3. NATIVE AMERICAN—DREAM CATCHERS

Many children suffer with sleep problems and bad dreams.  Native Americans had the perfect solution for this problem that plagues children. It is the Dream Catcher, a round wire hanging with cords woven in a spiderlike pattern inside the circle, and leather cords hanging with beads and feathers dangling.  The tale of the dream catcher, depending which tribe wove it (most Indian tribes have a dream catcher) is that the weaving catches the bad dream and prevents it from getting to the child. The other tale is that the dream catcher web throws the bad dream out so the child only has good dreams.

Most children are familiar with dream catchers and love to make them.  Parents also love the dream catchers and always vocalize their pleasure when we make them in class.  Our dream catchers are made from sturdy cardboard. The dream catcher needs more help from the adult then most of my crafts.

1.      Make a circle from sturdy cardboard. Oak craft paper and files used to be good, but now are too thin to use unless you double them. I use either a desert plate or larger paper plate to make my circle.

2.      Cut another circle within the larger circle leaving enough room to punch holes in the remaining circle. You need space to use a paper punch’

3.      Put 14 holes evenly around the circle with a paper punch.



 

4.      Put 4 extra holes on the bottom for the fringe and one extra hole on top to make   the hanger.

5.      Number the holes each number opposite the next—ie-1 on top, 2, at bottom, 3 next to the right of one, 4 to the left of 2

6.      Have the children decorate the cardboard.

 

7.      Give each child enough string or sometimes I use colored knitting yarn, to weave, following the number pattern-ie-first in 1 then to 2 back to 3, etc.

8.      You will have to tie the end for the child. Then tie cords in the holes to hang from the bottom.

9.      Have the children put beads and feathers on the bottom of the hanging
 

10.  Put a loop on top to hang from.

As difficult this is for you to help the kids make, it is well worth the effort as both parents and children get so much pleasure from them. Years later the parents and the kids always remember their dream catcher craft, and many will still have them hanging in their room over their bed.

2.-- NATIVE AMERICAN—DRUMS, COMMUNICATION AND SYLLABLES

Now that the kids have become interested in Native American Indian life before the modern conveniences I asked how the Indians communicated long distances without telephones, cell phones, computers or any electrical or battery devices.  It again was very hard for them to conceive of any time when there were no modern devices and they were clueless.

I told them that the braves had to travel long distances to find food such as deer, buffalo, or other game. Each brave went in different directions to scout out the food.  How did they get together to hunt the game when it was spotted? They couldn’t call on the cell phone, how did they do it? No one could figure it out.  Did you ever hear of smoke signals, I asked?  Most had not as cowboy and Indian movies are not on their screens anymore.  I explained the usage of smoke signals and then went on to drums.

Drums can be heard for long distances.  We experimented with distances of people calling with their own voice.  I appointed a child to go into a different room and call out. Could the others hear? We tried many different places to see how far the voice could be heard.  Then I gave the drum to the children to use.  Could it be heard a greater distance? As you can guess the drum could be heard at a much greater distance.

The next question was how was it used? How did the other scouts know what was being said by the drummers.  I drummed “I found deer” by hitting the drum 3 times.  Each word I used was one syllable.  Then I drummed “ I found buffalo”  I found was one syllable each but buffalo was three.  I drummed two beats and 3 quick beats for buffalo.  I explained what syllable meant and how buffalo was three quick ones.  We practiced with many other words until the kids got the idea.

They wanted to make their own drums so they could practice “talking” with the drums.  To make a drum I used coffee cans.  The plastic top of the can is the drumming part.  The metal sides we covered with colored paper. On the art table I put feathers, markers, and beads for the kids to choose what they want. The kids work area had the glue. I do not tell the kids how to design the projects I give. I want them to use their own imagination and to take charge of their own project.  I find children to be more creative than I am and they have more fun than if I directed what they should put on the drum. Leave one day for the glue to dry before allowing  the to kids use their drums.

I showed the kids pictures of the mountains in the southwest and the reservations I had visited. We pretended we were on a hunt for food and the brave who found the food had to drum he found food.  The others drummed back “we are coming (coming two quick drumbeats for two syllables). Then I let the kids make up their own plays.  Some were being attacked by other Indians and using the drum to call for help. One play was getting lost on the mountain and calling to the others for help in getting home.  The kids loved making up scenarios.

 

On U-tube you can find all kinds of Native American music and festivals. The kids love using their drums to beat along to the music.

 

1-NATIVE AMERICAN PAST AND PRESENT --BOW AND ARROW CRAFT

In the fall most kindergartens and other school classes teach about the Pilgrims and how the Native Americans helped them to survive in our country.  I go a step further and teach about the Native Americans all over our USA and how they live now and in the past.  Most children have the concept that “Indians” lived in America way, way back and think the Natives no longer are alive.  They are shocked to find that Native Americans are alive and well and still live in the USA, in fact some are even in our classroom.  Each year as I teach a unit on Native Americans ‘ some of the children find out that they are part Native American.  In one class I had there were 5 with Native Americans ancestors. It also is important to make sure the kids know that Native American children have to go to school just like them, that they live in houses, have cars, TV’s, computers and everything they have because they live in the USA just like them.

Since most children think of “Indians” shooting bows and arrows, I peak their interest by explaining about why they had bows and arrows and how they were made. I take them back to the past when there were no stores, TV, internet, electricity, cars, etc.  This is almost inconceivable to the kids.  Couldn’t they just buy them? Why weren’t there stores? Are some of the questions I get from the kids’?  I explain how everything had to be made by hand and from whatever materials were in nature and there was no metal to make guns, knives, or any other equipment needed by the Natives.  In order to get food they had to make their own bows and arrows to shoot their food.  I explained how clothes, housing, tools, food containers, etc. had to be made from nature.

Bow and Arrows

Our first foray into creating our own Native American tool, the bow and arrow gets them all excited to learn more.  To create our first tool, we get branches from bushes and trees in our yards.  To make a tool for taking the bark off the branches we find driveway gravel that has sharp edges. At the same time we look for gravel that has a pointed edge that we can use for our arrow.  We also look for a rock that we can use to shape our other rocks.

Outside the kids scrape the bark off the branches. When that is done we go into the classroom to make our bow and decorate it.  As we are only going to use these for decorations (I make that perfectly clear to the kids) and for a play we will perform. I let the kids decorate their bows with markers. Then we put the cord for the bow on. I explain how the Indians did not have cord that they had to find weeds or use the gut of the deer or buffalo for their cord. We then tie a ribbon on the other side of the bow for our decoration.  I use a hot glue gun to attach the ribbon because it takes too long for the glue to dry.  Then the kids decorate the ribbon with feathers and beads. It will take overnight for this to dry.

Next we use our shaping rock and friction to make our rock look more like an arrow. This is how

I teach about friction and useful it is. We also talk about how Indians used it to make fire and how they did it. When their rock looks good enough to them we attach it to the stick.  Again I will hot glue it and put cord around the rock and the stick to make sure it will stay. Next the kids decorate the other end with whatever feathers they picked out. When they are dry I hang it all on the Native American bulletin board.

This craft has gotten the kids all excited about past Native American life and they want to do more crafts and learn more about their life.