Native American Cuff Bracelet Craft

nahm-2016-cuff-bracelet-craft

My girls love jewelry, they love making it, so I decided to teach them how to make an easy Native American Cuff Bracelet Craft.

It is the Native American Heritage Month and we have been looking at different books and stories about Native Americans, that gave us a little insight into their culture and traditions.

Cuffs were worn by both women and men. They were made of some metals – usually silver, gold, often decorated by beautiful stones. There were also gorgeous beaded bracelets, colorful with unique designs. And they have beautiful ornaments representing different symbols: protection symbols, animal symbols that represented friendship, companionship, love, freedom, and more.

We have simply Googled what typical Native American designs would look like and we found a whole bunch of beautiful ones here.

Before I proceed sharing our craft with you, I have to add a very important note: the following research and craft was made to honour thousands years old cultural heritage of Native American people. It is not meant to be any sort of cultural appropriation, neither to offend anyone. This blog is created for education purposes and, though, we probably will never be able to completely blend in one culture or another, we can help educate our children about the world with the attempts to make the learning process fun and exciting!

So, how did we make our gorgeous bracelets?

You will need just few tools that you probably already have at home:

Toilet paper rolls

Crayons / markers / paints

If desired – pieces of construction paper cut into different shapes

Glue

Scissors

Process:

Take toilet paper roll and cut it into two parts.
Cut the parts to make openings and try fitting them now on your hands – they will look like cuff bracelets.
Choose a design. You can first make it by drawing it with a pencil. Color your design
If you like, you can make the designs by cutting the shapes (diamonds, triangles, ovals, and others) out of colorful construction paper and gluing them on your bracelet.

You can now make more bracelets to place on the arm, and even ankles!

I would love to learn together with my girls how to make beaded bracelets. Perhaps, next year??

Welcome to our third annual celebration of Native American Heritage Month! All month long we’ll be sharing posts about sharing these rich cultures with kids. Find our full schedule of posts below, and don’t forget to link up your own as well! We’re also having a giveaway (see below for details and to enter!) You can find even more ideas on our Native/Indigenous Cultures Pinterest board:

Follow Multicultural Kid Blogs’s board Native/Indigenous Cultures on Pinterest.

November 4
Open Wide the World on Multicultural Kid Blogs: Native American Heritage Month and Free Trilingual PrintableNovember 9
Kid World Citizen: Learn about the Seminole Indians

November 11
Colours of Us: 32 Native American Children’s Books

November 14
Crafty Moms Share: Native Americans of Cape Cod and Massachusetts

November 16
Crafty Moms Share: Review of Some of the Prizes

November 18
LarabeeUK: FUN|native American Small World Play

November 21
La Clase de Sra. DuFault on Multicultural Kid Blogs: 10 Interesting Facts About the Mapuche

November 23
Gianna the Great: Halito, My Friends

November 29
All Done Monkey: Nazca Lines STEM Project

November 30
Creative World of Varya : Native American Cuff Bracelet Craft