Foods of the Eastern Woodlands

LESSON THREE

The best advice I received when I began teaching about the native people of the Eastern Woodlands, was to start by covering their basic needs.  Approaching the material this way, made it considerably more manageable. 

So after learning about traditional Eastern Woodland shelters and the resources used to build them, I moved on to discussing what foods were available.   Food is one of my favorite things to talk about, so this was fun from the start.  But the lesson ended even better than it began, with a taste of popcorn dipped in maple syrup!  

To begin, we learned about 'gathering' - what people would have gathered from the environment to eat and that this was often one of the responsibilities children would have. caption

Then we brainstormed names of animals that live in this environment that might have been hunted.  My favorite part of this lesson is when we talk about the American Indian belief that all things in nature have a spirit.  People would thank the animal for giving its life for their needs.

I use these illustrations to show how early American Indians used the materials in their environment to create tools for hunting.  While gruesome, the kids appreciated that the turkey snare and the "death fall" allowed people to hunt for food with minimal harm to themselves.  
These illustration come from a book called: The New England Indians (C. Keith Wilbur)

The Three Sisters were a major staple of the Native Americans.   Planting fields in this manner helped yield successful harvests. 

Many foods that the Native American people grew were foreign to the Europeans who arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries. 

After talking about the foods people of the woodlands gathered, hunted and grew, the students completed a graphic organizer in the form of a plate - Page 6 in the All Woodland Worksheets packet -  They were tasked with illustrating and labeling foods eaten in each of the three categories.  The plates looked delicious and were a fun way to reinforce the information as well as assess each child's understanding.

We learned that the early Native Americans often ate in the morning and shared a large meal around mid-day.  If they were hungry in between larger meals, there were always pots stewing, dried meat to chew on, or popcorn to pop!

So as my students filled up their plates, I set up my popcorn machine and made a batch of air pop popcorn for the class to share. We were delighted to learn that the early Native American people would cook kernels over the fire, and that it was considered a snack that brought people together.  We put it in dixie cups and sprinkled maple syrup over it for a sweet flavor - similar to the way tribes in the northeast enjoyed it!

Shelters of the Eastern Woodlands

LESSON TWO 

While there may be others, I introduced my students to four different types of shelters that the early people of the Eastern Woodlands built to thrive in their environment.  Wigwams and Longhouses were sturdy shelters for the northeast, protecting people against the harsh winters and utilizing the birch and elm tree forests that grew in the region.  The Wattle & Daub shelters were prominent in the southeast where the warm sun would dry and harden the clay walls of the structure.  In the swampy regions of present-day Florida, the Chickee was constructed by the Seminole people who adapted to the marsh and heat. 

Example:

Ms. Ho: Which of these shelters is a wigwam?

Ede: I think the wigwam is the shelter in the northeast corner!

For this lesson I warmed up with a guessing game - asking kids to match each picture to a name.  Just to reinforce those geography skills a little more, I asked them to use the compass at the top when giving their answers.

To change up my approach, I partnered students up and had them read information about each shelter.  One pair read about the Wigwam and the Longhouses and then completed a venn diagram.  After 15 minutes they would switch with another group who had read about the Chickee and Wattle & Daub structures.  By the end of class, each group had collected concrete information on each of the four shelters.

Make copies of these Shelter Fact Sheets so that students can read the information in partner groups.  I back them onto construction paper and laminate them for future use.  I love visuals, so here are some images:

Create a venn diagram form, or use mine which is the third page of the All Woodlands Worksheets so that students can record the new information.

Tribes of the Eastern Woodlands

LESSON ONE

Because of where our school is located, we start our study of Native America in the Eastern Woodlands.  By beginning in this region we are also able to examine life before the influence of the European settlers. 

Though I face the continual challenge of finding creditable sources, I am grateful that my school does not ask that students work from a text book.  It has encouraged me to create my own visual guide through lessons and to pull and cross-reference information from many sources.  As I have mentioned earlier, I am a great proponent of PowerPoint as tool for the elementary classroom.  While there is other fabulous technology out there, I have found that PowerPoint and a simple projector sufficiently allow me to create an interactive teaching environment. 

For this first lesson, my goal is to establish a sense of where and when we are as we delve into the Eastern Woodlands.  To do so, we look at series of slides:

As we begin our study of the Eastern Woodlands, why do you think some maps might distinguish between the Northeast and the Southeast?  What do you know about these regions today that might impact how the Native American people lived here years ago?

When you picture the Eastern Woodlands, imagine an endless forest, long before buildings and highways and parking lots existed.  Have you ever hiked in a forest like this?  What kind of animals or resources might people have had access to?

We will be exploring the Eastern Woodlands in the 1400s, a hundred years before the first Europeans arrived.  There are a lot of names for the native people of the Americas.  “Indians” was a mistake Christopher Columbus made that stuck.  Most tribes called themselves “the people.” 

At this point, I pass out a blank map of the Eastern Woodlands region and ask students to read the information on the slide to record the location of each tribe.  This introduction, allows students to review and apply their U.S. state geography skills!  The Tribe Location Worksheet is the second form included in this packet - All Eastern Woodlands Worksheets - which I made and use for this unit.

This is a list of 8 of the many tribes of the Eastern Woodlands.  Using your geography knowledge,  identify the area where these tribes lived.
 (Many Native American people still live in these areas today!

When my students are finished, we go through the map together and check our work.