>> Good morning, everyone.

And I'm so excited to be here.

Today, I get to learn with you.

I would like to share a part of my favorite day of -- of our school day is our greeting by Miss Rahman, our principal, who shares with us every morning to get all of the scholars and all of the teachers ready to learn each day.

So good morning, everyone.

Welcome to Forest Hill School, where we are the Forest Hill Owls.

We outshine the rest, welcome all, lead by example, and soar academically.

So, now you all are official Forest Hill Owls for the day.

I want you to think about how wonderful your school is and how wonderfully they start your day each morning with your teacher and their announcements or maybe your principal over the loudspeaker.

But, today, I wanted you to be part of my class at Forest Hills School.

My name is Ms.

Chavis, and I teach fifth grade.

And I'm so lucky I get to teach all the different subjects.

I've taught grades 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

So I am really fortunate that I get to teach sixth -- that I get to teach fourth-grade social studies with you today.

I am so looking forward to us learning and growing together, learning social studies.

I'm excited because I love social studies.

It's my favorite subject of the day.

I love to learn about different things, and in fourth grade, we get to learn all about the great state of New Jersey.

You've probably worked really hard in learning about social studies already, so I thought, let's talk about the Lenape Indians and how they were in our state and how wonderful they were and all the wonderful things that they brought to the state of New Jersey to make our state such a great place to live.

So, today, we're going to talk about a couple things.

All about the Lenapes, how they've lived, what kind of homes they've lived in, what did they do before we really became a United States of America?

Also, some of the great things that they did to provide our state to help develop our state to being such a great state.

So, you're going to need a few items.

The first item you're going to need to get are some crayons.

Any color crayons.

If you could get a green -- Any crayons would be terrific.

If you could get a piece of paper, and it could be on the back of a worksheet.

It doesn't have to be a brand-new piece of paper, just something to get some ideas down, maybe.

And something to write with.

If you want to use a crayon, that's okay, too.

So, you need three things -- some crayons, a piece of paper, and something to write with.

I'm going to count down from 10 to 1 to give you some time to get those three items.

So take your time, and you're going for a piece of paper, crayons, and something to write with.

And, remember, it doesn't have to be a new piece of paper.

Just to get some ideas we're gonna write down.

So, here we go.

I'm going to count down.

Take your time.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

I hope everybody's back and I hope you're ready to learn.

So, today, I want to share with you one thing that I do in my class is -- we talk about our zones of regulation.

And it's something that we talk about every day and how we start our class.

So, here's our zones of regulation.

So, I just want you to listen, and then we're going to do something with this.

I want you to think about how you're feeling right now.

This is new for me, and I'm sure this might be new for you, too.

So, I want you to think about that and then look at the four colors.

This tells me, "How am I feeling right now?

Am I ready to learn or not?"

So, think about the blue -- right here.

The blue tells me -- The blue color is like, "I'm tired.

I'm sleepy.

Maybe I got to bed too late."

Or maybe it's a rainy Monday, where I just want to pull the covers over my head and go to sleep.

We've all had days like that, including your teachers.

Then we have the green.

The green is where I want to live.

I want to be able to be ready to learn.

I'm excited, I'm happy, and I'm really ready to learn what my teacher has for me.

Then we have our yellow.

Yellow is where we're happy, we're excited, but maybe we're too excited.

Maybe, "Oh, my goodness.

I can't wait to get to school" or maybe "I can't wait to get home.

I've got so much fun happening today."

And yellow is where I need to take a deep breath, I need to calm down so I can get back to that green and be happy and ready to learn.

Then we have that red.

Mm.

We all have had those days where maybe somebody has gotten us mad.

Maybe my brother or sister did something that just doesn't leave me happy for the morning.

So, when we're in any color other than green, we have to take a deep breath, maybe count to five, and think about, "How can I get myself ready to learn?"

Because that's my job.

I have to be ready to learn each day.

So, I can share with you right now, I am definitely a yellow.

I might even be talking a little too fast.

So yellow means I'm so excited to be here, but this is so new for me that I might be a little overexcited.

But that's okay, because I'm going to take a deep breath.

[ Breathes deeply ] I'm going to relax for a second and get ready to learn.

So, I'm going to give you a little countdown.

So, on your piece of paper, I want you to either color or circle that has one of these colors or you can write the word.

But I want you to think about, where are you right now?

Are you a blue, where you're sleepy, a little tired, green, where you are ready to go, yellow, where you're a little too excited and we need to get ourselves to calm down, relax, get ready to focus, or red, where somebody has just not made our day the best.

So, I'm going to count down from five, and I just want you to write down or do a little circle of the color you feel today.

So go ahead on your piece of paper, and I'll count down for you to be ready to be back with me.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Well, I hope everybody is working towards green, because that means we're ready to learn together.

And I really want us to learn together, because I can't tell you how excited I am because I'm working my way back here to learn together today and share all about the Native Americans and the state of New Jersey.

So, today, we're going to talk about New Jersey.

We all live in New Jersey.

But in this picture, it shows that we are all over the state of New Jersey.

This goes out to everybody and all the students in the state of New Jersey.

So, I want you to look at the map and think about, where are you?

Are you closer to New York?

Are you closer to -- The "P" is for Philadelphia.

Are you closer to the "T," which is in Trenton?

Or are you closer to the NYC, which is New York City?

So, thinking about where you are in the state, I want you to think about, "Hmm, do Native Americans live where I live now?

Did they live there before me?"

I don't know.

Think about that.

What do you think?

Hmm.

Guess what the answer is.

Most likely, they did.

And everywhere you see little black words, those are different Native American communities that lived within the state of New Jersey.

So they were all over our state.

So, today, we're going to learn about how they lived and how they worked together to make our state a great state and -- guess what -- how they really did a lot for our state to really show us how important they were in creating the great state of New Jersey.

So, as fourth graders, you've all got to learn all about the state and the county you live in.

Well, I'm down by Philadelphia.

I live in Camden County.

And I want you to think about, "Hmm, Native Americans."

What do you know about Native Americans?

So, in my class, I always start with, like, a brain -- a way of activating my brain, get us going.

Usually, we talk to each other, but, today, we can't do that, can we?

So, today, I drew a circle, and you can do this on your piece of paper.

You can draw a circle.

It doesn't have to be perfect, 'cause look at mine.

It is not perfect.

And I wrote "Native Americans" inside of that.

So, I'm going to give you -- I'm going to count down and give you a few seconds to do that.

Draw a circle and write "Native Americans" in it.

And it doesn't have to be perfect.

This is just for you.

So, I'll count down and give you a minute to do that.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

So, since we can't talk with all our friends today, we're going to do a lot of thinking for ourselves, and that way, you're going to have this graph -- or this graphic to help us think about it.

So, what do we know about Native Americans?

Hmm.

What do you know?

So, let's take a few minutes and write down some words that you know about Native Americans.

And I'm going to show you how you're gonna do it.

You're just gonna write down all different things that you know.

Maybe some words.

Maybe you could draw a picture.

Something you know about Native Americans.

So, go ahead on your paper and write down some things, and I'll write down some things.

And then we'll come back and share them.

So go ahead and write down on your paper, what do you know about Native Americans, to get our brains thinking today.

I hope you're thinking.

I've got a lot.

I've got a few ideas.

I can't wait to share.

Think about the vegetables you know of because of the Native Americans.

Think -- is there any holiday you think of?

Or any movies you've seen?

So, here's just a couple quick ones that I put down.

I have "Native Americans," and in there, I put down I know Native Americans' family was very important to them, so I just put down "family."

I put down "corn" because we know corn from the Native Americans, but they also called it maize.

So I'm going to put that down, too.

I forgot to write that.

I put "loved the environment."

Native Americans always loved the environment, and we're going to learn a lot about that today.

I put "wigwams" and "longhouses" because those are the things they lived in.

Those are their homes.

And the big one I put down is "Thanksgiving."

I think when we think about holidays and we think about Native Americans, we think about Thanksgiving.

But did our Native Americans participate in that in New Jersey?

What can we learn from the Native Americans to learn about New Jersey?

So that's what we're going to talk about today.

Have you ever heard of the Lenape Indians?

Many of us might have heard the word Lenape.

The Lenape Indians, but we say it "Len-AH-pay."

"Len-AH-pay Indians," we say.

So, I wanted to share that word with you, because we know that in a lot of areas in Burlington County.

But I wanted to share that with you because those are the Native Americans that we're going to talk about.

Lenape means "common and ordinary people."

So, we're gonna talk about the Lenape Indians today and how they helped all of us.

So, they lived in two reg-- There's two regions of the state of New Jersey where they lived.

They also lived in -- Let me show you my map.

So, we look at this map.

They lived in the Orange, which is New York, a little tiny piece of the red, which is Connecticut, the yellow, which is Pennsylvania, and see that brown at the bottom?

That's Delaware.

So, the Lenape Indians lived in all of these regions, but they mostly lived in the state of New Jersey.

So that's why we're going to really talk about them today.

So, I want you to think about where you live in the state of New Jersey and I want you to think about family, because we're going to start with how they lived in their community and how their communities worked together.

So, I want you to think about that just for one -- 30 seconds, we'll say.

I want you to get some ideas.

Think about your family.

And I want you to think about how some Native American families lived and worked together.

And then we're going to talk about that.

So, get your thinking caps on, and we're going to get ready to go.

>> So, as we think about our families, I want you to think about the town you live in.

Is it a big city or is it a small community?

Well, the Lenape Indians lived in towns or communities from large villages from 200 to 300 people.

That was a big community for the Lenape Indians.

Or they lived in small bands, where they had 25 to 30 people in a smaller community.

Which one's closest to your community where you live and go to school?

For me, I would say it's closer to the larger village, for me in Camden County.

But these communities lived and respected each other.

So, in the communities, the Native Americans, the Lenapes, lived in what they called as clans.

And that's what we call almost a family.

So, like, my family is the Chavis family.

The Native Americans lived in three different clans -- the Wolf clan, the Turkey clan, and the Turtle clan.

That's how they developed their communities.

And their communities -- they had three different clans, and those were almost like three different families.

So, imagine if I'm a mom and I'm part of the Turtle clan, think about all her children.

What would they be part of?

They would all be part of the Turtle clan.

So all of my family is part of the Turtle clan.

But now think about, "Hmm, what happens when one of my sons would go and marry?"

So, my son would marry somebody from a different clan.

Hmm.

What happens?

So, my son is an example of a Wolf -- would marry a Turkey, a female or a woman from the Turkey clan.

Then all of the children they have would also then be part of the Turkey clan.

So, these communities were divided by different families, or clans, as they called them, a Turkey clan or the Wolf clan, or the -- which one did I forget?

The Turkey clan, the Wolf, or the Turtle clan.

And they were all families that would live and work together.

There was never any -- All the families would respect each other and they helped each other and they worked together to make their community the best it could be.

So, think about your community.

Do you do that with your community?

Do you work together and respect each other and help each other be the best they can be together?

I hope so.

And hopefully that's something we can learn from our Native Americans.

They respected each other, so they were always helpful and always willing to take care of each other's community.

They also had a whole way of government.

In your community or town or city, who runs all the government?

Who helps make all those decisions?

We know we have President Trump, but in our communities, who helps us?

Well, we would have a mayor, the mayor of our city or town or community.

So, now, in the Native American tribes, they had a chief.

The chief would help everybody.

They were organized.

They would help the community in setting laws or really just treating each other with respect and showing and modeling that.

They also would have a warrior chief, who was very different than the regular chief.

The warrior chief got their control or power or title by being brave and showing how brave and fierce they were and how helpful they were with their community.

So, a community of the Lenape Indians lived throughout the state, and they lived in three different clans -- the Turtle clan, the Turkey clan, or the Wolf clan.

And those clans would marry each other, and then they would become part of the clan of the wife.

So, those clans would work together and live in different types of homes.

They would live in longhouses and wigwams.

Have you ever heard of those names?

Hmm.

Look at this picture.

This picture is a wigwam.

This is a picture of what a Native American home might look like.

Can you imagine living in that?

Do you think they had electricity?

Do you think they had a heater to turn on?

What about playing Xbox games?

I don't think so.

I think their day was very different than ours.

What do you think?

So, that's one of the wigwams where maybe a smaller family would live, maybe one or two or maybe a small family like you have.

Maybe five to six -- mom and dad and their children would all live in a wigwam or maybe just one adult.

Then here's the longhouse.

Look how big that is.

The longhouse was where a whole family could live.

Maybe grandma, maybe other family members.

And it would be where many, many of the family members could live together and help each other and take care of it.

And, once again, very different from where we live.

So, I want you to think about living in a wigwam.

In a wigwam, think about how that was.

And think about a longhouse.

How did they make these places to live?

How did they make these shelters?

Well, they used all of the things of the environment.

Look at the longhouse.

Can you see all the sticks on the outside of the longhouse?

They would take long trees and branches and sticks and hook them together with twine or parts of plants, and they would hook them together and form a dome.

Do you see how it rounds over?

They would form a dome.

Then they would take plants and grass and leaves and they would cover it.

But do you see those little -- those three holes at the top?

Once they did that, they would put the three holes in the top for when they would have a fire, 'cause inside, they would create a fire so they could stay warm.

And those three holes at the top would be the vents to allow the fire -- the smoke of the fire to escape.

I want you to think about, what else could they use -- What else could they use those vents for?

Think about the wigwam.

Up top here, there's also a vent.

So, other than using the heat to be able to keep warm, the fire, what else could they use that fire for?

I'm going to give you a few seconds to write down a couple ideas.

So, I'm going to count back from 10, and I want you to think about, how could they use the fire in the house, in the wigwams, in the longhouses?

I want you to write down some ideas or you can draw it if that's easier for you.

So, I'm going to count down to 10, and you write down some ideas you have.

You ready?

Go ahead.

Get those brains thinking.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero.

My fingers were funny.

They didn't count very well, did they?

So, what ideas did you have?

What could they use that fire for?

They could use it for heat.

Could they use it for anything else?

How about cooking dinner, right?

They had to have the fire to cook their meals.

Also, the smoke helped keep away different insects.

So a fire was a very integral part for the Lenape Indians.

When you think about these homes, do you think having a fire inside of there was dangerous?

Do you think you could have done that?

Could you build one of the Lenape homes?

Think about all living in there together.

Where do they sleep?

What did they sleep on?

In the longhouses, they built long beds across the back of the wigwams, and there's almost like shelves.

And in those shelves, they would create beds like bunk beds.

Can you imagine having not two bunk beds, but three all the way up?

And they would sleep there on whatever they could make to make a bed.

What would you use -- If you could go to the forest, what would you use to make a bed?

Let's think about that.

Hmm.

Anybody have any ideas?

How about some plant leaves?

How about taking some plants and weaving a material?

Those are the type of things they use to make a bed.

But do you think that would be very warm in the winter?

What would they use to stay warm?

What would they use to keep themselves nice and warm in these homes during the winter?

What did they use for sheets and blankets, right?

Because they don't have what we have today.

So, think about that -- what would they use?

Could they have -- They could use some animal fur?

Would that keep them warm?

Yes.

So, a lot of time, they used the animals as -- The fur from the animals to use as a blanket or clothing to keep themselves warm.

So, imagine a day in a life of the Native Americans -- living in here, having to build a fire, having to make a home, having to be with a large amount of family, having to be using animal skins to keep warm.

Life was really different than what we have today.

So we're really fortunate of how we get to live.

So, I have a challenge for you when we're all done talking about the Lenape Indians.

I want to show you some projects that I saw and we did in fourth grade, when I taught fourth grade.

Do you see that picture?

This is what one of the students made, a longhouse.

They just used paper towels or paper bags and they ripped it up over a toilet-paper roll.

They cut in half an empty toilet-paper roll.

And they could make a longhouse.

Look at this wigwam.

Something really simple with maybe just some pipe cleaners and fabric.

But I think this is my favorite.

Look at this one.

They used real twigs, real sticks, and bark from outside.

So, I have a challenge for you.

Maybe on the next sunny day, if you could go outside and maybe you could collect all the things in your backyard and see if you could create a longhouse or wigwam just like the Native Americans did.

Do you think you could do that?

I think it would be a really fun thing to do.

Since we're not in school having fun with all of our friends, it's something we could do at home.

And then we could post pictures and share that with our teachers that we miss so much.

Just an idea.

So, think about the Lenapes.

When they lived in their communities, they didn't stay there for that long.

When we buy a house or we live in a house, a lot of times, we might live there for all of our lives.

But the Lenape Indians would pick up and move every 8 to 12 years, because they relied on the environment for everything around them to survive and live a healthy, happy life in their community.

So, I want you to think about, on your piece of paper, write down all the things that you think that the Lenape Indians would use as resources or things in their community that might run out if they lived there for a lifetime.

I just want you to do some thinking, and then we're going to come back together and I'm going to share my things that I write down.

So, go ahead and write, and I'll write down my list as you write down your list.

I want you to think about all the things that they might run out of.

Here's one idea for you.

Think about if they stayed in one region and always ate the same plant.

Would they maybe run out of that plant?

So, there's a little idea.

I'm going give you a little bit of time to think and write down some ideas, and then I'll count down from 10 to get you back together with me.

So, go ahead.

As I write and create a list, I want you to write and create a list or draw a picture.

Go ahead.

I can't wait to see.

Have some ideas?

I know I do.

Plants.

I just wrote down four.

So, I'll give you another few seconds to keep writing, and then we'll share some ideas.

So, in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Okay, I hope everybody is back with me.

Here are some ideas that I wrote down.

I want you to think, do you -- I want you to check your list and look at mine.

Do any of these -- Are any of these the same as your list?

So, let's talk about it.

So let's think about a Lenape Indian.

Where do they get all their food?

Do they go to the grocery store?

Nowadays, we can't, can we?

That's why we're all home.

So, what did they do?

They didn't have the grocery store to go to.

They had to plant all of their food -- all of their vegetables, we should say.

So, they cooked and they planted corn, squash.

Those are some of the most important vegetables that they would plant.

They would have huge gardens for all of their food that they would plant.

What would they do for meat?

Well, they would have to hunt.

So, the men would go out and hunt for the meat and the animals.

And what would the women do?

The women would work in the garden, planting, caring for the garden, and making sure they had enough food in the garden.

So, sometimes, they would have to move because one is -- if they stayed there always and hunted the same animals, could they do away with some of those animals?

Maybe they would use too many of them, such as a deer or antelope.

But in our area, it's mostly the deers.

Think about some other animals that they would use.

And in their gardens, if they kept growing the same vegetables year after year, the soil would get ruined and they would take all of the vitamins and the nutrients the soil would need.

So, therefore, they would have to go to a new place for a new garden, and they could follow the animals and move.

So, their homes were built so they could easily move them.

Well, I say "easily."

I don't know that I could pick up a house and move it, could you?

That would be very difficult for me.

But, so, they would take their houses and they would move them.

Or they would rebuild a new home in a different location.

All within our area, but they would redo it.

So they would have to redo and rebuild the wigwams and the longhomes, and they would have to redo the gardens.

What's your favorite vegetable?

Could we say corn?

I'm not a fan of corn.

Maybe you are.

But that was one of the largest crops the Lenape Indians would grow.

So the Lenape Indians, their communities were very close.

Their families were very close.

They had the three different clans within their communities.

They lived in longhomes and wigwams.

And then they also would hunt.

The men would go and hunt for the food.

The women would care for the families and do the gardening and making sure they had the fresh herbs and vegetables for their homes.

So life was not that simple, was it?

Can you imagine you having to go do all of that just to keep your house warm and food for your families?

It's a lot of work in a day.

So I want you to think about that as we start talking about another topic.

So we know about their homes and their communities.

So I want you to draw -- I want you to stop for a second.

I want you to quickly draw on your scrap piece of paper or your piece of paper that you have which home would you like to live in, the wigwam or the longhouse, and I want you to write one sentence and tell me why would you want to live in that type of house.

Why would you want to live in a wigwam?

Why would you want to live in a longhouse?

So write one sentence telling me why you want to live in that type of house.

I'll give you a few seconds -- I'll give you a couple minutes, and then I'll come back and I'll count down, and we're gonna talk about what you would live in and why.

>> I hope everybody's thought about what kind of house they would want to live in.

Would you want to live in the longhouse or do you want to live in a wigwam?

Which one do you think?

I think I'd like to live in a wigwam.

I think I'd like to live in a wigwam because there's a small amount of people to have to live with.

I know, growing up, my brother and I would sometimes get into arguments, and I bet if you have more than one brother or sister, you would say, "Maybe it would be best to live in a wigwam," where you won't have so many people to live with.

Or maybe you would love to live in a big longhouse with your grandparents and other family members.

So, I want you to think, that's how the Native Americans lived -- in those type homes.

Just like we do now, we have a little bit of a different house, but we still live with our families.

So, as we think about the homes they lived in, I want you to think about, what kind of things did they do as jobs?

Maybe your parents or your family goes out to a job every day.

But the Native Americans, the Lenapes, had different types of jobs that they had to do every day.

So, what did -- So, the women would have different jobs than the men.

As we talked about earlier, the women would have to do all the gardening or the housekeeping.

So, do you like to get your hands dirty and muddy and working in the garden?

I love to, so that would be really great for me.

Would that be great for you?

I love to see the plants grow.

So, the women also used to work in the gardens, as I said, but they also used to take some of the things from the garden and make items out of it.

How many people have had an ear of corn with all the green husk on the outside of it?

Well, they would take the green husk and they would weave it into making shoes.

Yes, they didn't have the Nikes or the fancy shoes that some of us have.

This is what they would wear to keep their feet warm or from being hurt as they walked.

They would take the corn husk, the green husk that we see, they would dry it out, and they would weave it to make moccasins or shoes.

They would also take the husk -- The females would also take the husk and they would make dolls.

They would weave it like this to make mats to sleep on.

They would also make other articles with the corn husk.

The women were also excellent at making clay pots.

They would get the clay and make them into pots so they could cook things in it.

They could store things in it.

But they had to make everything, so the women were really busy all day.

They also had to make baskets or big baskets that we can carry things in.

Maybe you have a basket at your house.

They would take the corn husk or other plants and weave it or work it together to make a basket so they could carry things.

Here's the one thing that females would do that I don't think I would like to do.

What about you?

They would have to take the hide of the animals, or the skin of the animals, and once it was taken off of the animal, they would take it and stretch it.

So, can you see that?

They would take and stretch it.

So that way, they could then use it to cut in pieces and make into fabric for clothes or they could use it for blankets, as is.

What else could you use that hide for?

What else would you think they could use this for?

Could they make shoes?

They could make blankets.

But I'll tell you what.

As a woman of the house or one of the young girls having to learn, this is not something I would like to do.

I would like to do this or I would like to work in the garden, planting, or I'd like to make pots.

There's also the things I would like to do that the Native American women did, but doing the animal hide is not one that I would like.

So, the girls in the houses or in the families -- they didn't go to school.

So they were expected to work at a very young age and learn the crafts that their mother could teach them, like the gardening, like making the -- excuse me -- making all of the -- all of the clothes and the blankets and all of the items out of that hide.

They also learned how to make the mats and make the baskets.

So, at a very young age, those young girls were working with their moms and grandmothers and aunts, all working together to have the things for their homes.

Well, while the women did that, what did the men do?

Hmm.

They would go and hunt.

And, look, I want to share some of the things that they would hunt for.

Look at this.

What's that?

Do you know what that is?

That's a muskrat.

Not something we see every day.

They would hunt for the muskrat.

How about otters?

They would hunt for otters.

You've probably seen an otter at the zoo, swimming around.

They're so much fun.

How about a beaver?

They would hunt for the beavers and also for the mink.

So, now that I showed you these animals, I want you to think about, "Hmm, what did they do with these animals?

Why would they hunt them?

What would they use them for?

What do all of them have in common?"

Think about it.

The Muskrat.

The otters.

The beavers.

And the mink.

What do they all have in common?

Do you see it?

They all have fur.

So they could use that fur that the men and the young boys would go out and hunt.

They could use the fur as in clothing, and the women would have to take care of it.

And the meat -- what would they use for the meat?

The meat they would use as a part of their food.

But what was so wonderful about the Native Americans?

They never used anything and let anything go to waste.

So, here's an example.

The muskrat.

They would use the fur so they could have clothing or blankets, and they would have to sew them together.

The meat they would eat.

But what about the bones?

They would use those to make weapons, to use them in wood crafting.

They would use every part of the animal, so nothing was ever wasted.

The Native Americans used their environment very well and took care of it.

So that's why they would always move, because they didn't want to overdo or overuse any part of the environment, as in the resources, such as the animals, such as the soil, such as the things around it, such as the plants, the wild berries.

They would also hunt -- The men would also hunt for elk.

The elk and the deer and the bears -- they would use all of those also as part of their clothing, as part of their food.

So, anytime that the Native Americans hunted, that animal had to be totally used and nothing wasted for that animal.

The Native Americans thought of their environment as a very, very important part of their lives and they treated it very special.

So nothing was ever wasted, and everything was always cared for so there would always be something for tomorrow.

So, when we think about it, their lives are very different than ours.

When you get up in the morning, do you have to make a fire to stay warm?

Do you have to go hunt for your food with your father or a grandfather or an uncle, if you're a young man?

If you're a young girl, do you have to go work in the garden or do you have to take the hides of the animals that your family hunted yesterday and make into clothing?

No.

We're very fortunate.

The Native Americans worked very hard to keep their communities and their families safe and warm together and fed and cared for.

And, on top of that, they took care of their environment.

So that's why they moved every 10 to 12 years.

They would pick up their houses or rebuild houses so they could get into a new community or a new environment, not to take all of the resources that they had.

So, would you like to have lived with the Native Americans and have that kind of lifestyle?

I think it would be very difficult, but it might be really fun and a really great adventure.

So, I want you to write one sentence for me.

What would you like to do if you were a Native American?

It doesn't matter if you're a girl or a boy.

What job would you like to do if you were a Native American?

You write down one sentence, I'm going to write down one sentence, and then you're going to share it.

We're going to share them.

I'll show you mine.

So, let's see.

So, I'm gonna say, "If I was a young --" Because I'm going to make it that I'm a young girl.

But maybe you would like to be a young boy or maybe you want to be one of the girl jobs, that you would enjoy that more.

And that's okay.

So, you write down your sentence, and I'm going to finish mine.

And then I'm going to count down so we're ready to go together.

So, go ahead and write.

Get those thinking caps on.

I can't wait to see!

Okay, let's go in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

If everybody could come back.

So, this is what I wrote.

"If I was a young girl, I would like to work in the garden."

I would be the one who was always working in the garden, always making sure I have all of the herbs and berries I need.

I would also be one who would go out into the forest and maybe look for the natural and wild berries.

And maybe, back then, they would look for the raspberries and the blueberries, where now, we keep those as normal, but back then, they were very wild to them.

They didn't grow those.

So they could find those in the environment.

So, what did you want to be?

What job did you like to enjoy?

Share it with your family at home.

Let them know what job you would have enjoyed if you were a Native American, and what job would you look forward to doing every day?

So as we talked about, we have the Native Americans, who really started to do so many things in our state of New Jersey.

So, let's go back and go over some of the things we've talked about.

And we haven't even gone to some of the most exciting parts of the Native Americans.

So, we can talk about -- Before we go back, can I get a check-in with you?

Because I need to have a check-in.

Think about your zones.

How are you feeling?

I think I'm feeling a little bit more green.

Before, I was more yellow.

Green I'm feeling now, because I've really done it for a little bit and we've worked together and I'm really happy and I'm really excited and I really hope that you've enjoyed yourself.

So I hope you're in green.

Do you like how my fingers go the wrong way?

I hope you're in green and you're enjoying learning about the Native Americans, too.

But if not, if you're in a yellow or a blue, take a little deep breath, get yourself focused, and we're gonna wrap up our lesson.

You ready?

So, everybody check your color.

Okay, here we go.

We're gonna go over everything we talked about today.

You ready to get those thinking caps on to get it all in?

Here we go.

So, we've talked about the state of New Jersey and we talked about all over New Jersey, that it didn't matter where we lived.

We know that the Native Americans lived someplace by us.

So, if we look at our map, the orange is Connecticut.

Excuse me.

I said that wrong.

The red is Connecticut.

The orange is New York.

The green is, of course, our great state of New Jersey.

The yellow is Pennsylvania.

And the brown is Delaware.

So, we know the Lenapes lived in all those areas, but we know they lived all throughout the state of New Jersey.

So it shows us that even where we lived in New Jersey, we know we had Lenape Indians living close by us.

So, some of the words we talked about today were the Lenape Indians.

And you might have heard it said as "Len-a-pee," but it's also "Len-AH-pay" is the correct pronunciation.

And we know it means "common or ordinary people."

It's a name for all of the Native Americans in our state.

We know they lived in longhouses, which had many, many family members or large families.

And they lived in wigwams, which are the smaller wigwams, which maybe a small amount of people lived in, maybe 4, 5, or even all by yourself.

And we know the wigwams -- We're going to go try, hopefully -- On the next sunny day, we're going to go -- We're asking if you go try, see what you can make out of the things you can find in the yard.

Think about the bark and the trees or the branches that you can find.

Can you make a small wigwam or longhouse?

I can't wait for your teachers to maybe see some of the pictures you can do.

So, we learned about where they live.

We learned, in their communities, in their homes, they lived in big bands of maybe 200 to 300 people in a village or they lived in smaller communities, more like a town or village.

It's not so much a big city.

And we learned that, in those communities, they had three types of clans or family groups.

It was a Wolf, a Turkey, or a Turtle clan, meaning a part of a family.

They were the Wolf clan, or the Wolf family, Turkey, or Turtle.

And we learned -- how did you decide which one you were, what clan are you a part of?

And we said if the mom is the part of the Turtle clan that all of her children that are part of the Turtle clan.

Does that make sense?

So, like, all of my children would be part of my Chavis family.

And then we said -- Oh, here it is.

If my son goes and marries a different clan, then they're going to become part of that clan or maybe that family.

So, here's my example we did.

We said a son is maybe part of the Wolf clan, marries a woman in the Turkey clan.

Then all of the children take after the mom, which is they all become part of the Turkey clan.

I had never heard that before.

I thought that was so neat and interesting.

So I hope you learned that, too.

And then we talked about the communities and how the men and the women all had different jobs, but they had to work hard together, because all of the jobs that they did made their community a happy, healthy, thriving community where their villages had the food and the warmth and the homes and the shelter and all the supplies they needed.

So, that's just a little introduction about the Lenape Indians.

So, maybe when you're done, on the next sunny day, you can go look in your yard, find something beautiful, see if you can make a Lenape home.

And maybe you could go on a field trip and take a walk and see if you could see anything in your neighborhood -- without getting close to anybody -- and see what you could find to make one of those.

So, I thank you so much for joining me.

I wish you a very terrific Tuesday.

And thank you so much for being part of the Forest Hill Owls today.

I look forward to hearing about all of your wonderful adventures when everybody returns to school.

Happy Tuesday.