Adventures in Mommydom

Hands on learning for active learners

Indian in the Cupboard Activities

By 17 Comments

I’m going to admit my The Indian in the Cupboard activities are a bit of a stretch for the Great Outdoors theme, but I keep thinking about the chapters with Omri taking Little Bear out in his backyard and so I think I’m good to call this the Great Outdoors, right?  I’m not stretching too much?
Maybe?
Okay, it’s a complete and total stretch, my arm might be coming out of my socket stretching so much, but it made for a great book and a movie night.
Indian and the Cupboard book and movie

{This post contains affiliate links.  For more information read my disclosure page}

 

Indian in the Cupboard activities

Since The Indian in the Cupboard was our first book and a movie we did, I originally had this plan I was going to come up with questions and activities for each chapter.  So I assigned our Indian in the Cupboard activities, and then ended up realizing I really didn’t want to micro-manage at the chapter level that took away my enjoyment of the book, and theirs as well.
I had the kids make the same craft Omri did in the book, make a tee-pee, and then I added in make a longhouse in addition.
Batman Indian in the Cupboard activity
Batman immediately grabbed the supplies from his engineering kit he’d pulled out earlier and some paper and built a rather rudimentary longhouse that wasn’t too sturdy, but he was quite proud of it.
Indian in the Cupboard activities, making a long house
By contrast, Superman pulled out large amounts of glue, cardboard, popsicle sticks and started to make a very complex longhouse before becoming insanely frustrated because it wasn’t staying together like he envisioned.
Indian in the Cupboard activities
Eventually he ended up with the same type of “longhouse” Princess has here, a block longhouse, which doesn’t work quite as well as you might think.  Mainly because I think it looks more like a Greek temple.
Indian in the cupboard activity build a tee pee
Princess also attempted a rather complex tee-pee involving yarn and popsicle sticks, which is her go-to craft supplies, so it very much amused me to see her struggle with the improper materials for her goals (I know I shouldn’t laugh at my child struggling, but there was some secret amusement as she struggled and struggled to get this one part right).
As I mentioned, this was our first book and a movie, and I learned from “Indian in the Cupboard” to not assign a project, because they end up with very similar projects, which don’t really show me their thoughts
I think if I’d let them choose their topics it would have worked better.  I would have gotten a fascinating report on horses from Princess, including song and dance.  Batman would probably have studied about the Iroquois because he loves to learn.  Superman would probably have built something.

Indian in the Cupboard discussion questions

This is one area, I think went okay this time around, but we didn’t explore as much as I wanted.
  1. What toys would you try to bring to life in the cupboard?  What problems might come from bringing them to life?
  2. What does Omri need to learn about the Iroquois?
  3. What is the danger of bringing Boone and Little Bear alive?  How could Omri have protected them better?

Indian in the Cupboard snacks

Indian in the Cupboard Snacks
When we watched The Indian in the Cupboard DVD I had these grand plans of amazing snacks, and my cooking/decorating skills got in the way, so our Indian in the Cupboard snacks aren’t as fancy as I’d hoped for, but the kids still loved eating them.
arrow pretzel sticks Indian in the Cupboard snack
We made arrows out of pretzel rods.  I dipped one end in chocolate to simulate the arrowhead, and the other end was dipped in candy coating and rolled in sprinkles to simulate the fletching.
tee pee Indian n the cupboard snack
One of the key plot points is Omri’s misunderstanding of Little Bear’s lodgings and trying to make him a tee-pee.  These were made using sugar cones and dipping them in candy coating and then rolling it in sprinkles again.  I’ll admit these were not a big hit, and one sat there for quite a while before I threw it away a day or two later.
sweet corn snack Indian in the Cupboard
I picked up a bucket of candy corn at a local “gourmet popcorn” store to represent the sweet corn Omri gives to Little Bear one meal (I really didn’t want to make corned beef, and I’m quite sure my kids wouldn’t want it).
longhouse Indian in the cupboard snacks
This is probably our snack that disappeared the quickest, well this and the arrows.  They’re just Little Debbie: Nutty Bars stacked in a vaguely longhouse style (very vaguely).
firewater drink for Indian in the Cupboard snack
And finally our special drink was Big Red to represent “firewater,” which as far as my kids are concerned is Big Red, not whiskey.  They were quite happy since this didn’t count for their “one soda a week” limit.
 Indian in the Cupboard book and a movie

Final kid and Mommy decisions on Indian in the Cupboard book vs. movie

In this case the kids liked the movie much better because they liked the scene where Omri brings several different toys to life, including Darth Vader and a dinosaur.  I felt the movie lacked some of the depth of the book, partially because they relocated the story to the United States, and lost some of the feel of the book when you remove some of the particularly British feel of parts of the book.  Also the movie softens Little Bear’s character and makes him into a much nobler and NICER person, which takes away some of the lessons of the book, and makes it more bland.

Indian in the Cupboard activities around the Web

More 5th grade books and a movie

Enchanted Homeschooling Mom ~ 3 Dinosaurs ~ To the Moon and Back ~ Planet Smarty Pants ~ Farm Fresh Adventures ~ Growing in God’s Grace ~ Chestnut Grove Academy ~ Learning and Growing the Piwi Way ~ The Usual Mayhem~ Preschool Powol Packets ~ Monsters Ed Homeschool Academy ~ Adventures in Mommydom ~ Teach Beside Me ~ Life with Moore Babies ~ Kathy’s Cluttered Mind ~ Are We There Yet? ~ Our Crafts N Things ~ Hopkins Homeschool ~ ABC Creative Learning ~ Joy Focused Learning ~ P is for Preschooler ~ Laugh and Learn ~ A Mommy’s Adventures ~ Inspiring 2 New Hampshire Children ~ World for Learning ~ Ever After in the Woods ~ Golden Grasses ~ A glimpse of our life ~ Journey to Excellence ~ Happy Little Homemaker ~ Little Homeschool Blessings ~ Raventhreads ~ Tots and Me ~ As We Walk Along The Road ~ Stir the Wonder ~ For This Season ~ Where Imagination Grows ~ Lextin Academy ~ The Canadian Homeschooler ~ School Time Snippets ~ Peakle Pie ~ A Moment in our World ~ Every Bed of Roses ~ Finchnwren ~ At Home Where Life Happens ~ The Library Adventure ~ Embracing Destiny ~ Day by Day in our World ~ Our Homeschool Studio ~ A “Peace” of Mind ~ Thou Shall Not Whine ~ SAHM I am ~ eLeMeNo-P Kids ~ Simple Living Mama

Comments

    • Oh yes, it’s perfect for your brand of schooling, they’d get so much inspiration for topics to go off on tangents.

  2. I heard about the book and the movie, but didn’t read/watch it. Perhaps daughter is approaching the age where she might enjoy it. I love how you let your kids just try the projects their own way without trying to rescue them from wrong choices. I really need to get better at this!

    Reply

    • She probably would enjoy it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s required reading in a year or two for school.

      There are times I want to rescue them, but then I realize that if I do, it’s not their project, but mine.

    • Not for any historical information for the Ojibway, but I think your kids will enjoy it if you do read it. Little Bear is from the Iroquois tribe and comes from the French and Indian War, so he might also be from a different time period than the Ojibway.

  7. Aw, architecture and construction – I love this activity. Kids are very brave to try and build with different materials!

    Reply

  9. I read the book as a child, and am planning to read it with my daughter, niece, and nephew, then watch the movie. Now, I’m not sure about bothering with the movie at all. I was so annoyed at the unnecessary changes made to The City of Ember, I’d hate to chance it after reading your review of Indian in the Cupboard movie. Hmm. Thanks for the great ideas – the snacks look fab! – and your honest review of the book vs the movie.

    Reply

    • It does follow the general plotline of the book, but now that we’ve watched a lot of books made into movies, there’s a lot of them that just don’t follow the book at all. It’s really rather depressing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *