Exploring North Dakota Through Little Passports

Our latest adventure through Little Passports took us on a virtual journey to North Dakota, another state that neither Trevor nor I have actually visited. We started with the activities in the travel journal, learning about agricultural jobs and crops in North Dakota, as well as the huge oil fields there. We did a word search using vocabulary related to paleontology and spotted differences between illustrations of two buffalo. Next, we did an activity based on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We looked at photos of sculptures by Gary Greff along the Enchanted Highway. Then we wrote about the qualities we value in friends, inspired by the International Peace Garden on the border of North Dakota and Manitoba, Canada. It looks beautiful and we hope to visit in person someday! 

We jumped right in to the science experiments next. The activities explore how water bends light and makes objects look different. Trevor saw a penny in a bowl of water disappear and 'magically' reappear and then saw a fork 'break' in a glass of water!

The experiment was inspired by sun dogs, something I'd never heard of before. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I always learn something new from Little Passports!

While I cleaned up from the science experiment, Trevor built the model. It's a buffalo.

The next day, we tackled the recipe from the North Dakota journal: knoephla soup. Yet another thing Little Passports has introduced to me! It is a broth-based soup with flour dumplings of German origin. It is pronounced 'nip-fla.'

We made our dumplings a bit too big and the potatoes could have been cut smaller too, but no matter - the soup was delicious. Perfect for a rainy day, and we've had a lot of those recently. 

Our final activity from the North Dakota Little Passports was making dream catchers. Their version uses paper plates; we opted to use the two parts of an embroidery hoop for a more elegant looking dream catcher. Affiliate links below.

(Trevor's)

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Embroidery Hoop Dream Catcher

Materials: 

• embroidery hoop
• brown paint
• tan yarn
• wood beads
• scotch tape
• scissors
• feathers
• craft glue

Steps: 

Separate the two parts of the embroidery hoop. You only need one half for each dream catcher. Paint it brown and let it dry completely. 

Select the beads. Trevor and I each used 16 wood beads in various shades.

Cut a piece of yarn approximately 6 feet long. Tie one end to the dream catcher and trim the tail close to the knot. Wrap a piece of scotch tape around the other end of the yarn to make an aglet. Wrap the yarn across the hoop, then across again in at a different angle. Occasionally, thread a bead onto yarn. Continue wrapping until you are happy with the shape you've made. Tie the yarn to the embroidery hoop. 

Before trimming the tail, thread the remaining beads onto the yarn. (This way, you don't have to make aglets for each piece of yarn that dangles down.) Adjust the beads and cut the yarn into three pieces. They can all be the same length, or the middle one can be longer. Tie each piece of yarn to the bottom of the embroidery hoop, adjust the beads where you want them, then tie knots at the ends and trim the excess yarn. Add a dab of glue to the end of a feather and insert it into each of the lowest beads. The feather will hide the knots. 

(Mine)

Thanks to Little Passports for another fantastic virtual voyage! We learned so much about North Dakota and can't wait to explore the next state together.