Educator Handbook: Prehistoric People

PREHISTORIC PEOPLE

GRADE LEVEL: K - 3, 4 - 8

OBJECTIVE:

Students will become aware of life on the continent of North America before the United States was formed.

MATERIALS:

Stories of Native Americans

Shoe boxes

Modeling clay

Scraps of material

Art Paper

Potting soil or sand

Toothpicks

Popsicle sticks

PROCEDURE:

1.  Discuss the life of the Native Americans before 1600 A.D.  Include types of food, shelter, clothing, occupations, tools and toys.

2.  Read some accounts of what Native American children learned as they grew up. (Many stories can be found in the library. Choose one appropriate to your grade level.) 

3. Arrange the students in small groups of four or five.  Have each group of students make a diorama depicting life along the Ohio River about four hundred years ago. Include houses, landscape, tools, boats and other important items used by the Native Americans.

4.  Display the dioramas and have students tell a story using describing what is going on.

Bone fish hooks - Archaic 4000 - 700 B.C.E.

EXTENSIONS / EVALUATIONS:

5.  When the students visit the Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center, compare their dioramas to the ones in the museum.

6. Research the kinds of toys that the Native Americans children played with. Make your own and try them out.

7. List the type of artifacts that archeologists might encounter in the following Native American sites:

     Flint Knapping area         

     Food Preparation area

     Burial sites

     Sleeping areas

8. Make a chart comparing the type of items we throw away with the items Native Americans might throw away.

9. Research the laws pertaining to archaeology in your state.

10. Have a flint knapper demonstrate how projectile points were made (for older students).

Diorama of Native American village:

Mississippian – A.D. 1000 – 1650

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Created January 26, 2010, Updated January 27, 2010