Learning about Native American culture

The fourth grade students at St. Agnes Cathedral School have started a study of the Native American tribes of New York State.

In a collaborative effort, the fourth grade teachers, art and technology teachers have coordinated strategies and activities to make the Algonquian and Iroquois civilizations come alive.

After gathering background information using a variety of sources, students worked in groups to create miniature Native American villages that replicated what they learned.  The novel “Eagle Song” was read by each student and provided the students with a fictional perspective of Native American life as children, and also taught students an important lesson about having the courage to stand up for themselves. While in art, students made and decorated a papoose, which are boards Native Americans would use to carry their babies. Students scanned their individual baby pictures in computer class and were able to place their own baby picture in the papoose that they made.  

The students culminated their unit study with a field trip to Caleb Smith Stark Park where they took part in an outdoor Native American learning experience. Student spent the day experiencing life in a Native American village and even got to go inside a real wigwam.