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Academics - Lower School Life

February 17, 2009

Third Grade: Constructing model Native American homes in Mrs. Kyle’s Class

View all model home construction photos.

Today I was lucky enough to be invited to Brenda Kyle’s third grade classroom to witness the construction of a variety of Native American homes. This was a lesson used as part of a two-month long social studies unit on Native American history and culture. Students will have other practical experiences as part of this unit. For three days and two nights they will stay at Camp Bernie in Central New Jersey, where they will take part in a number of workshops and activities surrounding Native American history. Mrs. Kyle’s class will also soon hold an all-day “potlatch” – a Native American celebration that will feature food, crafts and a guest speaker.

On this day, students were assigned in groups a type of home to individually construct:

A pueblo was an apartment-like dwelling built with adobe bricks by the Pueblo of the southwest. The students used boxes to model a pueblo.
A chickee was a dwelling built by southeastern tribes living in swampy lands. The chickee was built on poles to protect from rising rivers. Students used tagboard and straws.
A tipi was a portable cone-shaped home used by nomadic tribes of the plains such as the Comanche and Sioux. Students used sticks, a lid, yarn and a brown paper bag to create their tipis.
A hogan was a six-sided dwelling constructed by the Navajos. Students built risers of sticks to support the roof of the Hogan which was made of cardboard and painted.
A wickiup was a cone-shaped home built by desert-dwelling Native Americans. Students used an inverted container to build their model wickiups
A longhouse was used by various tribes, some of whom resided in this region of the country. For their models, students used construction paper and a shoe box.

I learned four new words today and it is only 10:45 a.m., so I am quite pleased. Wickiup, hogan, chickee, and potlatch were not in my vocabulary before today. In addition to my lesson in Native American culture, I've also boosted my Scrabble game. Thank you Mrs. Kyle and students!

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