4th Grade Native American Trade Activity

This month is my sons Social Studies month and they are focusing their studies on Native Americans. Part of this fun project is the kids are to make home made items, and bring them to class where they will trade these items with their class mates. My son chose to make Arrow Heads, His class seems to have more girls then boys so of course I had to think of some girly items to also make, hence the necklaces.

          As I was brainstorming how to make these arrow heads, I remembered a Salt Dough recipe I saw once. People often use these to make paw prints or ornaments. This stuff is really easy to make and once you bake them, they are hard and solid.  I started my Wednesday morning running to my local Walmart to get a few items I did not have. Some wooden dowels that were under $3 and 2 packs of feathers! 1.99 each I believe, while I was in the crafting section I came across a  bag of beads and the lightbulb moment came to make necklaces.

SALT DOUGH RECIPE
2 CUPS OF FLOUR
1 CUP OF SALT
1 CUP OF HOT WATER
1 TSP OF COOKING OIL

  MIX FLOUR  AND SALT

MIX IN HOT WATER AND OIL

KNEAD DOUGH ONCE IT COOLS

knead dough and roll into balls

Roll out dough with a rolling pin. 

Not to thick and not to thin.

I cut triangles and shaped them into "spears" and before placing them into an oven to bake, I placed the wooden dowl to make an imprint so that the dowel fit perfectly. 

BAKED IN OVER AT 400 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or until dough is dried. 

Once the spears where done baking, I let them cooled down then I painted them with black acrylic paint. 

Once the spears dried, I used my HOT GLUE GUN to glue the spears to the dowels and then I added an extra touch by wrapping twine around the spear and dowel. I super glued a few feathers and tied some twine around them to secure it for an extra added touch. 

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Native American Inspired Necklace

These came out really cute, I'm really glad I made these and I hope my sons class mates enjoy them also.  I  started by cutting craft paper into round circles, 2 for each necklace - one for the front and one for the back. I hot glued a few feathers to one piece of circle paper and added twine , followed by gluing the second piece of  round paper to seal it all in.

 I added a few colorful beads and wallah!  A pretty necklace!