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!