We based most of our learning around the book The Very First Americans by Cara Ashrose. It focuses on the 4 main regions of Native Americans: South West, Plains, North East Coast, & the North Western Indians.
We spent the first week learning about the different regions and the houses they used and why. Each student did a personal map with labels and pictures of the housing. I got the housing pictures from PreK and Ksharing. I did not like how their map printed out, so I created my own. |
The second week we learned more details as we read the book The Very First Americans. As we read we added information to our details sheet. Grab it for free from my TPT sight! After we recorded our details, we did an activity. |
Tribes Who Lived on the Plains
We created our own Plains housing with paper. I could not find the original template we used, but I found a great one on Home Grown Hearts! We drew Native American symbols before we glued it together to make a 3D shape. We of course left a hole at the top for the smoke to escape from the teepee homes.
North Eastern Native Americans
We created a simple model of a totem pole using a printable and a toilet paper role.
At the end of the week I gave my students native American names. They loved it! I got them from Behind the Name.