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!