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Native American Cradleboard

Native American Cradleboard

Enrich understanding of family life of our country’s earliest inhabitants and create a Native American cradleboard for the youngest members of the tribe.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Coffee Filters, Brown
  • Twine
  • Wooden Ice Cream Spoons
  • Yarn

Steps

  • Step 1

    During an investigation into the history of Native Americans and their settlements, invite students to explore the lifestyle of children in the Native American society. Compare and contrast the lives of these children with contemporary children.

  • Step 2

    Discussions may be as a whole class or in small groups. Challenge students to explore and discuss activities from their daily lives and things used to care for the youngest (cribs, blankets, cradles, car seats, toys, etc.). Document student contributions to the discussion using Crayola® Dry Erase Markers or Crayons and a class white board. Encourage students to explore websites and resources for information, and share with the group. This may be done with adult guidance and supervision. Keep the list of items for contemporary children and Native American children from the past available for students to refer to as they begin to create their artistic responses to their new knowledge.

  • Step 3

    Students will be asked to create an artifact representative of the Native American culture. The cradleboard is an example of such an artifact. Directions for the cradleboard are as follows:•Distribute brown coffee filters to students. Ask them to use Crayola Construction Paper Crayons to color patterns and Native American symbols on the filters.•Students tie two small pieces of dark yarn around the end of a wooden ice cream spoon and secure on the back with a dot of Crayola School Glue to create hair.•Place the ice cream spoon in the center of the colored coffee filter, with the design side facing down. Starting at the bottom, students fold the coffee filter up and over the end of the ice cream spoon as if to tuck the feet in a blanket.•Roll /fold the remaining sides of the coffee filter towards the center of the coffee filter to overlap the ice cream spoon much like a blanket would be in a swaddle. Demonstrate for students how to secure the filter with yarn or twine at the waist. •Tip: The patterned side should be the outside of the wrapped baby and cradleboard.•Tip: Faces were NOT drawn or painted on the heads of Native American dolls.•Variation #1: Model Magic can be used to create the head. Allow 24 hours for this product to dry. Use Crayola Multicultural Markers to create hair for the 3-D head.

  • Step 4

    Once student cradleboards are complete and Model Magic has dried, organize an opportunity where students will share their new learning about Native Americans and how the things we use today compare to those of yesteryear.

Standards

LA: Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

VA: Students relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.

LA: Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works)

LA: Contribute to and clarify a text.

LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

LA: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

SS: Describe ways in which language, stories, folktales, music, and artistic creations serve asexpressions of culture and influence behavior of people living in a particular culture.

SS: Describe how people create places that reflect ideas, personality, culture, and wants and needs as they design homes, playgrounds, classrooms, and the like.

VA: Students demonstrate the ability to generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.

VA: Students organize and develop artistic ideas and work.

Adaptations

Resources for this lesson plan include Native American Eyewitness Book.

Invite students to investigate how babies are carried or transported in cultures other than their own today. What types of wrappings are used to keep infants protected from weather elements around the world?

Allow children to identify, explore and discuss things in our lives that are for protection and safety. Ask students to draw pictures of those examples and have them write how the identified items protect us.

A look into the future: students invent a new version, or improved versions, of protective items for their generation or for future generations. (For example: Soccer shin guards, bicycle helmets, training wheels on a bike, big boots for winter weather, life jackets for boating, leash attachment for ankle or wrist for surfing or boogie boards, sunglasses, hats, etc.)