Subscribe

3rd grade · Social Studies · Unit 6 of 6

Alaska Native Cultures

Many peoples, languages and ways of life today

What your child practices

An introduction to Alaska Native cultures as living communities: where some of Alaska's many Native peoples live, Alaska's 20 official Native languages, subsistence, sharing and trade, and how Elders pass on history. Kept light and in the present tense.

Alaska content standards learning standard: SS.3.1.25.1; SS.3.1.15.1; SS.3.1.14.1 · the cultures of Alaska, how Alaska Native groups use natural resources, and how trade connected Indigenous groups

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Alaska is home to many Alaska Native peoples, each with its own language and ways. Alaska has 20 official Native languages.
  2. People used what their land gave them to build homes, boats and tools.
  3. Subsistence, sharing and Elders’ teaching are important in many communities.

Example: Why did people in different parts of Alaska build homes from different materials? Each region has different plants, wood and earth. People built with what was near them. Answer: they used what the land around them gave

Alaska Native Cultures in Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 6 of 6 in 3rd grade Social Studies, after Governing Alaska.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Subsistence means…

    • buying food online
    • growing only flowers
    • hunting, fishing and gathering food from the land and water

  2. Question 2

    Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian communities are in which region?

    • Southeast
    • the Far North
    • the Interior

  3. Question 3

    Many Yup'ik communities are in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, in which part of Alaska?

    • Southwest
    • the Interior
    • Southeast

  4. Question 4

    Which food is very important to many Alaska communities?

    • bananas
    • coconuts
    • salmon

  5. Question 5

    The Unangax̂ (Aleut) people are from which islands?

    • the Hawaiian Islands
    • the Florida Keys
    • the Aleutian Islands

  6. Question 6

    Why do some Alaska Native peoples share their catch with others in the village?

    • sharing helps the whole community
    • it is too heavy to carry
    • fish cannot be kept

More 3rd grade