Family Heritage
Make a Scandinavian heart basket.
Materials
- World map or globe
- Piece of red paper and white paper (or any two colors)
- Ruler
- Scissors
- Tape or stapler
Directions
The members of the Stensley family are proud of their Norwegian heritage. They speak Norwegian at home, serve traditional Norwegian food, and perform traditional Norwegian dances. Help your child find Norway on a map or globe. Together, the countries Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland are called Scandinavia.
Here are directions to make a simple Scandinavian craft, a woven-paper heart basket:
Place the two pieces of paper (red and white) together, and fold in half. Cut a rectangle shape with a rounded end, 5 inches long and 3 inches wide. With the paper still folded, cut two slits to create three strips, each 1" wide. Each cut should be 3 1/2 ".
Place the two rectangles, still folded, at right angles to each other. You are going to weave the strips of the rectangles together. Instead of weaving over and under, you will weave the first red strip around the first white strip (open up the red strip and poke the white strip through), then through the next white strip (open up the white strip and thread the red strip through), then around the last white strip.
Push the first red strip up towards the rounded end of the white rectangle, so you have room to weave the middle strip. Weave the middle red strip through the first white strip, around the second white strip and through the third white strip. Push the woven strips up so you have room the weave the final red strip: around the first white strip, then through the next white strip, then around the last white strip.
Cut a strip of paper to be the handle. Tape or staple it to your basket.
Talk About It
On a map or globe, show your child where his or her family members came from and share what you know about those ancestors. What languages did they speak? Do you have any photos of them or possessions that were passed down to you? Think of songs, games, stories, crafts, recipes, favorite activities, rituals, or skills that your parents or grandparents may have shared with you that you could now pass down to your own child.
Related Books
- Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney
- A Picture Book of Sacajawea by David A. Adler
- Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe by Vera B. Williams
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