Native Americans

We began a new Social Studies unit on Native Americans. So far, we have talked about 2 Native American regions. The first region we learned about was the Coastal Native Americans. They were located in the very northwestern part of the United States. Since they were on the coast, they did a lot of fishing! They also built beautiful totem poles. Totem poles tell about the family's history and we discovered that the most important person goes on the bottom.

The kids had a chance to make their own totem poles. They had to come up with 2 other animals to add to them. We had a lot of fun figuring out what different animals symbolize.

This past week we learned about the desert Native Americans. They lived in the southwestern part of the United States. The weather was extremely hot where they lived. Rain was a good thing for them! They would have ceremonies where they would use rainsticks and perform rain dances. Of course, we just HAD to make our very own rainsticks!

We used paper towel tubes, wax paper, and rubberbands. Instead of the tubes, we put small pieces of tin foil and small beans. Finally, the students were able to decorate them.

The best part was when we actually got to use them! Some of us got a little carried away and beans went everywhere... BUT, it was definitely a lot of fun!!