Newspaper Wigwam

Okay, just for the record, this is not at all the proper way to build a wigwam. But, it is a good way to engage your children in a discussion of how they are built (and who lived in them). Here's a link to a cute, animated video instruction. And, here's one for instructions on building a scaled down model, for school aged children.

We, however, wanted something bigger. And, lacking young saplings, or tree bark, opted for newspaper, as a building material. The children glued five sheets of newspaper together, end to end.

Then, they rolled the sheets vertically, to make long tubes.

They used two of the tubes, stapled together to form a circular base.

Two more tubes were stapled across, east to west, to form a double arch, with space between for a door.

Then, three (though we had intended four), were arched across, and stapled, from north to south. The tubes were stapled to the base, and to each other where they crossed.

Much to my surprise, the structure stood. It was lopsided, but it stayed standing, even with a wiggly four year old, going in, and out.

It was not strong enough to support a cover though, so we propped it up before taping newspaper sheets to the outside.

We only had three newspapers to begin with, so we ran out, when our wigwam was about 1/3 covered, but it gave the children the idea.

We also talked about how the natives might have covered the door, and why a hole, to let the smoke out, would be necessary in the roof. Since we mainly have examples of tipis, in this part of the country, I wanted to give the children a hands on, visual demonstration of the type of homes the Wampanoag people, encountered by the Pilgrims, would have lived in.

Mission accomplished.

It's great to be a homeschooler.