Native American Indians

Lesson #7: The Hand Game

This third grade class at Spanish Oaks Elementary has begun learning about different kids of cultures. One group of people they have been learning about is the Native American Indians. During this lesson we learned more about the culture of Native American Indians and played a traditional Native American Indian game.

Native American Indians: An Umbrella Term

First I explained to the class how the term "Native American Indian" is a very broad term and there are many more specific classifications underneath that term. I related this to shoes. Shoes are a very broad term. There are all sorts of different kinds of shoes--sneakers, sandals, boots, flip flops, heels, flats, slippers, and so forth. There are also many different kinds of Native American Indians--Navajo, Ute, Apache, Cherokee, Inuit, and so forth. I brought with me a library book about Native American Indians. This book listed some of these different tribes and showed a map with where these different tribes lived in North America--along with what kind of houses each of these different tribes built to live in. The book also contained illustrations of a Native American Indian's culture and lifestyle. There were pages about clothing, housing, hunting/farming, and transportation (canoe, horses, and dogsled). We looked at these pictures as a class and talked about some of these differences between our culture and their culture.

Native American Indians Played Games Too!

We also discussed as a class games that we like to play in our culture (such as monopoly). Well, the Native American Indians also played games--just different ones than we play now. I showed them a picture in the library book of some Native American playing cards and some sport (kind of like lacrosse) that some people were playing. The kids next got the opportunity to play a traditional Native American Indian game--called the Hand Game (also called the stick game). This game was played among Indians in the plateau region. I taught the game to the class (with some revisions in the rules that allowed every student to play at once and also that made the game simpler) and then we played it several times. This game was also played with musical accompaniment. Players would sing and also play the drums as part of the game. I taught the class a simple children's song that we would use for our musical accompaniment. The rules are as follows.

The Hand Game

1. The class is divided into two teams (Team 1 & Team 2). Each team forms two rows, facing inwards. Each row had about 5 students. The inside rows sit on the floor while the outside rows stand.

2. The first student in line (in the standing row) is the Team Hider. When it is their team's turn, the Team Hider will be given a button by the teacher. The Team Hider will then walk up and down their team's row and will hide the button in one of their teammate's hands (all the students standing have their hands outstretched behind their backs). 

3. The first student in line in the standing row on the other team is the Team Guesser. While the other Team Hider is hiding the button, the Team Guesser stands in the center and watches. After the button has been hidden, the Team Guesser has two guesses as to which student is holding the button. If the Team Guesser guesses correctly, that button goes into their team bowl (they score a point). If the Team Guesser is unable to locate the button after the two guesses, the other team puts the button in their own team bowl and gets a point themselves.

4. The Team Hider does have a time limit for hiding the button. The students who are standing are sing the children's song we just learned as a class. The inside rows of students who are sitting on the floor each had a different drum and a mallet. They drummed the beat of the song while the other students sang. The Team Hider had until the end of the song to hide the button.

5. Whichever team had the most buttons in their bowl when it was time to stop playing (which was decided by me) won!

The kids had a fun time playing this game. Halfway through the game, the kids playing the instruments switched with the kids who were standing. So everyone got the chance to play an instrument and almost everyone got the chance to be either the Team Hider or the Team Guesser. It was a fun time! Team 1 won. :)

Wrap-Up

I wrapped up the lesson by explaining that while Native American Indians back in the day did not have access to Monopoly, air conditioning, cars, plumbing, etc. But there are many Native American Indians today who do have access to those things. They do not necessarily wear tribal clothes all the times, and they're pretty similar to us. We just might differ in religious beliefs. I then showed the class some pictures. My Grandma and Grandpa Smith served an LDS mission at the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. My Grandma was kind enough to send me some pictures of the people there, and I showed two of these pictures to the class--one picture of a Native American Indian boy and one of a Native American Indian girl. When I showed them to the class, one girl exclaimed out loud exactly what I'd hoped they would understand. She said, "They look just like us!" This was a fun lesson where the class got to explore more of Native American Indian culture, got to learn a simple song, play the beat with a mallet on a drum, and got to play a fun Native American Indian game!