School Projects: Southwest Region Native American Pueblo House
Southwestern Region Native American Pueblo House Project
Karlie recently did a Social Studies project for school. She was studying about the Native Americans and the different regions. Karlie picked the Southwest Region and the pueblo house for her project. She had to make a pueblo house and write a paragraph on how the lodging benefited them.
Even though the girls are both in the same grade and have similar projects they rarely chose do to the same thing with their projects! The great part about them being so different is we have more opportunities to learn while doing various school projects. For this particular Social Studies Project Brina did the Great Plains Region with Tepee housing and Karlie chose the Southwest Region with Pueblo housing.
Putting the final touches on the pueblo house!
Karlie‘s Southwest Region Pueblo Paragraph: Southwest Pueblo Native Americans used pueblo houses that were made of harden clay. They lived in a village and their houses resembled an apartment building on mesas. The pueblo housing was beneficial to their way of life because the mesas helped cool the houses and protect them from sand storms. You can fit a lot of families into a pueblo apartment building. It is easier to help each other out because they were all together during bad weather or other hard times. In their village they grew corn, beans, squash, and cotton to help feed their families. All the people in the village worked together hunting, farming, and raising their families.
Karlie putting her title and name on her project!
Jake and Karlie put together this neat Pueblo House with items we had in the garage!
Pueblo Construction:
- Flat Pieces of Scrap Wood
- Wood Glue
- Speckled Paint
- Wooden Dowels
- Cotton Balls
- Markers
They took flat pieces of scrap wood from various wood working projects and glued them together to create this Pueblo house. The house has three levels. Once all the pieces are glued together and the glue has dried they attached the house to a flat board with wood glue. After the structure was put together we sprayed the whole pueblo with speckled paint (you can get this at Home Depot or Lowe’s). It ended up taking two coats of spray paint in order to get it covered well. The ladders are made out of small wooden dowels. The top windows and doors are cut out, but the other ones are drawn on with marker. The cotton balls represent the cotton the Southwest Region Native Americans grew in their fields. Inside the house on the top level there is a fire and a mat for sleeping.
Pueblo house is finished and ready to go!
We didn’t paint the back of the Pueblo with two coats of paint, but this picture gives you a glimpse at the top inside which has the 3D fire and mat for sleeping. The little storage “cubby” (as Karlie called it) with the paper in it on the lower left is where Karlie stored her written paragraph and ladders during transport to and from school.
Karlie so proud of her project! It was a handful to carry into school!
School Projects: Great Plains Native American Tepee Home
Great Plains Tepee Project
Brina recently did a Social Studies project for school. She was studying about the Native Americans and the different regions. Brina picked the Great Plains Region and the tepee for her project. She had to make a tepee and write a paragraph on how the lodging benefited them. On this Social Studies project Brina did the Great Plains Region with Tepee housing and Karlie chose the Southwest Region with Pueblo housing.
Making her designs on the tepee!
She finished the Native American designs on her tepee! Looks good!
Tepee Construction:
- Cereal Box
- Old White T-Shirt
- Elmer’s Glue
- Wooden Dowels
- Hot Glue & Hot Glue Gun
- Markers
Cut a cereal box into a semi-circle. Use Elmer’s Glue and attach the T-Shirt to the non-print side of the cardboard from the cereal box. Once the glue dries use the markers to create your own special Native American designs on your tepee. Cut out the door to your tepee. Hot glue the wooden dowels to the inside of the tepee. Once the glue dries stand the tepee up and hot glue it to the poster board. To help your tepee maintain its shape you can use rubber bands around it as it dries in place.
Brina’s Great Plains Paragraph: The Great Plains Native Americans used tepees because they were very transportable. They used the tepees so they could follow the buffalo and other animals while hunting them. Their main source of food was buffalo meat. The tepees were light weight, transportable, could be folded up, and carried to the next spot. they also used the tepee poles to carry buffalo meat. The tepees were shelter during the nights for the families and transportable when they were trying to find food. The tepees were a valuable tool used to help feed their families.
Brina’s social studies project ready to go!
She was so excited to hot glue her horse and a folded up tepee on her poster board!
Her tepee turned out well!
Brina was super excited about the fire because Jake used his 3D printer to make it for her project!
Awesome learning lesson about the Great Plains Native Americans and their transportable home – the tepee! It was a great project!
Native American & Hagood Mill History Experience
One sweet Native American that took several minutes with the girls explaining all the details of her outfit from the otters, knots on her blanket, family crest, leather, beads and so much more. Very fascinating!
The girls have been learning about the Native American Indians in their Social Studies class at school. It has been a lot of fun discovering neat details specifically about the Native Americans located in South Carolina. They have even done extra credit activities such as building a Wattle & Daub and Longhouse which were used by the Native Americans in SC as well.
Hagood Mill
While I was online I discovered that Hagood Mill in Pickens, South Carolina was doing a Native American celebration. We decided it would be a great opportunity for the girls to learn more and experience first hand a little piece of the Native American culture as well as the mill history in SC. The only problem is we already had multiple events already on the schedule for that Saturday! Thankfully, the event was only a few miles away and we were still able to squeeze in most of the events.
Cherokee “Duck & Dive” War Dance from their war in SC. The “Duck & Dive” was named after the way they fought with the the English ducking and diving as the muskets would be fired then re-loaded.
Karlie and Brina standing on one of the mill stone that used to be used in South Carolina’s old mills
The girls have been working very hard in their school activities, but it is always a lot of fun when we find extra ways to help them have a more interactive experience because it helps the information come alive for them (and makes it stick). This was a great event and will be very valuable as they continue to study the Native Americans at school. We talked to a lot of different people, watched demonstrations, Native American dances, items they used, and a lot more.
Putting their hand prints on the white horse, they loved this activity
Rainbow hand print horse, very colorful. The horse was a good sport! 🙂
Native American meal cooked over a fire, complete with mushroom soup, fish, venison, chicken, potatoes, and corn. It looked smelled delicious!
Native American Homes – Extra Credit School Project
Now that the girls are in third grade is seems like they have more “hands-on” projects coming up these past few weeks. They had the opportunity to earn extra credit for Social Studies by building a replica of a South Carolina Native American home. They spent a lot of time building their houses, writing out their facts, and presenting their project to the class. Thank goodness for a yard full of saplings, vines, monkey grass, and for Jake who is creative and patient when helping the girls.
The girls really LOVED the arrow heads (even though they did not come from SC). The arrow heads are actually ones that Jake and his Grandpa Hayes collected when he was a boy. Both girls did well and got a 100% on their extra credit projects. Even though they worked hours on this project they told us it was one of the most fun homework projects they had ever done and would love to do more! Glad they enjoyed it because it was a great way to learn even more about the Native Americans from South Carolina.
Brina building the structure out of saplings for her Longhouse
Brina’s House:
- Longhouse
- Cherokee Native American’s lived in Longhouses in the summer months
- The Cherokee’s live in the Blue Ridge Mountain Region of South Carolina
Karlie weaving vines to make the structure for her Wattle & Daub
Karlie’s House:
- Wattle & Daub House
- Cherokee’s from the Blue Ridge Mountain Region lived in a Wattle & Daub house during the winter
- Yemassee’s from the Coastal Zone Region also lived in a Wattle & Daub house during the winter
On the Farm: Acorns Are For Squirrels
Rinsed acorn with its cap still on. “Acorns are for squirrels to gather and eat during the cool winter months” was my response when the kids asked me about the purpose of acorns. It has been a pretty mild Fall in our area but our yard has been full of acorns, squirrels, birds, rabbits, turkeys, and all kinds of animals gathering for the cooler months. Our family has been blessed to have property with a lot of trees, a small creek, and plenty of wildlife. Even though we live in the “suburbs” on our little 4 plus acres it feels like we are out in the country. One of the Fall activities we have as a family is raking leaves and acorns. Now that the acorns and leaves are steadily dropping the discussion regarding Fall, leaves, acorns, and activities around the season have been in full swing on the farm.
There are several oak trees on our property but the one in our front yard has produced an abundance of acorns this year (the ground was covered and continues to be covered with acorns even after raking and collecting). After thinking about it for a little bit we concluded that the reason that tree was so full of acorns had to do with the extra “water” that is has enjoyed from our garden. Jake and I were talking about the tree and the amount of acorns and jokingly mentioned that we could live off the acorns if we wanted to this winter. The girls were already collecting acorns for their “acorn pies” they were making in the sandbox and asked us a couple times why we couldn’t eat acorns. I honestly didn’t have a great answer other than my normal because “Acorns are for squirrels.”
After a couple weeks of thinking about our conversation and talking with the girls about how people in the past lived off the land through gardens, nuts, animals, and crops I decided to research acorns a little more. I figured that if the squirrels are eating the acorns there has to be some benefits to them, right!? They are a nut. I read what articles I could find about how to cook acorns and decided it may be fun experiment for the family to try making something with the acorns. There is not a huge amount of acorn recipes out there but I was able to get enough to feel confident to try it. I figured it would be an interesting educational activity for the kids as well.
Here’s some fun facts about acorns that you may or may not know about:
- The first people that we can find in history who have ate acorns were the Greeks over 2,000 years ago
- The acorn has been a source of nutrition for many people during past food famines.
- Native American Indian tribes use acorns. The Cherokee, Pima, and Apache Indians considered the acorn a staple food that they used in a variety of recipes.
- The majority of acorns cannot be eaten raw from the trees or ground. They have a bitter taste which is the tannin that is used to make leather. If you taste a raw acorn and it is very bitter it is best not to eat it until it has been processed.
- There are a variety of ways people have used to remove the tannins from the acorns. Some records show that they have buried the acorns in mud for weeks then will dig them up and use the sun to dry them naturally. Others place the acorns in a basket or cloth (the basket or cloth needs to be strong enough to hold the nuts but allow water to run through it) with heavy stones, place the basket in a quick flowing stream for several days or weeks then they would sun dry them. Now with stove tops the process of removing the tannins is quicker by boiling the tannins out of the acorns (I will go through the entire leaching of the tannins process in a later post).
- It is said that a fully grown Oak Tree can produce as much as 1,000 pounds of acorns in one season.
- Acorns are low in sugar and have a sweet nutty taste.
- Acorn flour or meal can be used in bread, cookies, grits, pancakes, brownies, stews, cakes, tortillas, muffins, and many other recipes. You can eat an acorn plain or with a glaze once it’s been processed.
- Acorns have carbohydrates, protein and fats, 6 vitamins, 8 minerals (including calcium, phosphorus, potassium), and 18 amino acids. They have a lower fat content than the majority of other nuts and compare very well with other wild foods you find in nature.
- Eating 1 handful of acorns is like eating a pound of fresh hamburger (nutritionally equivalent)
- Much like the squirrels storing acorns for later we can store acorns for a long time as well. Acorns do not spoil quickly so they can be eaten and/or processed at a later time.
There are two main types of trees acorns come from:
- The White Oak Trees can live over 650 years, be more than 4 feet in diameter and up to 100 feet tall. The White Oak is the most common and has a dark green glossy leaf with light green on the bottom and the leaf edges are rounded. White Trees have a smooth shell and the nutmeat is a shade of white. The White Oak Trees are the best for acorns that you want to eat and use in recipes because they have a low tannic acid, but are still sweet and can be eaten after a little processing.
- The Red Oak Trees are not as common and their leaves have a glossy green top side (much like the white oak) but there bottom side is fuzzy and the leaf edges are pointed. The Red Oak acorns can take up to two years to mature and the nutmeat is more of a yellow color. Red Oaks require processing before to eating and generally are not harvested for human consumption unless there is a famine. Red Oak Trees have a higher tanic acid level which is why they need more processing and are typically eaten when necessary such as starvation or famine because if you eat too much tannin it can be bad for your kidneys.
Why do Acorns need to be processed before eating them?
- Acorns contain tanic acid (if you try a raw acorn and it is bitter that is the tannin you are tasting) which is used to make leather and has several other great qualities, however, if you eat an excessive amount of tannin it could lead to kidney failure. If you want to try processing and using acorns for recipes try to pick the acorns from a White Oak Tree since they are much lower in tannins; if you decide to consume ones from a Red Oak make sure to process them very well. I will walk you through the steps to remove the tannic acid (tannins) from the acorns, the process is called leaching.
Information regarding Acorns was found at Wikipedia, Absolute Astronomy, Grandpappy, and Nutrition Data
I will be sharing soon how to pick the perfect acorn, sort them, prep the acorns for cooking, how to process the acorns to remove all the tannins, and a couple acorn recipes that we have tried.
