Customer Reviews

History Pockets: Native Americans, Grades 1-3

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While the History Pocket books are great for making a book, they are a little boring by themselves. There is too much coloring and not enough learning. We have learned more by reading library books, the encyclopedia, watching an educational show, or talking about the subjects.

When we purchased these, I liked the idea. But, after wasting a lot of our homeschool day with the children coloring (by day 3, coloring had turned into scribbles) I decided to use these as supplemental activities. We read and do art projects. We talk about the subjects.

My kids liked this HP the best, and actually did quite a few of the activities from it. I found it is best used at the end of the day, so if they spend a lot of time on it, it's okay.

We have several of the HP products. Now, we let the kids chose which ones looked "fun", and skip the rest.

While it is nice to have a book to look at afterwards, I feel they do not serve a great purpose. (And they are a waste of printer paper and ink.) They are nice if you need a "work sample" for school, but I feel they are just "busy work". History can be learned in much more interesting ways.

I really like the History Pockets series - they're wonderful. And, this book is quite good and full of a variety of age appropriate activities that my boys really enjoyed. However, I question how some of the tribes were selected; specifically, the Seminoles of the Southeast Region. While the HP units can stand alone quite well as a unit study, I like to complement them with additional information and activities for my boys. I found it particularly difficult to find any complementary information/activities for the Seminoles. I think the Cherokee tribe would have been a much better choice. The same holds true for the Maidu tribe of the Californias - very limited information available to supplement. Also, I wish that this book had included tribes for the Great Basin and the Sub-Arctic regions. To include these two areas would make this unit completely comprehensive and thorough. Nonetheless, it is a good resource to have and follow as part of an early elementary study on Native Americans.

I purchsed this book for a unit study of Native Americans for my second grader and it is worth it's weight in gold! When I received it I wanted to start on it immediately (but we have to wait until September!) This book covers various tribes throughout Northern American with text discussing life relating to each tribe.

Children make a pocket (folder) from large sized construction paper relating to each specific tribe. Within each section of the book a tribe is covered with special information about tribal life. It includes cut and paste activities to complete and place in each folder.

History pockets could stand alone as a unit study for 1st-3rd graders, but could certainly be expounded upon with additional reading and activities.

My 2nd grade daughter loves doing crafts, so this is a perfect way for her to learn history. She loves doing her History Pockets and always asks to do more. The best part is that she gets to show them to her dad later(which reinforces what she's learned).

We are going to do as many History Pockets as we can. They take a bit of prep work (not too much) but the results are so worth it. My son learned so much about Native Americans in these lessons, and we have a keepsake of the pockets he made to keep forever. Good stuff.

I've used this book when studying the Native Americans with my kids during their kindergarten year. Some of the activities are a little too advanced (for a 5 year old) but it gives a good overview of the basic information about each Indian group. We like to pick 4-5 tribes and just focus on those since it is a bit much for them to learn all 9. We then would add a bunch of crafts rather than just doing the paper craft they supply to do with the kids. It was much more fun for the kids to make a poncho out of felt and ric rac ribbon or learn how to weave on a simple loom rather than just color a Navajo rug pattern. Still I recommend this book as a great starting point for studying the Native Americans. Next year I'm going to use the Ancient Civilizations History Pocket with my 8 year old and again am using it as a starting point and going to add lots of fun crafts, projects, and cooking!

My first grader & I are really enjoying "History Pockets, Native American". We plan to use more "History Pockets"!!! Great fun & educational!!!

I think this is best for a portfolio and art. It's not bad but...twice in the Seminole section it referred to the chickees (Seminole Indian huts) being built with a platform "3 feet (9 meters)" off the ground. Three feet does not equal nine meters. In the glossary, it also confused the children by giving an inaccurate definition for hominy that was actually a description of another dish mentioned in the text, a softer, pudding like-dish. Since there was a recipe for hominy, this is really confusing to the students. Also, it is tagged as being for first to third grade but the reading level is fourth to sixth. It would be better to omit the grade level marking altogether IMO.

My daughter loves using the History Pockets. We used the History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations, Grades 1-3 last year and it made learning a lot of fun. One thing that I learned last year was to make copies and gather materials the night before so that our activity went smoothly. These are great tools for all students.