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Authentic Learning
Activities
Little House Living
Supplies:
- Old fashioned coffee grinder
- unground seed wheat
Note: Before starting, remember it took the
Ingalls all day to grind just enough flour to make one loaf of bread. You will
probably want to do this over several weeks, carefully saving the ground wheat
in a sealed container.
- Put in enough wheat to fill the hopper at the
top. Hold tightly onto the mill, or have someone else hold it for you. You
may want to grind the wheat sitting on the floor.
- Turn the handle to grind. You may need an adult
to start it for you, as unground wheat is very hard to grind. Continue to
grind until all the wheat has gone through the grinder.
- Pull out the drawer in the bottom of the mill.
If it does not look fine enough to use for baking bread, return it to the
top of the hopper and grind again.
- When you finally have enough ground wheat, you
can make bread. Many cookbooks, including The LIttle House Cookbook
contain bread recipes you can try. Enjoy!
Supplies:
- Baby food or mayonnaise jar
- whipped cream
Instructions:
- Choose a day when it is not very hot outside, or
do this activity indoors.
- Working alone or with a friend so your arms do
not get tired, put cream into the jar (approx one tablespoon of cream for a
small baby food jar).
- Start shaking! After fifteen to twenty minutes
of vigorous shaking, you should have a lump of butter in your jar. Enjoy it
on a slice of bread like Laura did.
Supplies:
- calico fabric
- ribbon or yarn
- matching thread
- needle
- pinking shears
Instructions:
- Cut two pieces of calico fabric the same size
- On the top edge of each piece, fold over two
times the width of your ribbon.
- Sew close to the edge of the fabric - when done,
there will be a "tunnel" along the top of the fabric for you to
put your ribbon through. It will act as a drawstring.
- Match up the two pieces, wrong sides together,
and carefully stitch on the other three sides to make a pocket.
- On the same three sides you just sewed, cut the
edges carefully with pinking shears to make it look "torn". Be
careful not to cut through any of your stitching. You may want an adult to
do this for you.
- Insert your ribbon through the casing, then pull
tight like a drawstring and tie
- Keep special pebbles, or other Little House
treasures in your Torn Calico Pocket!