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Native American Cradleboard

A cradleboard is a traditional type of Native American baby carrier. Students will learn about their design and create a replica of this functional accessory.

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
  • Craft Sticks
  • Yarn

Steps

  • Step 1

    A cradleboard is a traditional type of Native American baby carrier in which the baby is swaddled (wrapped tightly) and strapped to a specially designed flat board usually made out of a wood plank. The cradleboard and baby can be carried, worn like a backpack, secured to a sled or the side of a horse, or propped on the ground like a highchair. Have students look at images of these items and learn about the history. What tribes use a cradleboard? How else were babies carried and transported? How was the cradleboard designed to make sure the baby wouldn't fall out?

  • Step 2

    Have students create a small cradleboard replica using a brown coffee filter and craft stick. They can use images of Native American symbols to inspire them as they draw designs on the filters. They can use a craft stick to represent a baby by gluing pieces of yarn on it and tucking into the folded filter. Note that dolls created by Indigenous people do not have faces, and the same traditional practice would apply to this activity. When students are done decorating their filters and have tucked the baby inside, have them tie the center of the cradleboard with yarn.

  • Step 3

    Ask students to present their cradleboards and talk about some of the facts they learned about Indigenous peoples.

Standards

SS: Culture: Create, learn, share, and adapt to culture. 

SS: Culture: Through experience, observation, and reflection, identify elements of culture as well as similarities and differences among cultural groups across time and place. 

Adaptations

Sacagawea was a Shoshone woman who was captured and sent to a French Canadian fur trader. She later traveled thousands of miles with the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-06) acting as their interpreter. She gave birth to a son while on the expedition and is often depicted carrying him in a cradleboard. Have students learn about her life and her contributions to the expedition.  

Ask students to look at images of how parents (usually mothers) around the world carry their babies. For example, in Nepal a wicker basket carrying the baby can be strapped to the mother's head, and in Mexico babies might be carried in a "rebozo," a long piece of fabric worn around the front or side of the body.