Teaching Out of the Tipi ~ Making a Native American Headdress or War Bonnet

Instead of just teaching out of the textbook, teach out of the tepee. Build a Native American tepee in class and use it as the center of a Native American theme on culture. This lesson plan series teaches you how to build a tipi, then how to integrate your math, science, social studies, reading and writing strands into the study of Native American culture.
In this lesson we turn a fun and exciting project, making a headdress or war bonnet, and integrate math and social studies benchmarks for grades 3-5 into it. It includes assessment questions to help students focus on what their learning goals and determine each student's learning gains.
This lesson plan uses common core standards as well as NGSSS benchmarks and Big Ideas. It is excellent for meeting every student's individual needs by offering multi-grade standards. You can use them to accommodate your lower-level learners and enrich your higher-level learners at the same time. For 3rd and 4th grade teachers I recommend also getting this lesson plan for K-2 for your below-level students.
You'll find your students more motivated than they otherwise would be trying to learn from sitting at their desks. This can be extended into the class forming a tribe (or tribes), and you'll find yourself teaching to "the tribe" versus teaching out of the textbook and just to the test. It's a high-learning, fun activity and a win-win classroom environment for both the students and the teacher.