Katherine's 2nd Grade Native American dwelling

This Friday, Katherine has to do a presentation on a project we finished last night. She had to choose and construct a Native American dwelling. She chose the tee-pee (I'm betting the rest of her grade did too. lol). I helped her research the Tonkawa tribe and we made the tee-pee. We used a foam posterboard, cut to 14x20", the specifications given by the teachers. We painted a blue river because they lived near the Guadalupe and Colorado rivers here in Texas, and we painted the rest green. The Tonkawas believed they descended from wolves, so they would never kill a wolf or coyote. They were hunters and gatherers and used a travois (trah-voy) to carry their belongings. Dogs, and eventually horses, pulled the travois. I found petroglyphs online and painted them on the sides of the tee-pee, made out of thin wooden dowels and tan felt. We used dark brown felt for the floor of the tee-pee.

We used yellow Easter grass for the fire, and small wooden dowels for the firewood. We glued brown beads around the fire since we didn't have pebbles.

This is the petroglyph of a wolf that I found online and painted.

These are other petroglyphs I found. The one on the left is of a deer and the right is a buffalo. I changed them a little, so they would look like they were drawn by the same artist- to look like the wolf. You can see the packs tied to the travois.

This symbol is a bird- it's from the Tonkawa tribe seal and flag.

For her presentation, Katherine doesn't have to know so much about the inhabitants, as she does the actual model, I think. We worked all afternoon on it yesterday. I must say, it turned out pretty well. I'm excited for her to present it. After it's all over, it'll probably go in Travis's room, since his is decorated with cowboys. (Maybe he can use it next year for the same project. LOL)