Celtic history co-op. Week 4: Beliefs

Week 4: We made Celtic robes.

The Celts were in tune with nature and worshiped many Gods. Stories were told by the Druids which served as a historical record and as a way to teach life and moral lessons. In later years when the Romans had contact with the Celts, many of the legends were written down.


Tales from Celtic Lands by Caitlin Matthews - This book was great for my third grader. It had beautiful illustrations. Many of the stories involved a peasent or a prince.

Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs - This book is free on Librivox and also free on the Baldwin Project. The stories in this book were a bit longer and better for my fifth grader. My daughter liked the Talking Egg Shell fairy tale best. It was about a troll who switched human kids with gobblin kids.

Celtic clothing was made primarily of wool. Robes were often worn over tighter fitting clothing to keep out the cold. Our Celtic robes were made from old sheets.

First a hole was cut for the head near the middle of the sheet. Next, the length was trimmed depending on the height of the child. Finally, the shoulder pins constructed from the previous co-op were added to the robes.


To read more about our history activities, click on one of the cultures below.
Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China 

Celtic history co-op. Week 3: Jewelry

Week 3: We made Celtic fibulas (shoulder pins).

Celts didn't have safety pins or buttons. Instead, their clothes were held together at the shoulder with pins called fibulas.

The first step in creating fibulas is to create or purchase a jig. Ours were constructed by placing pegs into holes in wooden blocks.  Artistic Wire Deluxe Jig Kit are not too expensive and can be purchased at Amazon.

Next, a 25 inch long piece of copper wire was wrapped with the fingers in circular patterns around the jig.


Once the wire was wrapped, it was removed from the jig and pounded with a hammer into a sharp point on the ends. This was done with the help of an adult.

Since each jig was a little different, each of the fibulas were different.  They turned out very nice. Both of my daughters enjoyed it so much we went home with all the scraps, tools, Celtic Jewelry book and a jewelry making kit.

To read more about our history activities, click on one of the cultures below.
Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China





Celtic history co-op. Week 2: Houses and Homes

Week 2: We made Celtic round houses.


The Celts lived in houses made from wattle and daub. Wattle was the woven portion of the houses which would have been made from tree branches. Daub was made from several materials such as clay, earth and dung.

Our houses were constructed with clay, vegetable skewers, yarn, flour, water and paper.

The bases were created by placing vertical skewers around the perimeter of a clay circle.

Next, yarn was woven around the skewers to create the wattle.

Once the wattle frame was constructed a flour/water/newspaper daub mixture was added to the woven wattle.

Finally, the roofs were constructed from a sheet of paper, colored and glued into a cone shape. At our house after the history co-op, we made Celtic people to live in the houses.

To read more about our homeschool history co-op activities click on one of the cultures below.
Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China
Sciencesparks3 For the Kids Friday

Celtic history co-op. Week 1: Salt Maps

Week 1: We made maps with salt dough.

When the Persian Empire thrived and Alexander the Great was busy conquering, the Celts lived in the northern European countries of England, Scotland, Germany, Austria, and France. To gain a better understanding of their territory, we created maps with salt dough.

Salt Dough Recipe;
1 cup of salt
2 cups of flour
1 cup of warm water


Mix and it's ready to use

Beginning with a map of Europe and a handful of dough the land was created. More dough was used for high land in the area of mountains, and less in low areas near the sea.

The dough and paper were painted with blue, green and brown paint to represent water, land and mountains.

Rivers were painted onto the maps.

Important cities were labeled with toothpick paper flags.


To read more about our homeschool history co-op activities click on one of the cultures below.
Celts
Vikings
Scythians
Ancient China






This post is linked to:
Share-it Saturday
It's Playtime
Hearts for Home

Needle Felting

Our homeschool group leader put on a wonderful series of crafting classes. We loved the needle felting.
The kids each used a foam block as a base and very sharp needles to poke the fiber with. They just kept adding fiber to a ball and stabbing it with the needle while turning it periodically. Then they covered the grey fiber balls with red fiber to make them into ladybug bodies. Then they used black fiber to add spots.


Abstract Weaving

There are so many decorative projects that can be made by weaving. All that is necessary for this one is some type of frame and scrap yarn. We found this metal hoop and decided to use it as the base for our abstract weaving project. First we wrapped yarn randomly around the hoop. Then we started weaving with groups that were close together. It is a fun project because it's not possible to make a mistake.

Next time we may try an old hanger for the frame.





This post is linked to: 
Inspired Weekends

About us

We are a homeschooling family living in Germany. I plan to write about four topics on this blog:  our homeschooling adventures, European travel adventures, differences between living in Germany and the United States, and the progress of Highhill Educational Supplies (the business I am starting).

Highhill Homeschool

I'm just getting started. Let's see if this works?
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