Iroquois Art Project

~By Andrew Bogert

For my topic I picked art because I love art. One kind of Iroquois art is woodworking. Woodworking is past down from generation to generation. For my art project I carved an Iroquois toy boat. My dad and I used a saw, carving tools, and sand paper. A saw is not a traditional tool but carving tools are like Iroquois tools. It is about 9 inches long and 2 inches wide. I located this wood in my back yard. It is nice and smooth and it looks like a small canoe. I loved working on this project and learning about Iroquois art.


A big chunk of the four-day weekend that the kids just had was spent on this project. It is all wrapped up and on it's way to school as I type. (Keep your fingers crossed that Andrew is able to keep it safe on the bus!) Fourth grade around here is the big "Native American" year. They learn a lot about their customs and culture. A few weeks back they visited a longhouse too. Andrew really seems to be enjoying it. His teacher's style of teaching has each kid picking a small subject with in the larger one they are learning about and has them become an expert on that topic. Andrew picked ART. (insert glowing artist Momma pride here) He read about beadwork, wampums, and woodworking. He got it in his head that he wanted to carve a toy boat/canoe. And no amount of negotiating would get him to let me help him make a beadworked belt, dang it. So, Ron rough cut it for him from a scrap of wood in the back yard, he sanded it, and used an old set of my sister's carving tools to whittle away at it. He is SUPER proud of this project!!

And I am SUPER proud of him... so I just had to share.

Do you think you can figure out which three words were newly learned vocabulary words that had to be included in the writing?