Native American Activities For Kindergarten Create A Fun Cradleboard Craft

For Native American activities for kindergarten, I have a cute cradleboard craft. Grab my other tips, ideas, and crafts for kindergarten on my page Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum.

Also, there are many amazing and beautiful inventions that we still use today that originally came from the Native Americans.

For example, rubber, raised bed gardening, snow goggles, cable suspension bridges, baby bottles, hammocks, and countless medicinal things.

Native American Activities For Kindergarten Create A Fun Cradleboard Craft

But long before Columbus set foot on land, Native Americans made and used cradleboards.

Native Americans would carry babies long and short distances.

And they could also be hung from hooks or a tree to keep babies safe and close while mom worked.

Table of Contents

Native American Cradleboard

Cradleboards were made of woven fibers or wood, painted, beaded, and braided

Additionally, Northern Plains, Eastern Woodlands, and Southwestern tribes used them.

Too, cradleboards would be decorated to show their love and happiness for the arrival of a new member of their tribe.

Children would spend from birth to up to 2 years being carried in a cradleboard.

Often, they added things to the cradleboard like with fur to keep babies warm in cold climates.

Fabric was hung from the top to shade the babies.

Additionally, dangling items like bead strings and dream catchers would be added as baby toys to keep them busy.

Native American Hands-on Activities

Also, look at some more Native American hands-on activities.

Native American Crafts for Kindergarten How to Make a Kids Pinch Pot
Create and play this Native American Stick Game.
Build a Wigwam with this How to Make a Wigwam Craft for a Fun Native American Unit Study.
Free Native American Plains Indians Fun Lapbook for Kids (& resources)
Fashion a Popsicle Stick Teepee for a cute and simple art project.
“Grow” your own colorful corn –Geronimo Stilton Field Trip to Niagara Falls Summary And Fun Corn Craft.
100 BEST Hands-on Free Native American Resources

Many of these hands-on ideas can be done with multiple ages.

Too, there are enough ideas here that you can create a fun Native American Unit Study.

More Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

Look at these other resources.

However, you’ll want to add some fun books.

Native American Books

5 Native American Books And Fun Figures

Use these books to add reading to a unit study or to enhance your study for the day.

The Rough-Face Girl

From Algonquin Indian folklore comes a powerful, haunting rendition of Cinderella.

Children of the Longhouse

When Ohkwa'ri overhears a group of older boys planning a raid on a neighboring village, he immediately tells his Mohawk elders. He has done the right thing—but he has also made enemies.

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story

Told in lively and powerful verse by debut author Kevin Noble Maillard, Fry Bread is an evocative depiction of a modern Native American family.

The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush

In spring, the hills and meadows of Texas and Wyoming are ablaze with the reds, oranges, and yellows of the Indian Paintbrush. How this striking plant received its name is told in an old Indian legend.

Many years ago, when the People traveled the Plains, a young Indian boy had a Dream-Vision in which it was revealed that one day he would create a painting that was as pure as the colors of the evening sky at sunset.

The Earth under Sky Bear's Feet: Native American Poems of the Land

Native American elders will tell you there is as much to see in the night as in the familiar light of day, and here Abenaki storyteller and American Book Award recipient Joseph Bruchac offers twelve unforgettable stories of the living earth seen from the sky.

Safari Ltd Wild West TOOB

Finally, you should add these Safari Toobs to your collection.

Safari Ltd Powhatan Indians

. They are fun to play with but also make the best addition to sensory bins and dioramas.

Finally, look at how to make this adorable cradleboard craft.

How to Make a Native American Cradleboard

First, you can make this cradleboard small enough for a Barbie doll baby or large enough to carry a bigger doll on a child’s back.

I purposefully kept the instructions general so you could customize the craft to fit any size you like.

You will need:

Corrugated cardboard
Brown packing paper
Brown paint
Crayons or markers
Twine
Small beads
The baby of your choice

To start, measure your intended doll.

Again, you want the cardboard to be slightly taller and wider than the baby.

Cut it flat along the bottom and sides and create a curved top.

Next, cut a square of brown packing paper twice the height and width of the cardboard. In fact, this is going to be “hidden” to create the pocket for the baby.

Native American Activities For Kindergarten

Furthermore, encourage your child to ball it up and crinkle it as much as possible to age it. Then, open it and crinkle it again.

To add a bit more distress to it, you can wipe on some watered down brown paint and then wipe the excess off with a paper towel.

Trim your paper so that it looks roughly like this, matching the curve of the top of the cardboard.

Fold up from the bottom and the sides inward to make it the same size as the cardboard base.

Now it’s time to let your child decorate the hide with crayons or markers with symbols.

The Native Americans often told stories with their artwork. Glue paper to cardboard.

Fold up the bottom and sides and glue them all into place. Let your child do it on their own or use hot glue so it dries much faster.

Flip over the cradleboard and glue on straps using twine for rope.

Add a few beads to a length of twine for decoration and then glue to the cradleboard.

Here is this one on a doll. It’s a little big but would be perfect for a Barbie sized doll.

Native American Activities For Kindergarten Create A Fun Cradleboard Craft

Native American Cradleboard

Native American Hands-on Activities

More Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

Native American Books