Making Tipis

Joe Lanceley, also know as Tipi Joe, came to work with us last week. He is a professional artist who works with students in schools through T.I.A., a program that promotes teaching art through integration in other subject areas. Our learning with Tipi Joe connected to our learning in Social Studies about First Peoples' traditional housing on the Plains. Tipi Joe taught our class about the structure and symbols of tipis, including that the top represents the sky and the bottom represents the ground, how to position and build a tipi using a 9-foot model tipi made of canvas, and information about the history of tipis and considerations we would need to make when making our own mini tipis. We also learned how to behave respectfully in and around a tipi by treating a tipi like we would treat any home. This was all in our first session!

During our second session, we drew the animals on our tipis using stencils from Tipi Joe and painted our tipis. During our third session, we outlined our designs and added details using sharpies and Tipi Joe and Miss Cichosz helped us assemble our mini tipis using a cardboard circle, wooden skewers and toothpicks, and a hot glue gun. The toothpicks were used to represent the lacing pins (which keep the tipi closed in the front) and the skewers represented the tipi poles in the smoke flaps (which can be opened to let smoke out from a fire inside the tipi or closed if there is rain or snow). Of course, we used non-traditional tools and technology to make our mini tipis, but we learned about traditional ways to build tipis. We learned that tipis today are typically made of canvas instead of buffalo hides. Traditionally, women made the tipis and once canvas became available, it became widely used because it is lighter and easier to procure than 12-18 skinned and tanned buffalo hides. Our class also wrote a short reflection about our tipis and we were given mini lights to represent the fire inside each tipi. We loved making our tipis!