Native American Lessons for Kindergarten: Friday

Today's lesson will be the conclusion to the week of learning about the Indian Nation and contributions to the first Thanksgiving. Here are the things that you will need to present today's lesson in it's fullest capacity:

• 9 x12 brown construction paper

• Cornucopia (can be purchased in the holiday section or the floral section of your local craft store)

• Assortment of construction paper, cut into 1 inch strips (at least 15 strips for each child)

Review Native American facts.

Review facts learned about the first Thanksgiving.

Show children the cornucopia. Explain to them that it is also called the "horn of plenty".

Ask the children why it is called a "horn of plenty"?

Discuss the variety of fruits and vegetables that are in the cornucopia.

Read Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin

Woven Placemats

Provide the children with strips of construction paper.

On the table in front of each child, lay out 5 strips horizontally, from top to bottom. Instruct the children to lay the strips with a finger's width space between each strip.

Explain how to weave the remaining strips in a vertical pattern. In may be beneficial to tape to the table, the 5 strips of horizontal pattern.

Assist the children with carefully weaving each strip in and out.

The end result should be a small woven placemat.

Play Dough

Provide the children with play dough.

Instruct them to create fruit that might have been included in the cornucopia.

**Working with play dough enhances the children's fine motor skills.

Feather Addition

As in a previous lesson, practice addition and subtraction problems by working with the feathers.

Fishing

Children will play the fishing game again, just as it was played in a previous lesson eariler in the week.

This time, when then children identify the picture symbol located on the fish, encourage them to tell a brief story using the picture.

Cornucopia

Outline a shape of the cornucopia on the each brown piece of construction paper.

Instruct children to cut out the horn.

Save it for next week's lesson, when the children will fill the cornucopia with a fruit and vegetable activity.