The Haudenosaunee (the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora nations) call themselves the People of the Longhouse. A longhouse was about 20 feet wide and from about 40 to 200 feet long, built of elm bark over a frame of young trees. An aisle ran down the middle, and about every 20 feet a fire burned in it, shared by the two families who lived on either side. When the extended family grew, the longhouse was made longer. The figures on these pages come from Ganondagan State Historic Site, the New York State Museum and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy; the plans use a fire every 20 feet to keep the math clear.
Five pages of 3rd and 4th grade measurement, each starting with a short panel. Page 1 reads four longhouses on grids of 10-foot squares and finds each one's length, perimeter and area. Page 2 fills in a table of lengths, fires and families, then four stories. Page 3 changes feet to yards and feet to inches in two tables, then four stories. Page 4 extends a longhouse section by section and fills in the pattern's table. Page 5 reads two scale drawings and makes two more. The first problem on each page is a worked example.
Measure out 20 feet in the hall or on the playground to feel a longhouse's width and one family's space, then pace out a 100-foot longhouse. Page 4's table is a good place to talk about the rule: every row adds 20 feet.
Measure a room at home in feet, then work out how many of its widths fit into a 200-foot longhouse.
This pack supports the following Common Core State Standards for Mathematics:
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Measurement from the Haudenosaunee longhouse, the long bark house with a fire every few paces shared by two families, which gives the People of the Longhouse their name. Students find perimeter and area on grids, work out fires and families from a longhouse's length, change feet to yards and inches, extend a growing pattern and read and make scale drawings.
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