Lewis And Clark: Hands On Art/English Activities

Author: Visual Manna - Sharon Jeffus

Price:

Overall Rating (1-10): 9

Value (1-10): 9

Flexibility (1-10): 8

Ages/Grades: 9+ Review:

If you have not heard of Visual Manna, it is a series of art instruction books that incorporate learning about a wide spectrum of academic areas accompanied closely with art technique and projects.

Visual Manna's 'Lewis and Clark' combines the teaching of history, science, geography, English and art all in one and provides for a very child-friendly curriculum. Your kids will forget they are "doing history" and will start begging to pull out the Visual Manna. The Lewis and Clark expedition occurred 200 years ago over the course of two years. If you have not yet introduced this epic journey to your children, using this book will provide for a very thorough and exciting experience.

Through a series of early 19th century journal entries and art activities, the Lewis and Clark expedition will come to life in your own homes. There is nothing like recreating history to make it seem real and interesting. Your child will also be instructed to keep a journal similar to the type kept by Lewis and Clark themselves. Your children will learn about the discoveries made by Lewis and Clark along the way including new animals and plants and they will create some new species of animals themselves. They will learn about the tools and items brought along with these explorers as they recreate their own real-life versions. Famous paintings from the era are explored and written about. Geography and map work are covered in detail. Drawing from grids and with perspective, creating berry-ink, drawing portraits, animals and trees, writing descriptive paragraphs and poetry, exploring landscapes found along the way, learning about famous people from the Lewis and Clark era, Native American customs and traditions, dinosaur discovery are just some of the highlights that will be covered throughout this book.

As you can see, this book is a VERY thorough exposure to many academic subjects presented through a single historical event. If your child is a kinesthetic or artistic learner, this is a perfect way to experience many subjects in a very hands-on way. The book's writing requirements and drawing instructions are definitely geared for upper elementary aged students however with some creativity and flexibility you can pretty easily include younger siblings. I just pared down the writing requirements. My younger children are pretty artistically determined so even though they might not entirely grasp a concept presented, they seemed to get a fair amount out of it anyway.

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