For weeks four and five we have moved into discussing the Native Americans of Michigan. One of our first activities was to map the native american tribes of Michigan. We located the areas each tribe was specific to and noted them on our outline maps. For more specifics on this please check out the state history site here.
Next we focused on the Anishinaabe tribes which were local to our area of Michigan. We learned that the Anishinaabe were made of of three tribes which formed a council known as the Three Fires. We drew on knowledge we already had from the exhibit we have visited several times about the Anishinaabe at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. We discussed characteristics of their life style, including housing, religion, foods, clothing, travel etc.
We added a Native American lapbook page to our Michigan Notebook showing what we had learned. My kids were surprised to learn that not all Native Americans lived in tepees and wore feathers in their hair. We learned that Wigwams were a domed shaped house made of mud, twigs and deer hides. We also learned that the Huron or Wyandot tribe, which we also discussed lived in a long house. For food we discovered the importance of the three sisters, corn, beans and squash. We also learned that wild rice was a very important part of the diet of Michigan Native Americans.
When we got to the religion segment, we heard the legend of the sleeping bear and used this to discuss the beliefs of the Native Americans in contrast to what we know to be true of God.
We then discussed the function of canoes, canoe routes and what portaging was.
Some pictures of our lapbook. These I found on hslaunch.
Finally My favorite activity involved a set of woodland Native American paper dolls. We colored both a boy and girl doll and dressed them.
In the coming weeks we will learn who the first European explorers were and how this will affect the Native Americans.
Cassie
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