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Summary and Objective
After exploring the Wobanakiak way of life on the 1704 Raid on Deerfield website, students will understand that the Wobanakiak used available materials in their natural environment to fashion tools and provide shelter. To attain this understanding, students will build dioramas of the Wobanakiak home sites out of materials they find in nature.
Teaching Plan
Step 1.
. Lead a discussion about what the class already knows about the Wobanakiak from previous classes. Then focus the conversation on the Wobanakiak lodges. How did they build them? What kinds of resources would they need to build them? What kinds of tools would they have used? What did the shelters look like? What purposes did the shelters serve?
Step 2.
Once you have collected students’ ideas about Wobanakiak shelters, view www.1704.deerfield.history.museum/scenes/groups.do?title=Wobanaki. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Learn more about the Wobanaki.” View the picture Wobanakiak Lifeways – Circa 1600 by Francis Back. Using information taken from the picture, continue the conversation. Students may want to modify or add to their previous answers. What does it look like the shelters were made of? How would the Wobanakiak have obtained those resources? What shapes are the shelters? Can students think of advantages to building one shape rather than the other? Do students see the smoke coming out of the shelter that is third from the left? Before viewing the picture, had the class included accommodating a fireplace as one of the purposes of the shelter? Note: The 1704 Raid on Deerfield website can also be accessed from the home page of this website.
Step 3.
Scroll down the page to the fifth paragraph under the heading “Ancient Resources in Ndakinna.” Ask a student to read the fifth paragraph out loud. Then continue the discussion. What are the two names that the shelters were called? What is the structure of the lodge that is first from the left? What is the structure of the other lodges? What made a home site desirable to the Wobanakiak?
Step 4.
Scroll to the top of the page and click on “Artifacts” on the menu bar. When the “Artifacts” page opens, click on “Tools.” Scroll down to “Stone Axe” and click on the picture. Ask a student to read out loud the description of the axes. Continue leading the class discussion. Zoom in on certain areas of the axes as questions arise about them. How is the stone attached to the handle in this picture? How might the stone have been attached to the original handle? How did the Wobanakiak make the grooves for attaching the stone to the handle? How might the Wobanakiak have sharpened these axes? What might have made the small holes on the sides of the smaller axe? How would this axe have been used in building Wobanakiak shelters? How would this axe have been used within the Wobanakiak home sites and lodges?
Step 5.
Assessment. Explain to the class that each of them will be making a diorama of a Wobanakiak home site. The diorama will be the physical surroundings of a home site, not including the people who would have lived there. As homework, students need to collect materials from the out of doors that they will use to make a home site. (This project is best done in the fall or spring when there is no snow and students can comfortably be out of doors.) Have students collect these materials in a shoe box, and the cover of the box can be used as the base of the diorama.
The teacher will provide glue and waxed string. The wax string can be used to tie things together, such as sticks for the lodges, in place of sinew. Examples of items to be collected are sticks, leaves, moss, stones, berries and bark. If birch bark is going to be collected, explain that it must come from a dead tree. The Wobanakiak used live, standing trees but, for this project, bark will only be taken from birch trees that have fallen over or been cut down. Also explain that no real axes should be used for this project!
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