Teacher's Corner

To begin children discussed what they already knew about Native Americans and then they thought of questions they would like to know about. Children organized there questions on a big chart by categories such as food, government, shelter etc.

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After spending the day at a local creek where Archaic Indian artifacts have been found nearby, the children were asked to imagine themselves living in an earlier time on the creek and to write about it. Some of the children typed their stories below.

Week 1

Questions we have about Native Americans

What do the hats symbolize? Maryclaire
What did they use for money? Neel
How hard was it to make a bow and arrow? Josh
What did they use the leaves for? Amelia
How did the Chief become a Chief? What were their duties? Danielle
How do you identify a Chief? Amelia
How do they get the wild things for food and learn which is safe to eat? Amelia
What type of transportation did they use? Amelia
If they got hurt how did they make band aides? Josh
What did they use for medicine? Risa
How did they make Teepees? Danielle
How do we know they knew about Thunderbirds? Amelia
I’d like to know and learn about Indian head dresses. Tess
What type of weapons did they use to get food? Jacob
What did they use to catch fish? Neel
What did they use trees for? Stephen
What did they use for protection around the villages? Alex
Who was the first human to come to North America? Amelia
I’d like to make Indian hats (clothing). Danielle
What did they eat? Caitlin
How did they grow their crops; what seeds did they use? Risa
How did they use poison arrow frogs? Neel
What types of homes did they use? Amelia
What different tribes were there? Amelia
Where did the Indians live in each area? Stephen
I want to cook some traditional dishes. Caitlin
Did they have to eat the food if it smelled bad after you killed an animal? Jacob
How did they separate the parts of food they wanted to eat from the parts they did not? Jacob
Are any Native Americans Cannibals? Ian
Do they have toys? Ian

                                              

If I Were an Indian on Paint Branch Creek:

Caitlin's Story

In my tribe I would live with my family. I would have a pet turtle. Our home could be made out of animal skins. In other words a tepee. Dangers to our tribe would include, foxes, bears, and wolves.

We always would eat berries and catch fish. We would make weapons out of rock and sticks. My tribe does not like to fight. We use clay to make pots and pans. Learning about indians is FUN!!!!!!

Stephen's Story

I would live by making a tepee hut and by catching fish. There would be different games. I would have a dream catcher.
The End

My Indian Life by Danielle

My Indian tribe would live near the woods and we would kill animals and eat fish; we would go in the water and catch them. Some times it is hard but that's our food. We would get water and we would make are homes we wood listen to our chief but we would go play games, these are some of the games that we played;

tag and hide-in-seek

We would make our weapons out of wood, bares, nails and leafs. We wood make our homes out of bamboo, leafs and animals skin. but the dangers are snakes, foxes,bears,eels,bugs. That's my Indian life. The End

My Life at Paint Branch Creek by Risa

If I lived at Paint Branch Creek, I would hunt fish to eat and live in a log cabin on the shore .I would live with my family. My sister ,Rachel,my mom,and my dad.We would play in the creek , trying to catch fish with small nets, and painting pictures on bark with the red mud.

We would make a camp fire each night and sing and dance to songs. We would make instruments out of nature and play them at the camp fire. We would grow herbs and when we were sick, we would rub mint on our wounds. We would grow fruits and vegetables to stay healthy along with the fish we caught. Living in the wild with no electricity would be hard work but sure would be fun!