The Native Dwellings Series
Publisher's Description
The Native Dwellings Teacher's Kit comes in a three-ring vinyl binder and includes a list of general activities that are applicable to all the books in the series and specific activities for each book. It includes a reference list complete with bibliography, resource materials, useful addresses, and masters to photocopy for classroom use. Activities are tailored for the following study areas: Art, Language Arts, Music, Math, Science, and Social Studies.
Houses of Snow, Skin and Bones: The Far North
From Alaska across Canada to Greenland, northern people used whatever materials they found – snow, stone, sod, skin, bones, and driftwood – to construct shelters in one of the world's harshest climates.
Houses of Bark: Woodland Indians
Simple to cut and carry, easy to work with, bark was used for food, clothing, and canoes. But nothing showed the skill and ingenuity of the woodland Indians as dramatically as the ways bark was used to make shelters.
Houses of Hide and Earth: The Plains Indians
With the introduction of the horse, the Indians could build bigger tipis and transport them comfortably. They also adapted the buffalo skins and soil to create earth lodges, arbours, and other impressive structures.
Houses of Wood: The Northwest Coast
With only small handmade tools, the Native People of the Northwest Coast felled massive cedars, transported them back to their villages, built spectacular wooden dwellings, and embellished them with art now admired the world over.
Mounds of Earth and Shell: The Southeast
What was life like for the people of North America before the Europeans came? Their history is found in the thousands of mounds they built as sacred sites from Florida north to Canada and from the Atlantic to the Midwest.
Houses of Adobe: The Southwest
The longest-enduring Native architecture in North America – and some of the most fascinating – was built some three thousand years ago by the descendants of the first people to roam the mountains and plateaus of the southwest United States known as the Four Corners, where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet.
The apparent simplicity of the text, drawings, and coloured illustrations by author/artist Bonnie Shemie gives little indication of the depth of her research. To help children with their personal research, on the copyright page of each book she has listed the names of individuals who have assisted, museums that can be visited, and the best books she found on the subject. Each book also has map endleaves showing locations.
Born and raised in Ohio, Bonnie came to Montreal to work with her architect brother, and stayed to marry and raise three sons. A Canadian citizen, Bonnie's work has been praised by Booklist of the American Library Association, the American Indian Library Association, and the Canadian Library Association.
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