Longhouses!

By Madden and Masah

Our first project in Minecraft was to build Native American longhouses. Before we could start building, we had to read about the Native Americans that lived in Michigan. We read about the there fires - the Ojibway, the Ottawa, and the Potowatomi. 

We had to use math to make our Longhouses. We built them to scale, which means that they had to be 200 feet long and 25 feet wide. Since we couldn't make them that long, we had to figure out what we could do. We calculated that if each block in Minecraft was five feet, then we would need 40 blocks for the length and the width of the longhouses had to be 5 blocks. 

Inside we had to make sure the longhouses were like they really were back then. We had a rubric that helped us with that. The longhouse had to be divided for different families. Each section had to have a fire, and there had to be an opening above the fire for smoke. They also had to have a raised sleeping platform and storage. It was a really fun project!

Mr. Baker's Visit

by Cody and Brandon

Do you know about Native Americans?  Well if you dont, we have some intersting facts.  On October 10th, on a Friday afternoon, at Conant Elementary, Ms. Diem's class and Mrs. Bedell's class went to the fine arts wing.  Once we reached the fine arts wing, we saw a guy named Mr. Baker.

Mr. Baker had white hair and a white goatee.  He wore round glasses and had an interesting voice that makes you want to listen.  He also had strict rules to follow.  He was super interesting!

Here are some facts we learned from Mr. Baker.  Did you know that you should hunt in the Fall or Autumn time?  You should do that because it's not too hot or not too cold.  Now, what should you do with all that meat?  If you leave it out, it will rot, so you should put it into a bog lake.  The bacteria will kill the germs and the meat will stay nice and not rot.

Native Americans played a game similar to lacrosse.  They used hard balls if they were going against different tribes, but if they were going against their own tribe, the used a leather ball filled with seeds.

Our Big Adventure!

One day, our teacher said we were going on a big adventure!  We didn't know what she was talking about!  She took us out the back doors where we go for recess, and we walked past the playground!  We walked toward the middle school next door!

Then we got to a path that led into a nature area in between the schools.  As we walked through the woody area, our teacher told us that we were going to pretend to live like Native Americans.  She explained that Native Americans didn't go to stores to get things they needed, the used things from nature.

We had to look around us as we walked for things that could be helpful for making things like shelter and tools.  It was a lot of fun!  I never realized how much you can make with things you find on the ground!

We had a few big sticks that we thought would be good for a roof pole to tie between trees with vines.  Then we were going to use leaves and branches to make the roof and sides of our house.  It would definitely be a lot of work living when the Native Americans did!