Fort Ancient Farmers: Activities Page
Classroom Learning
Activity 1: Kentucky Timeline Students construct timelines that compare Kentucky prehistory with events occurring worldwide.
Materials: Timeline illustration handout, length of rope at least 15 feet, clothespins, 3×5 in. index cards, colored tape, paper plates, sources of pictures of historical figures and events, paper clips.
Refer to Columbian Kentucky:A hands-on workshop for teachers for content and lesson planning assistance.
Activity 2: Understanding Indian Houses Students compare Native American and contemporary houses.
Materials: Calculator, measuring tape, string; rope; or yarn, scissors, house descriptions from
Kentuckians Before Boone (pg. 6-8 or 13-14), blank paper, pencil.
Refer to Columbian Kentucky:A hands-on workshop for teachers for content and lesson planning assistance.
Activity 3: Imagining Prehistoric Clothing Students list materials available to prehistoric Kentuckians, then draw the clothing the Indians might have worn and compare it to their own.
Materials: Prehistoric clothing worksheet, crayons or colored markers or colored pencils, images of sixteenth century Americans, clothing excerpts from Kentuckians Before Boone (pg. 9 and 48-49), manilla folder, gummed circles, pencils.
Refer to Columbian Kentucky:A hands-on workshop for teachers for content and lesson planning assistance.
Activity 4: Evaluating Indian Foodways Students match images and descriptions of prehistoric Kentucky foods and compare them to contemporary counterparts in nutritional terms.
Materials:Prehistoric food images and answers, 3×5 inch index cards, scissors, glue stick, crayons or colored markers or pencils, poster board, yardstick, felt-tipped marker.
Activity 5: Kentucky Indian Games Students learn games played by Native Americans in Kentucky and compare them to contemporary favorites.
Materials: 2 brown beanbags, brown felt, fabric glue, canning jar lid, brown paper, felt-tipped marker, walnuts, bake-able craft clay in neutral color, paring knife, game instructions, clear contact paper, game matrix worksheet.
Refer to Columbian Kentucky:A hands-on workshop for teachers for content and lesson planning assistance.
Activity 6: Death Rituals in Prehistoric Kentucky Students read a description of a prehistoric funeral and analyze lists of burial goods that reflect the activities and values of prehistoric people in Kentucky.
Materials: Burial excerpt from
Kentuckians Before Boone (pg. 37-41), lists of burial goods found at Kentucky archaeological sites
The Crigler Mounds Burial Goods, highlighter marker, pencil, blank paper.
Refer to Columbian Kentucky:A hands-on workshop for teachers for content and lesson planning assistance.
Activity 7: Mapping Native American Stories Students read and analyze Native American stories and compare their basic elements with stories from other cultures.
Materials: Native American story texts (provided in attached activity 7 worksheet), story maps(provided in attached activity 7 worksheet), pencils, blank paper.
Refer to Columbian Kentucky:A hands-on workshop for teachers for content and lesson planning assistance.
Museum Learning
Museum Activity 1: Museum Alphabet Students create an alphabet broadside featuring words from the museum.
Materials: Eighteenth-century pictorial alphabet broadside (attached), clipboards, blank grids (attached), pencils.
Museum Activity 2: Museum Object Hunt Students identify and examine objects used in the daily activities of the period represented at the museum. Teachers: also attached:
Museum How to do it plan- Museum object cards, follow instructions on worksheet and have students answer questions about objects listed in each picture.
Museum Activity 3: Prehistoric Kentucky Matrix Students gather and sort information from the museum into a matrix that displays aspects of Kentucky's four prehistoric cultures.
Materials: Matrix forms for each student group (attached).
Museum Activity 4: Mapping the Past Students use semantic map graphic to gather and sort information at the museum in preparation for a creative writing assignment.
Materials: Webbing worksheet (attached), clipboards, pencils.
Materials created by Vicky Middleswarth. Special permission granted by A. Gwynn Henderson. This material is used for the Native Americans in Boone County: Fort Ancient: Prehistoric Farmers Teacher Kit. This material is used by the Boone County Public Library for educational purposes only.