Enduring Understanding
How do objects help us understand the story of Wisconsin?
Essential Questions
- Why do we save things?
- What makes the things we save important?
- What questions can objects help us answer?
- How do we unlock the meanings of an object?
Wisconsin Standards for Social Studies
Social Studies Inquiry Practices and Processes
- Develop claims using evidence to support reasoning. (Inq1)
- Communicate and critique conclusions. (Inq4)
Behavioral
- Investigate interactions between individuals and groups – Sociology. (BH2)
- Assess the role that human behavior and cultures play in the development of social endeavors – Anthropology. (BH3)
- Examine the progression of specific forms of technology and their influence within various societies. (BH4)
History
- Connect past events, people, and ideas to the present, use different perspectives to draw conclusions, and suggest current implications. (Hist3)
Content Questions
- Why would Native Americans of the Odawa and Ho-Chunk tribes need to have their hands free? What work or chores would be completed?
- How did Native Americans use the cradleboard in caring for their children?
- How did trade with Europeans change the way Native Americans lived, worked, and played?
- When were cradleboards used and how did they remain the same and/or change over time?
Educational Goal Assessment
- Identify the parts of the cradleboard.
- Compare and contrast the cradleboard to current baby carriers.
- Evaluate whether certain tasks are easier to perform with a cradleboard.
- Tell a story of the past through an object and relate that story to today.
Suggested Performance Task
Students can show achievement through completion of these outcomes:
- Class discussion and activities on:
- Activity #1, Cradleboard Then and Now
- In class have students complete a chart that identifies parts of the cradleboard and then evaluate the pluses and minuses of the cradleboard and current baby carriers. (See chart below)
- Activity #2, Native Tribes of Wisconsin
- Using dolls, have students perform daily classroom chore/task. Have them document the difficulties they encountered in carrying their doll and trying to perform their chore/task. Have them write down why they had difficulties.
- Assign students a Wisconsin Native American tribe and a common chore/task. Have them indicate problems they may have in performing the chore. (See chart below with tribes and chores.)
- Have a class discussion on ways that the chores could be performed easier or faster and by whom. Ask the students to state why. Then discuss if and for whom the Native American cradleboard or baby carriers used today would help and why.
Additional Resources:
- Portrait of a Ho-Chunk Infant in Cradleboard.
- Teacher Resource for Oneida Tribe: Hands-On History Bin: A Teacher’s Guide.
- Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
