Native Americans

I miserably failed this unit. MISERABLY. I could have done so many really cute things but I didn't.  First of all we read a ton of books about the pilgrims and Thanksgiving. That (and my assignment to run a Native American themed Pack Meeting) gave me the brilliant idea of organizing November into 3 separate mini-units - the Wampanoag Native Americans, the Pilgrims, and then Gratitude, obviously each theme helping us understand the first Thanksgiving, etc.

But none of my Native American ideas I used were actually from the Wampanoag tribe.

From the books we did talk about Somosat and Squanto and Massosoit. And so the kids knew who those Native Americans were and what they did. And Joshua and I talked about some interesting facts about the Wampanoag - things that Joshua wouldn't know about.  But all of the following activities (with exception of the paper dolls which I think are authentically dressed) really aren't culturally accurate to the Wampanoag.

This game is called Hubbub. It has nothing to do with the Wampanoag, but it is a Native American game.

 You can probably figure out how to play the game by this photo. You toss the plum pits (or cardboard circles) into your homemade pottery bowl (or onto a piece of colored paper) and count up your points, then you keep track of your points with your sticks (or toothpicks). We won 0 authenticity points here, but it was a lot of fun to play. Especially with a four year old.

We made some Native American Feather Headbands. The Wampanoag men actually did wear a feather in their hair (they also had mohawks) but I kind of doubt the women did. Abigail didn't wear hers for long anyway. I know there is a chance that I am offending a Wampanoag out there. Sorry about that.

 

 Joshua took a really long time making his look good. I think it does. I think everything they do looks good when they put effort into it. But, you know, I'm their mom. That's in my job description.

 I promise he really liked wearing it.

Here are the paper dolls. Abigail colored the girls and Joshua colored the boys. Joshua has a really hard time with the fact that these Native American's didn't wear enough clothing to be modest. That opened up an entirely different discussion, but that's ok. 

 The man in the red coat has yellow arms and orange shoulders. Joshua kept asking me, "Mom, did the Native American's really have orange shoulders back then?" Uh, no. Just because you colored it that way doesn't mean that was really how it was.

 I chose the paper doll activity because when I was a little girl my mother loved paper dolls and she was always trying to get us to play with them. I thought maybe as an adult my tastes would have changed, you know, like asparagus and broccoli. You know, I didn't like them then, and I still don't like them now. The clothes never stay on - even when I cut out about 5 extra tabs and strategically place them on the paper clothing. But we're going to do Pilgrim paper dolls next week to compliment these - and so we can play with them all together so I will bear them in silence for one more week.

 And finally (I know, we could have done so much more and so many BETTER things) we found a Native American. I'm pretty sure he's a Ute (not Ute like OO-teh my Ungeheuer - see next post - but like YUE-t as in Utah without the ah) close enough, I suppose.