Slavery and the Undergound Railroad

This past week we continued our US State and Region study. We learned about just two states this week Louisiana and North Carolina. The rest of the time we spent learning about slavery and the Underground Railroad. We had fun this week and I have a few ideas and projects to share with all of you.

For the state of Louisiana the kids learned about the Louisiana purchase and the history behind the name Louisiana. We listened to blues music and tried to speak Creole. The kids got a kick out of the book Petite Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood by Mike Artell. I didn't get a chance to have them learn about the life cycle of a shrimp. I just had them color a page of one to add to their books. I did have them watercolor a swamp while a read some fun books on swamp life.


For slavery we have reading some historical fiction books on slavery and some historical books. It's hard to stomach some of them. It so disheartening and at time hard to fathom what life was really like back then. I thought of a great writing assignment for my kids this week since we took a week off of our CQLA studies. I had my daughter who is in second grade write one to two paragraphs about Harriet Tubman's life. She had to include her Godly character that she displayed and a map of her escape route. We them found a pattern to a paper doll folding craft. I had her decorate it and add her story to it. I help edit it and add more adjectives with her.

For my eldest son who is in fourth grade I had him write a three to four paragraph paper on his life as a slave. He wrote out some really good ideas as a slave what his life was like. How he escaped by using the Underground railroad and was a free man. What his story was lacking was feeling. I read some black spiritual songs to him that were popular at the time and he was suddenly hooked. He changed his whole story into a song. It was very clever and cute. I helped him with a few lines to add. He wants to submit it to the local paper. I need to check into that. It would be a great addition to Black History month in February.

I also had the kids make a paper Underground slave quilt. Here is a picture of one that is still a work in progress. A great book to read with this idea is Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopskinson.

A great science idea that went great with our slavery and underground study was I ordered cotton bolls from a website. They sent two different types of cotton upland and pima. Pima is more off white antique color and upland is white. I had them dissect each cotton boll. To do this I had them pull apart each boll and find the seeds. I had no idea there was so many seeds in each one. They had to predict how many. Find them and figure out with a scale which was heavier the seeds or the cotton boll itself.

We tried spinning our cotton on chop sticks too. This was an adventure. To do this you need to have something to anchor your stick down with. This helps with the spinning. My youngest son loved this but he like to spin it as I pulled gently on the cotton.

Later my daughter wanted to dye her cotton. We just used food coloring with little vinegar for this. She wanted pink of course. She's convinced that she will use her cotton for something.

I also had the kids make a lapbook for slavery and the underground railroad. This was a total last minute idea due to our co-op being canceled. They each wanted to make their own. I gave them the list of things I wanted them to include and some pictures form Google of course to get them started. They came out great! I'm looking forward to trying this again with the Civil War unit.

Well, we have yet to finish our North Carolina pages for our states book. This may be a great rainy day activity for them today. I wonder if they will want to. We shall see.

Here is the list of books we read this week:

-An Apple for Harriet Tubman by Clennette Turner

-Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson

-Welcome to the USA Louisiana by Ann Heinrichs

- Cajun through and through by Tynia Thomassie

-The Sea, the Storm and the Mangrove Tangle by Lynne Cherry

-Mama Don't Allow by Thacher Hurd

-Petite Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood by Mike Artell

-Welcome to the USA North Carolina by Ann Heinrichs

-Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter

-Brown Paper School US kids History Book of the American Civil War by Howard Egger-Bovet

***** This book has a great Plantation game that the kids can play.