Homes of the Past (es)

“The best way to learn history is by experiencing it.”

A look at the past helps us understand the current housing system and establish a knowledge base for analyzing its successes and shortcomings. This lesson plan provides an overview of the evolution of the American housing structure. Here, learners will learn how human characteristics of places, such as how people earn a living, shelter, clothing, food, and activities based on their location, are determined by where they live. For example, why did you build teepees? Why were the totem poles important to the tribes in the Northwest? Why didn’t the Woodland tribes make houses from clay?

This lesson allows educators to help teach an assortment of different housing types among Native Americans through tech-based and maker activities that help address the spatial thinking abilities of young children and developmental appropriateness.

Lesson Objectives:

• Identify different types of houses in Early America.
• Construct knowledge of different kinds of homes, such as tepees, ancestral pueblos, and longhouses.
• Design and create an early American house prototype.
• Share their house prototypes with peers and get inspired by the early American House Museum.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this lesson, learners will be able to: 

• Become familiar with the houses of early Americans. 
• Build knowledge about different types of tribal societies, their housing, and their culture.
• Implement their understanding of early American houses and create a prototype.
• Share their prototype with peers and get inspired via the early American house museum.

Resources: 

• Printouts of learner handouts. 
• Presentation slides for students 
• Devices like tablets/ laptops/computers for each team. 
• Stable wifi connection.
• Access to CoSpaces Edu on each device.

Before the Lesson: 

• For the duration of the entire activity, teamwork is advisable. 
  • Teamwork can help your class progress more quickly and learn more effectively. Learners gain an understanding of one another's strengths and how to collaborate. This will help them learn and practice essential social and communication skills.
  • The ideal team size for a class would be three team members per group. You can divide learners into groups of three.
  • For effective team grouping strategies, you can also take help from this link.
• Based on the number of groups in your classroom, keep the required number of learner handout printouts ready. To create a stable frame for the house prototype, You can use normal wooden sticks or add popsicle sticks to the cardboard. This will ensure that the learners can use it smoothly during the activity. If your class has a knack for craftwork, this activity could also be conducted with the help of your learners.  
• Based on the number of groups in your classroom, keep devices (tablets or laptops) ready.

Objective:

• Identify different types of houses in Early America.
• Construct knowledge of different kinds of homes, such as tepees, ancestral pueblos, and longhouses.

Activity description:

1. Begin by sharing with learners that today they would dive deep into the history of housing and create a prototype, followed by setting up a “Homes of the Past” museum of the work they’ve created.  
    
2. Briefly discuss the following ground rules with the learners to be followed throughout the class: 
   1. Be respectful of one another. Listen to your teammates.
   2. Raise your hands if you have anything to share.
   3. Listen attentively and follow instructions.
   4. Complete tasks in the given time.
   5. Open the floor for questions related to the classroom norms, if any. Also, ask for learners' inputs, if any, to the class norms & with a thumbs up, share their agreement over class norms. 
       
3. For the entire activity, teamwork is advisable. This will help them learn and practice essential social and communication skills. The ideal team size for a class would be three team members per group. Divide learners into groups of three. 
    
4. Guide learners through the roles and responsibilities for the lesson. The following could be the role distribution:
   1. Project Manager: A project manager would be responsible for helping fellow team members stick to their tasks and ensuring no one has left out the opportunity to practice hands-on and participate in team discussions. 
   2. Resource Manager: A resource manager would collect and submit resources from resource stations. They shall also ensure optimum utilization of resources takes place.
   3. Clean up crew: Responsible  for cleaning up the materials and work after the project is completed.
       
5. It's important to note that when working with very young children, it's essential to keep in mind they have a short span and may need frequent breaks and reinforcement of the instructions.
    
6. Begin by asking, "Can you draw your dream house?” (slide 4). Provide some time to draw, then ask them to share the output with the whole class and mention the three things they want in their dream house by pointing them out in their sketch. 
    
7. Introduce students to CoSpaces (slide 12-17), if it’s the first time they are using the software.
    
8. Then apprise them of the task for this section by sharing the “Homes of the Past” on CoSpaces (slide 18) where Little Rabbit, Una len and Hikki will take them on a tour of the first American culture, food and housing; their job would be to identify the various types of houses of early America. 
   1. As they view the CoSpaces link, students should complete pg. 2 of their student handout.

Objective: 

• Design and create an early American house prototype.

Activity Description:

1. Congratulate learners on completing their first task. The first task helps students construct necessary knowledge before learners embark on their journey of creating a prototype of houses of early Americans.
    
2. This lesson section focuses on widening learners’ horizons of using different things to make the house look more similar to early American houses. You can take help from slides 21 from the teaching deck to take inspiration from various early home prototypes made of clay and stick.
    
3. Introduce learners to the main activity for the day: creating a house prototype. Explain that with their knowledge about early homes and their attributes, they would now become artists and create a prototype. The goal here is to help them reimagine the houses and create a prototype.
    
4. Begin by stating, “Why did you build teepees? Why were the totem poles important to the tribes in the Northwest? Why didn’t the Woodland tribes make houses from clay?” Now pause for learner response or questions, if any. 
    
5. Provide learners with the necessary things which are required to create a prototype of the homes of early Americans (slide 22):
   1. A pack of clay
   2. Cookie cutter
   3. Wooden sticks
   4. A pencil
   5. Cardboard
   6. Glue
       
6. As with any other challenge, this challenge also has a set of rules the learners should adhere to for the successful completion of their project. Walk learners through the following rules and open the floor for feedback, if any: 
   1. Discuss with your teammates.
   2. Select the type of house you would like to create a prototype.
   3. You can use only the following native Americans home for the prototype:
      1. Longhouses
      2. Ancestral pueblo
      3. Tepees
   4. Stick to the time limit. 
   5. Be creative.
       
7. Show the learners a model of a simple house made of clay and wooden sticks, and demonstrate how the clay is used to hold the wooden sticks together (slides 23-25).
   1. Then, show the learners how to mold a piece of clay into a rectangular shape that can be used as a wall.
       
8. After demonstration, provide ample time for groups to construct their house prototypes (slide 26). Walk around the classroom and offer guidance and support as needed.

Objective:

• Allow students to consolidate their learning, present their prototype with peers, and reflect on the activity.

1. Congratulate learners on creating a house prototype. You can ask a series of reflective questions below to help learners reflect on their work:
   1. Which type of house did you choose and why? 
   2. How many people can you accommodate in your house? 
   3. How did you choose the colors?
   4. What did you discuss with your teammates while creating the house?  
       
2. The facilitator asks learners to present their creations (slide 28) and let the class guess the house prototype they have created.
   1. Learners go through the presentation guidelines (pg. 3 of student handout) and present taking help from supplement questions from the presentation template.
   2. Towards the end, teams could open the floor for feedback on how they could further refine their prototype.