for grades: 2 i 3 | 4 i 5
Native Americans: Meeting Your Basic Needs
Offered at: Wildlife Education Campus or In-school
Description: The original inhabitants and stewards of this area, the Lenape, were skillful at meeting basic needs using the resources of nature. Through the use of actual artifacts and replicas, students will explore how these resourceful people obtained food, clothing, and shelter. This program highlights the traditional ways the Native Americans who resided in the Hudson Valley took only what they needed to survive. Our program concludes with a traditional Native American tale of the Hunted Songbirds, which teaches the lesson of harvesting from nature only what one requires to meet the basic needs of survival.
Learning Objectives: In this program, students will gain an appreciation for the environment by learning about how the Native Americans meet their basic needs of survival. Students will comprehend what a basic need is and how the Native Americans meet them. Students will learn about how the Lenape hunted and gathered their food, the basic structure of shelters and how they change depending on where they live, the construction of tools from stone, bone, and wood, and the clothing they made from animal skins and pelts.
NYS Core Curriculum Standards:
2nd- Structure and Properties of Matter & Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: 2-PS1-1, 2-PS1-2, 2-LS2-2, & 2-LS4-1
3rd- Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems & Weather and Climate: 3-LS2-1, 3-LS4-4, 3-ESS2-2, & 3-ESS3-1
4th- Structure, Function, and Information Processing: 4-LS1-1
5th- Structure and Properties of Matter & Earth’s Systems: 5-PS1-3 & 5-ESS3-1
as a field trip
Program Length: 90 minutes
45-minute presentations/activities
30 minute guided hike
10-15 minutes in the Hall of Animals
Gift shop available upon request
Picnic area available upon request
Program Cost:
$250 for up to 25 students
Staff is free
Location: Wildlife Education Campus
(25 Boulevard, Cornwall-on-Hudson NY, 12520)
in the classroom
Program Length: 45 minutes
Program Cost:
$275 plus mileage cost, for the first program
$250 for each additional program on the same day