My students need crow beads from the Wandering Bull website, with which to weave our version of wampum belts.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Dobkin's classroom raised $108
This project is fully funded
My Students
"Where did the Lenape go?," There are very few resources in our area to help my students answer this question. Although the Lenape tribe inhabited our area for thousands of years pre-European colonization, there are no Lenape museums or monuments in our area, and precious few useful books in print.
My students are both multiracial and multiethnic, and of differing abilities and socioeconomic backgrounds.
They live in a large city in New York State, and attend a small, progressive public school. Because there are so few Lenape resources in our area, we the teachers have to cull from many sources in order to provide a rich history curricula for our students. One way that we do this is to provide hands-on learning experiences for our students.
After reading from carefully selected historical fiction and informational books, we then do our best to have the students recreate the experience that they have been reading about and viewing in pictures. We always try to do so in a culturally sensitive manner. We don't give the children Native names or play-act Lenape customs. Instead, we try to use what we've learned about the original custom, and recreate it in a way that is true to the students' lives in the modern day.
My Project
One of our most popular projects is weaving our version of wampum bets. After the students read books, look at pictures and view PowerPoint presentations about wampum beads, they imagine and create a modern version of wampum. Wampum beads were originally used in bartering, and to express messages between villages and tribes. When purple wampum began being made, Northeast Woodland tribes started to weave white and purple wampum beads into belts with symbolic messages. Important events, such as peace treaties, declarations of war, and death announcements, were immortalized through these belts. Our students speculate about how their own families and society record similar events today. They then learn the wampum weaving technique using modern materials. Prior to weaving, they design a belt that bears a personal message. Rather than weaving a peace treaty message, a student may weave a message of peace between herself and a classmate.
I have been teaching for more than a decade, and during that time I have noticed that students learn the most through hands-on experiences, such as taking trips, drawing math models and acting out books.
Please help our class have a meaningful, hands-on experience of history this year!
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Dobkin and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
