Exploring Alaska Family Fun Night

Our exploration of Alaska led to a great idea for a family fun night.

Alaska is rich in culture and history, which can set the stage for a fun family evening.

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I prepared a easy dinner of baked salmon, sourdough bread, and a green vegetable. Salmon is one of the most important foods in Alaska, both as an industry and as a food source. Sourdough bread has been popular in Alaska ever since the gold rush. The green vegetable was chosen to round out the meal.

While I was cooking, the girls made place cards for everyone. We traced a bear stencil on black paper and cut them out. Lizzie worked on her writing and wrote everyone’s names on the bears. To help the bears stand up, we cut an empty cardboard tube into four sections. We attached the bears to the tube sections with double-sided tape; glue would work just as well.

We spent the meal telling Creative Daddy all the fun things we had learned about Alaska. The best part for the girls was learning about all the amazing wildlife that make their homes in Alaska. Our evening ended here, but I want to share an additional project you can do to enrich your Alaska Family Fun Night.

Make a Family Totem

Totem poles were often used by the Native people of the Pacific Northwest to symbolize a family or clan. They were created to tell a story and often used animals as symbols. This is the perfect project to work on together as a family. We took our inspiration from the totem poles located in Totem Bight State Historical Park.

Supplies Needed:

Empty paper towel tube painted brown
Various colors of card stock or construction paper
Black marker
Scissors
Glue

Before beginning the project, you’ll want to choose an animal to represent each member of your family. We used this explanation of Northwest Symbols as our guide. Creative Daddy was the wolf, chosen because it represents intelligence and leadership. I was the bear, which represents motherhood. We chose the loon for Lizzie, because it represents peace and generosity, and the beaver for AJ, because it represents creativity and determination. We also drew a simple dog and a cat to include our pets on our totem. Have fun choosing your animals. It’s fascinating to see what choices your family members make.

Elect a family member to draw your animals, or each person can draw their own. (Our animals look a bit diabolical & cranky, but believe me, our family is not usually like that!) Once you have them drawn, cut them out and glue them to your totem pole. We arranged ours according to age with the cat and dog at the bottom.

I hope you have fun exploring Alaska together as a family. What other locations would you like to see a Creative Family Fun Night designed around?