5 Activities for Native American History
November is a great time to do Native American studies. Regardless of your children’s ages, I think a few of these projects would easily lend themselves to a fun homeschool afternoon!
5 Activities for Native American History
1. Read a Book Aloud Together
I highly recommend any of these books for a small unit on Native American history.
- If you are looking for a Historical overview, read North American Indians.
- For an artistic picture book, read The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush.
- For a book to go with Thanksgiving, and to go into some detail, a great early chapter book is Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla. (He has several other wonderful titles for history studies.
- For a wonderfully done read-aloud covering the 1500s, choose Walk the World’s Rim. This book is better for middle school but can be done as a read-aloud with elementary ages or even as a whole family.
2. Explore Native American History in Music and Dance
Doing this or even doing some dress-up or imaginative play will certainly bring history alive for most children. They can be very inspired by seeing real Native American traditional dress or dance. If you aren’t blessed enough to have a local tribe organization that performs, then it’s always possible to find a video on the subject.
3. Cook a Native Recipe
Making food that goes with your study is the perfect way to add culture and lifestyle for the period you are studying. An easy thing we’ve done is make corn pancakes by just following the directions on the cornmeal bag or box. My son really liked cooking them himself, and it added emphasis to the part of our study on what the Powhatan Indians ate. Maybe you could have Nasaump for breakfast or Turkey Sobaheg for dinner!
4. Go on a Field Trip to a Native American Museum or Park
Field trips are an amazing way to learn. Most every state has a wonderful museum or two that feature Native Americans in some way. The National Museum of the American Indian is a great place to start. There may be some virtual possibilities to explore as well. Perhaps make a Scrapbook Visit.
5. Explore Native American Arts and Crafts
Explore Native American history by learning about and possibly creating some Native American arts and crafts. There is such a rich history preserved in Native American Art. We have always had a great time making crafts inspired by the culture. For example, you could make a dreamcatcher together. Or try crafting a simple rain stick in your homeschool class.
Another possibility is to study a famous figure such as Olympian Jim Thorpe.
Topics Related to Thanksgiving and Native American History:
35 Thanksgiving Activities to Use in Your Homeschool
What kinds of activities for Native American History have you done or do you plan to do in your homeschool this year?
The Math Catcher stories , free on the Simon Fraser University site, are a great combination of math and Native American culture http://mathcatcher.irmacs.sfu.ca/stories The stories make kids think about math, and show Native Americans (or Canadian natives) as whole people – that is, just going through life, figuring things out – and not only as historical figures.
Thank you for posting this. The Native American Crafts links are very helpful. I used to live in El Paso, Texas, which also houses Ft. Bliss. Near there is Hueco Tanks State Park, which has ancient sacred Native American pictographs. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/hueco-tanks
Great post, thank you! We live in what used to be the Cherokee Nation. We have spent time researching the culture, and going on field trips in our area.
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Thanks so much for sharing!