Island Eats: Hawaiian Pizza

We decided to save the beautiful islands of Hawaii for the last day of our North American tour. From the children’s travel guide Kidding Around The Hawaiian Islands we learned that the first inhabitants of the islands arrived by canoe in around 500 AD. Visitors would continue to travel solely by boat to the tropical islands until 1927 when the first non-stop flight arrived on Hawaii from the mainland. Even with all that is imported today, tropical fruits remain a staple of the Hawaiian cuisine.

We picked up a pineapple and some mangos at the store and CZ quickly suggested Hawaiian pizza, something she’s always wanted to try. So we agreed to pizza (although that didn’t seem particularly authentic to me, but probably has more kid appeal than some of the other options) as well as a tropical smoothie. Yum!

Here’s how we made Hawaiian pizza:

First we cut open the pineapple.

And diced it into small cubes.

We also cut up a ball of fresh mozzarella and diced some ham.

We lay out all of our toppings: pineapple, ham, fresh mozzarella cheese, shredded cheddar cheese and cilantro. And then divided the pizza dough into two parts and stretched them flat on two baking pans. We decided to use a charcoal grill to cook our pizzas, although a 425° oven works as well. We cooked the dough without toppings for a minute or two…

And then added sauce…

Cheese and toppings. We put the mozzarella underneath the ham and pineapple and then sprinkled the cheddar on top. Save the cilantro til after it cooks.

Onto the pizza stone in the grill it goes for about 10 min.

Remove from heat and sprinkle cilantro on top…

Let cool for a second because it will be HOT from the grill. Turn on some luau music to set the mood…

And enjoy!

Native American Storytelling

Long before the introduction of the written word, native americans were sharing stories and marking their history in various ways. In Mexico, stone carvings and decorated clay pieces told tales through a sequence of images. In Hawaii, hula dancers strung moves together to create a story. And in the North, native tribes carved long logs into totem poles.

To find out more about totem poles we picked up Totem Pole by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith. We learned that they almost always featured the animals whose spirits the native americans prayed to. They could be displayed like a family crest and were generally read from the bottom up.

We decided to construct a couple with toys from our playroom.

First with trex blocks

And then with ice cream scoops…

AZ drew a quick totem pole. Hers tells a story from top to bottom.

Can you “read” it?

And CZ made one out of words:

Tribes
Outdoors
Territory
Everlasting
Marked 

People
Outstanding
Love
Environment

To get a picture of a real totem pole we didn’t have to go far. Check out the tall one in our school’s courtyard…

We also learned a bit about native american folktale, and read two nice tales, as retold by Tomie dePaola.

The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush

And The Legend of the Bluebonnet.

We discovered that these early stories focused on nature and survival, but their message is still very relevant today. We also learned that native american children were given their names by others based on their personality and deeds.

The scouts took a moment to name each other and came up with:
She-Who-Loves-To-Play
Little Sweet Tooth
King-of-Trains

How to Build an Igloo

Our craft project this week was inspired by a fun picture book called Building an Igloo by Ulli Stelzer. In it, the author shows step by step how to build an igloo with 20 pound blocks of snow. We used little sugar cubes called Dots for ours…

First we traced around the lid of a pot to outline an 8 inch circle onto a thick piece of paper. Next we glued the sugar cubes onto the outline, leaving a space for the entrance.

The scouts lay four rows of sugar cubes, but quickly discovered that the glue did not stick at all so it was quite a balancing act! Perhaps icing would work better..

We followed the pattern that the Inuit used by carefully making each layer a bit smaller but knew it would be impossible to create the dome without it falling in, so this was our solution…

A plastic bowl, covered in tin foil so as to be a little less conspicuous.

The scouts were back to building and found it much easier to lean the cubes against the lip of the bowl.

They continued the pattern until the top was covered. And then added a front entrance..

A perfect project for little fingers.
With all that sugar I’m just afraid one will try to lick it when no one’s looking!

Some cool things we learned about Igloos: They are only called igloos in some regions of the Arctic and in others they are called igluvviak. They can be built so big that they can hold large parties. If an igloo is damaged then the family will build a new one because they are too difficult to repair.  Igloos can have multiple rooms and even windows made out of thick ice. They must have a hole in the top to let out the heat from the “kuliq,” a lamp that provides warmth and light by burning seal fat, or the igloo will melt!

North America: Scouts Say…

North American Fun Facts! Here are some details the scouts have found especially surprising or interesting about North America so far:

Christopher Columbus did not name America; it was named after Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed to Venezuela in 1494. (AZ)

Columbus thought he found India when he “discovered” America, and called the local people “Los Indios.” That’s how they got the name American Indians. (CZ)

Native Americans used animal skins as camouflage while hunting. They would wear the animal’s head on top of theirs. (CZ)

Sacagawea was pregnant when she traveled across the country with Lewis and Clark. She had the baby in the woods. (AZ)

Canada is the second largest country in the world and they speak English in some parts and French in others. (AZ)

The far north of North America is covered in snow for eight months of the year. (AZ)

Mexico City is the biggest city in the world, but Mexico is the smallest country in North America. (AZ)
Most people in Mexico speak Spanish but there are 53 different groups of Indians that live in Mexico and they all have their own language. (CZ)

On Mexico`s flag, there are three stripes, the green one stands for hope, the white one stands for purity, and the red one stands for the blood lost fighting for freedom. (CZ)

The Mayans invented writing and the calendar in around 300 AD. In their calendar, the year had 365 days but it was divided into 18 periods of 20 days, plus 5 days which were unlucky!! Every year had a name and the names did not repeat for 52 years! (CZ)

And We’re Off! Week 1 – North America

We started the first day after a long afternoon of fun in the sun so I was a bit worried that it would be hard to keep the scouts’ attention. How wrong I was!

We lay out our stack of books from the library and the fabulous children’s world map by Eeboo that I ordered last week. It’s laminated and whimsical — kid-friendly all around. That said, the scouts weren’t particularly interested in it at first, but as soon as we started talking about the explorers and their journeys from Europe to what is now North America, the girls perked up. They were quick to trace the course that the ships may have taken and were interested in the ways that the English, Spanish and French had influenced the parts they explored and settled in.

We used the book Exploration Into North America as our guide, and I thought it was a great source because it focused quite a bit on the Native Americans and not just the European Settlers. The girls took notes in their journey books and will post some of their favorite facts tomorrow 🙂

The Native American story was particularly interesting to us because we live in a small town on the coast of New England and many neighborhoods, roads, and landmarks have Native American names–including our school! My oldest daughter had recently read a biography of Sacagawea and was happy to share her story. We looked through the book North American Indian and it was neet to see the many ways that early american life was actually quite similar to ours today. The Native Americans even had a sport much like lacrosse! One big surprise was the portrait of Pocahontas. The scouts were quick to note that she looks nothing like the Disney princess!