence of events, along with punctuation, introduction to rhymes, organizing ideas and writing about personal experiences. This product also teaches young writers about punctuation marks, recognizing words that rhyme and using a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence. 

This was a really great product to introduce them to the world of writing stories and we will definitely continue using it for creative writing exercises. We were able to use this product to begin brainstorming before writing down stories, which Bean really liked! Whenever we were writing about a specific theme, we would research it first and write down key notes and interesting facts. Then we used those as either inspiration or simply to add artwork to their story. Sometimes we even typed up and printed the stories on fancy paper, laminated them and created small books. We have only made two so far, but I know we will make many more! 

This is the page Munchkin mostly worked with. He usually prefers to trace letters and rarely writes them on his own. To save on printing costs, we use our sheets in dry-erase sleeves or laminate them, this way they can be reused. This is perfect for beginning writers, because they will need the practice and they will often ask to revisit the activities they enjoyed most.

Pages like this one is where I did most of the writing. I'd have my children dictate and I'd write what they said on the train lines. This is one page you will have to print several copies of. I laminated and cut out each section of the train. I have one solid page that I use for my own writing, while all of their train pieces are used for their writing. The My Story Train is perfect for short stories and we use this train often for storytelling activities, in which Bean comes up with a story or recounts an adventure she went on and has to write it down. 

Pages like the one below is laminated and the pieces are cut out and stored in an envelope that is attached to the back of the page. There are Velcro dots on the back of the pieces and on the page were the pieces go. The kids color in the creatures first, and then place the pieces where they belong.

This is another page that is laminated with an attached envelope for pieces. We have a set of flash cards that work on order of events, so they were familiar with the idea. You can tell the story pieces apart because of the shape around the sentence, this way children are less confused and can easily find the matching pieces. I really wish there had been extra pages like this one, because my kids especially enjoyed this activity. We might eventually make our own story order pieces.  

As far as writing curriculums go, we found WriteShop's A set to be creative and engaging, which is what we look for in the curriculum we want to use. The Teacher Guide was especially helpful and really gave a lot of information to work with and encouraging ideas to engage young writer's. This writing program has inspired my daughter to become a storyteller and now she is constantly telling me detailed stories and asking me to write them down for her. She is becoming increasingly interested in creative writing, which makes me so happy!

Did we enjoy this product? Yes, we did! At first we were unsure of how much we would like it, because the first week neither of my children wanted to use it. Gradually we were able to find ways that made it appeal to them and now they love it! I would definitely recommend this product to homeschoolers who want to teach creative writing to their children. This is a product that would work great for a child who enjoys coming up with their own unique stories, because this would teach them ways to write it down. 

Be sure to stop by WriteShop's social media pages!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/writeshop

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/writeshop

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/writeshop/boards/

Instagram: http://instagram.com/kimkautzer

 Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Writeshop/

If you would like to read other WriteShop reviews from the TOS Crew, click on the banner below!

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Moving Beyond the Page Review

We are so happy to review homeschooling products from Moving Beyond the Page! We thoroughly searched their catalog before making our choices and were amazed with what we received! We chose the Language Arts Package - Morning Girl and the Social Studies Package - Native Americans. The Native American package came with a physical copy of the curriculum, and two books on the subject. The Morning Girl package came with four books (including Morning Girl) and an online workbook (which is printable).

These were both Individual Units offered by Moving Beyond the Page and their curriculum groups include Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. These units can be used with any child age 7-14, but they also have learning materials for children as young as 4. In addition to these subjects, they also offer reading and math curriculum (they are different brands). Their curriculums are literature-based and do not use text books. This means that they choose the best books to be used with their curriculums that create a creative and more interesting learning experience.

Please note that both of my children are not in the recommended age range for these products. My preschooler and kindergartner were, however, able to utilize almost all of the materials we were provided. For the most part we used the materials for oral lessons, in which I read to them and asked them the questions and then worked with them on the activity pages. Bean was able to write a few words here and there with my guidance, but she preferred to draw her answers or answer and explain out loud.

My initial reaction when we opened the package was that I was blown away! I have been really looking forward to our first month-long unit study, as we have been working on mainly one-week unit studies on and off during the year. I wanted our first month-long unit study to focus on Native Americans, a study which has always been a passion of mine. So after the package was opened, my kids sat down with the books to look through them, while I flipped through the curriculum. I was so impressed! This is exactly the kind of curriculum I want to use with my children!

I honestly did not know what to expect, as this is the first social studies curriculum that we have had the pleasure of reviewing and using, but I am so glad that I went with my instinct to choose this one. And despite the fact that my children weren't able to use all the activity pages, as most of it involves writing, we were still able to use it as a guide as we learned about Native Americans! There are recipes, crafts, and other activities that will be equally rewarding to learn from, as well.

This curriculum (both the social studies and literature) will only last a few weeks, so if you are looking for a full year's worth, definitely check out their full year curriculum packages! They are wonderful! I have looked through their catalog many times and love how much they put into them! This company has so many options to choose from and their packages are completely customizable, so you can either choose their pre-set package, or pick and choose what you want. This is helpful, if for example, you already own some of the literature books and do not wish to own a second copy. You will also have the option to purchase a physical copy or online copy, manipulatives (if there are any), consumable resources (printables and other materials).

We used both of these curriculums as the core of our unit study. We used the social studies package to guide the lessons and the literature to supplement, which we usually read and worked on before starting our activities. I specifically chose the Morning Girl literature package, because it told the story from the viewpoint of two Taino children. The story also teaches about voice and point of view, which I felt would be helpful to incorporate into our unit study. We also purchased many other books (on culture, history, and myths, mainly) and created several of our own activities to supplement this curriculum, including tracing worksheets for writing practice, arts and crafts projects, small world play and sensory bin play. I also made tipis, colonial houses and moccasins out of felt.

Felt Tipi

Felt Moccasins

Salt Dough Beads

Price: $27.97 (physical), $23.91 (online)

The Native Americans social studies individual unit is recommended for children ages 8-10 and can be used with the literature unit The Sign of the Beaver. This curriculum is best used with children who are at a 4th-5th grade reading level, is able to comprehend chapter books and able to write an organized paragraph. The curriculum is broken into 7 lesson and a final project and each are supposed to last 2 or 3 days. However, since we are using this curriculum for a unit study with younger children, we decided to block each lesson into a couple of days to a week, depending on how quickly they worked through the material. We have completed everything covered in the curriculum, but we are enjoying a few additional weeks of learning time to read, play and explore. 

Two books come with this curriculum and they are The Very First Americans by Cara Ashrose and If You Lived with the Cherokee by Peter Roop and Connie Roop. Both of these books were perfect choices for this curriculum, however I would definitely suggest picking up additional copies of the If You Lived With... series, which includes the Sioux, Iroquois, Hopi, and the Northwest Coast tribes, to further your understanding of the different tribes living in America. The Very First Americans was a great way to introduce the subject and explored the different regions of America and added a brief description of some of the many tribes. 

For each area (southeast, southwest, plains, northeast, northwest) we learned about the habitat, climate, animals that lived there, plants that grew there and what kind of houses, tools and weapons were used, in addition to learning about specific tribes. Bean usually took the lead on this and chose the name of the tribe she wanted to learn about based on a description I told her. For example: "The Comanche were exceptional horsemen and were able to ride horses by guiding them with their knees so their hands were free to hunt buffalo using bows and arrows. Buffalo hunting was dangerous." Munchkin preferred to just listen to the stories while I read them or talked about them while he played with the Safari Ltd. Powhatan Indians TOOB, which I had available in a themed sensory bin during each lesson. We are quite aware that this TOOB does not do justice for every single tribe, as they are all so unique in their own ways, however they were a fantastic addition to this unit study and they allowed Munchkin to participate in the lessons. 

IdeaShare for the Interdependence concept: Native Americans. 

Price: $36.97 (physical), $32.91 (online)

The Morning Girl literature unit is intended for children ages 7-9 and can be used by itself or with the science and social study unit Changes in My Environment. Children in this age range should be able to comprehend chapter books at a 3rd-4th grade reading level, can respond to questions about the chapter with comprehensive answers, and can write 3-4 sentences on a specific topic. We chose this book to incorporate into our unit study because of its interesting writing style that explores point of view. There are two characters that this story focuses on, Morning Girl and her brother, Star Boy. Ironically, these characters share a few similar characteristic traits to my little ones, who picked up on it right away. While we read, they sat on either side of me and listened intently. Every other chapter was devoted to Morning Girl and then Star Boy, so after each chapter we went over who was the speaker, what happened, what did the sibling say or do, etc. We focused on the siblings, their parents, their environment, and how the world around them changed. There were two other books, apart from Morning Girl, that came with this literature unit: Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne and Encounter by Jane Yolen and David Shannon. Voices in the Park was extremely interesting for my children and this book was ideal for teaching them about points of view, as it tells a short story about an afternoon spent at the park from the points of view of two parents and two children. We read it several times while we worked on Morning Girl and it is currently on their "favorite books" shelf. Encounter is a story about a Taino boy who was intuitive of Columbus and his group of explorer's true motives and tried desperately to warn his family and tribe, who all brushed him off as being just a child. He managed to escape slavery, however, his people did not fare so well. We really enjoy Jane Yolen's books because she does not sugar coat her stories and this is certainly a tragic tale.

IdeaShare for the Change concept: Morning Girl.

In the above picture are various artifacts that the Native Americans made and used. You're supposed to write in what the use of the object is and what materials are used to make it. We decided to make several of them out of materials we had available at home. We made a bow and arrow out of sticks, sinew, feathers and stone arrowheads (we had some available, but we also tried to make some). We practiced making woven baskets out of paper and then made our designs out of felt (we used our woven felt basket design, in symbolic colors). We used clay and play dough (separately) to make statues, totems and bowls. We used paper mache, popsicle sticks, wooden skewers, sticks and pieces of bark, felt and other materials to make different types of houses (one or more to represent each different region). And the kids used the mortar and pestle I own to grind up their own herbs and use them in cooking and to make herb tea. They were all hands-on activities that they really enjoyed and loved learning about different techniques and designs. We also watched a few videos (online and on Netflix) of "How It's Made" Native American crafts, such as turquoise jewelry and leather drums. 

The canoe craft was by far Munchkin's favorite! Ultimately we had to make it out of felt after several of his paper canoes inevitably became too worn to be played with anymore.

We did not have any issues with our products, however I wish some of the items listed on the website had pictures to go along with them (for instance, so I can see what the laminated time-line looks like that is recommended for the Native Americans curriculum). One feature of the website that I loved was the IdeaShare corner! Here, people who used the curriculums can share their ideas for additional activities or resources that they used! I thought that that was a particularly useful and unique feature, although I was sad to see that not many people utilize it. I also loved that they explain the curriculums in-depth in their overview videos for the full-year curriculums. And because everything is fully customizable for physical and online curriculums, you can pick and choose what you want, or just go with the full-year package, which opens up many doors for homeschooling families who tailor their choices.

We love that Moving Beyond the Page covers curriculum for children in preschool to middle school, and hope that they someday have curriculum for high school students too!  We love their complete homeschool curriculums and really look forward to using more of them in the future! We are already going over our options and debating if we should go with individual units or the full-year curriculum. We would really love to go with the full-year curriculum, but because we are on a budget, we may have to settle for individual units.

I would definitely suggest Moving Beyond the Page's curriculum to any homeschooling family that is looking for creative and interesting lessons. Because they are literature based, no one is sitting around trying to work through a textbook. The books are a great addition to this curriculum and you can easily pick up the books at a library if you do not wish to purchase them. The activities, crafts, projects and cooking recipes really bring the learning to life and definitely make this curriculum hands-on.



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Red, White and Blue Sensory Painting

As of tomorrow, we will be on vacation for a week! However, you'll still see some new posts (including homeschooling reviews) and as soon as we are home I will begin sharing several unit study posts (including a Safari Ltd. review)!

This weeks Toddler Series activity is once again inspired by our upcoming holiday, Independence Day on July 4th. We usually stick to the classic red, white and blue theme, which my kids are always happy about because those are among their most favorite colors (Bean's absolute favorite is brown and Munchkin's is purple). Last week we shared Patriotic Flower Science and a Patriotic Sensory Bin. We have also been revisiting our felt American flag activities and learning lots about early American history!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

My little ones always enjoy sensory activities, so today we created a simple painting project that used red and blue ice cubes (using food coloring), white tempura paint, and a sheet of watercolor paper (thicker paper, so the melting water doesn't bleed through so easily). The ice cubes are cold and the tempura paint is room temperature, so between their hands and the paint, the ice melts easily. You can also use watered down tempura paint in the ice cubes instead of food coloring.

I put the sheet of paper inside a sensory bin (there's a sheet under the sensory bin to protect the rug from the dye and paint) and popped out each of the ice cubes.

I let them explore the ice cubes first and then added in drops of white tempura paint here and there. They immediately began swirling the ice cubes through the drops of paint and LOVED the effect!

If you wait too long, the colors will blend into purple, but if you save it before that happens, you will have a lovely marbled color effect that can be hung up on the wall or fridge! Both results are equally appealing to my kids. :)

Be sure to stop by Suzy Homeschooler's to check out her 4th of July President Stick Puppets! They look so fun to make and we will definitely be trying out her craft!

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