ACTIVITY ONE: Make a Birchbark Basket

Here is a simple birchbark basket you can make to store your things!

* If you don't have enough birchbark, you can make "faux bark" by lightly rubbing a black crayon over a thin sheet of white cardboard with bark underneath. The relief pattern of the bark will show through.

Activity Steps

1) Soak the birchbark for 1 hour to overnight, depending on how stiff it is.

2) Trim the bark to a rectangular shape (recommended 30–40 cm)

Using a ruler and your marker, draw 4 lines about 7 cm from the outer edge of the bark.

4) Cut along the lines that are in the diagram coloured red.

5) Fold the top and bottom of the bark inward, tucking the cut edges to the inside of the sheet.

6) Fasten the basket sides by either stapling them together if the bark is difficult to work with, or poke a couple of holes through both bark layers in the part of the basket you want to join together; thread toothpicks or twigs through to fasten.

7) Use the basket to hold berries, school supplies or any number of items!

Curriculum Objectives for Grade Five Social Studies

• This activity can complement a lesson unit around the use of technology and role of the natural environment in the lives of Canada's Aboriginal Peoples.
• This activity can also complement discussion on early trade and technology.
• The creation of this object can be part of different media used to deliver presentations, such as a class project on household technology of Canada's Aboriginal Peoples.