Native American Research
4th Grade
Ready 4 Research
You are about to embark on a research journey where you will be learning all about a specific Native American tribe. Using a variety of resources (both online and print), you will explore the Appearance, Shelter/Geographical Location, Customs/Traditions/Ceremonies, and Food of your specific tribe. Working as a small group, you will create a presentation in GoogleDocs to share the information you learn over the next two weeks during your research. You will also be using Smore to create a brochure to explain your Native American tribe. Use your time effectively, work with your group, and most of all have fun exploring these important people!
5 Native American Tribes
Each group will be researching a specific Native American tribe. The tribes are:
- Apache
- Caddo
- Comanche
- Jumano
- Karankawa
Resources for Research
You will have access to the following resources for your research:
- Library Books
- World Book Kids Online
- Websites selected by Mrs. Littlejohn
- Additional resources
Searching the Library Catalog (HIP)
You will want to know what library books can help you with your research.
- Access the Library Catalog (HIP).
- Type in a keyword (Hint: the name of your Native American tribe or words like Native American, American Indians) and press enter.
- Look at the summary of the book you found to see if it might be useful.
- Record the title of the book.
World Book Kids Online
World Book Kids Online is an online encyclopedia with articles that might be useful while you are researching your topic.
- Access World Book Kids Online by clicking on MackinVia here. When working on a computer anywhere at school, you can access MackinVia by clicking on the icon on the desktop. You will have to ask Mrs. Littlejohn for the username and password.
- Enter the information for our school, the username, and the password.
- Choose the icon for World Book.
- Next, choose the icon for World Book Kids.
- Type in a word or words in the Search box and click Go to search.
- Once you find an article that looks worthy of reading, click on it. You can read the article on your own or choose to have it read aloud to you.
World Book
First, click the World Book icon.
World Book Kids
Next, click the World Book Kids Icon with the balloon. When you are on this page, you can search using keywords.
Articles on World Book Kids
Find an article you would like to read and click on the title of the article.
Searchasaurus provides students with articles from magazines and books on many topics. Access Searchasaurus by clicking on MackinVia here. When working on a computer anywhere at school, you can click on the MackinVia icon on the desktop. You will have to ask Mrs. Littlejohn for the username and password.
- Enter the information for our school, username, and password.
- Choose the icon for ESBCO host.
- Next, choose the icon for Searchasaurus.
- In the Find box, type a keyword you would like to search for and press Search.
- Once you find an article worthy of reading, click on the title to read the article.
EBSCO HOST
First, click on the EBSCO Host icon.
Searchasaurus
Next, click on the icon by a subject you wish to search under or type a keyword in the Find box.
Articles on Searchasaurus
Find an article you would to read and click on the title to open it and read.
Websites to Explore
There are some good websites with accurate information on the web. It is okay sometimes to use Google to look up something you want to know about on the web, but for this research project you will not be using Google to search!
Take a look at these websites that you will want to revisit as you are completing your research on your tribe.
- Texas Beyond History
- Orrin Lewis's Website-American Indian Facts for Kids (Click on the link under this heading for your tribe.)
- Texas Indians
- The Portal to Texas History
- Native American Facts for Kids
- Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: Texas Indians
- Ducksters History for Kids-Native Americans-only the Apache are on this website
- Pics4Learning-use this website to find pictures that are copyright free and meet the criteria for fair use