Virtual Winter Count

Learn more about the North American Plains Indian tribes and their unusual methods of recording historical events. Learners examine the winter count, a custom by which these groups illustrated information after each winter passed. They examine primary source visuals and then consider what they would draw to represent the past month. Either as a whole group or individually, keep the tradition alive all year so that by the summer your class has created a visual record similar to the Native American tradition. The student task sheet isn't very helpful; simply explain the concept, show examples, and consider using some of the discussion questions to get kids thinking about personal and social connections.