In 2005, I received a Fund for Teachers fellowship to travel to Europe to see early childhood classrooms.  I had the delight of spending a few days in a kindergarten in Winterthur, Switzerland.  They were studying the Native Americans.  Here are a few of their class projects.  The teacher had cut out border strips into squares and rectangles for the children to create a Native American pattern.

They were creating necklaces from different colored and shaped wooden beads and feathers.  The students were so excited by their work!


Each child made an Native American headdress using real leather strips and feathers.  If you look closely you can see that the patterns are created with cut pieces of leather.  The children cut their own leather shapes. Those self-cut shapes make the headdresses so endearing!

Finally, this kindergarten classroom had a woodworking area.  The students were creating talking sticks by sawing the dowel rod, sanding it and then wrapping it with yarn.

I will be posting more ideas discovered during my travels on Fridays!