We headed out on the range to the Wild West.
We read Cowpokes to get us started and to give us an idea what it was like to ride the range and live in the wild west...
There were horses to ride and cows to wrangle.
We wore cowpoke hats and boots for our dramatization just like Matthew in Matthew the Cowboy.
We cooked over the campfire,
strummed our guitars and laid our sleepy heads on our bedrolls as we looked up at the nighttime sky. We sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Home on the Range".
Just like in Matthew the Cowboy, we used branding irons (potatoes on a stick) each with our own brands (the first letter of our name and our hand prints) and decorated bandannas or kerchiefs to wear out on the range, to keep the dust out of our noses and mouths.
Cutest little cowpokes you ever did see!
We also learned all about rodeos when we read I Want to be a Cowboy.
We tried our hand at barrel racing. We donned our cowpoke apparel and galloped a horse around a barrel to the tune of "She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain".
She’ll ("He'll")be comin’ around the mountain when she (he) comes...
Yee Haw!
We also practiced using a lasso to rope a stray horse.
Harmony Jean has some pretty fancy boots in Armadillo Rodeo. Bo mistakes her shiny red boots for another armadillo.
We used pastels to design our own cowpoke hats and boots. We talked about all of the "designs" in the book and some of us used those as inspiration for our own designs.
Wanted posters were made with us in our "cowpoke garb". Who wouldn't "want" these adorable cowpokes?
This week gave us a feel for what the wild west was really like. We even had cowboy beans and pigs in a blanket for lunch one day.
Yee Haw!
