Encourage tinkering with ideas, relationships, connections. Set up situations where students have to find information not readily available in school texts. Provide opportunity for students to design open-ended explorations of the concept. Provide multiple options so students can plan a unique "proof" of learning.

Indian Crafts related to each tribe

Objective: to recreate Indian skills in craft activities related to each tribe

Activity: Follow the activity below immediately after learning about that individual tribe. Then return to the 2R piece and begin studying the next tribe.
Lower Pecos River Indians: Recreate cave pictographs with a crayon resist and tempera paint washes. Take an 18" X 24" piece of gray construction paper. Draw figures similar to the Pecos pictographs in heavy black, red, and white crayon. Lightly wash with diluted brown, orange, and yellow tempera paint. After it dries, crumple the paper to give it a rock-like effect.
Karankawas: Make an Indian necklace or bracelet. One way is to make a clay medallion and several clay beads to string on a leather strip with feathers, shells, or even pasta noodles. Another possibility is to braid three pieces of yarn into a "friendship" bracelet or necklace.
Coahuiltecans: Use soaked corn husks (tamale wrappings) to make a fiber weaving. Soak the husks for at least thirty minutes, tear into long strips, and line up about eight strips on a piece of masking tape, leaving a little space between. Then tightly weave other strips through the "warp" you have made. It isn't beautiful, but it is gives the feeling for the difficulty of working with a natural product.
Jumanos: I teach the children string tricks like Cat's Cradle and Jacob's Ladder. This was a common winter activity of many Indian children. I have experimented with making sand paintings, but have not perfected it yet.
Caddo: We make clay coil pots by making long "snakes" of clay and spiraling a base and then adding coils to make the sides. You should learn how to score and slip so the
product will stay together better.
Plains: You can make a fine-looking medicine shield to hang by using a crayon resist and
brown tempera paint wash on a paper plate. Let each child choose an Indian name and draw a picture representing that name on the paper plate in heavy crayon. Wash with brown tempera paint and hang three construction paper feathers from the bottom. In addition, a beautiful headband can be woven with yarn on a cardboard loom and you can crumple paper grocery bags and create a pictograph story on "bisonhide".

Assessment: evaluate the students on how well they relate these skills to the tribes studied