Thursday, October 2, 2014

4th Grade on the Go!


At Churchville learning about children's games
that helped young Lenape hone their hunting skills.

Last week as part of our study about Philadelphia and the Lenape people, fourth grade visited Churchville Nature Center.   Following our trip, where we immersed ourselves in learning about the daily life of the Lenape, fourth graders got to work developing their own ideas on how to design and build a Lenape wigwam.

To begin the process, they broke into teams to build the skeleton of the structure. They twisted palm fibers to create cordage, a type of rope, to lash the sticks together for their framing. They measured and cut the sticks to the right sizes and worked collaboratively holding sticks in place while others lashed them securely. Students quickly realized it wasn't as easy as they thought it would be. However, they immensely enjoyed the process and discovered skills they did not know they possessed. Once our wigwam was stabilized, we took a walk down to the stream and garden on our campus and scavenged for additional materials to continue our building. 

Making cordage
 
Lashing cordage to secure cross bracing
New building supplies

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