Using construction paper and colorful feathers, your preschool students can make Native American headbands. They can also glue on beads and strips of leather for extra adornment. Children can build on the same headband by gluing long strips of construction paper to the sides of the headband and adding a variety of colorful feathers to create full chief headdresses.
Glue and a variety of household items can be turned into simple Native American musical instruments. For a shaker, have children paint cleaned, empty potato chip tubes. Allow the paint to dry. Give the children dried beans and rice to pour inside the tubes and replace the caps. Turn empty oatmeal boxes into colorful Native American tom-toms by having the children cover the boxes with colored construction paper, feathers and beads.
Native Americans wore jewelry made of bones and stone. Preschool children can make Native American-inspired jewelry using beads, strips of leather, feathers and colorful yarn. Let children combine these items in their own way to make colorful bead necklaces or bracelets. For example, they can string beads and glue feathers onto yarn or leather strips.
Wrap a large piece of construction paper around a cardboard mailing tube to gauge how much paper you will need to cover it. Trim the paper as needed and remove it from the tube. Divide the paper into sections--one for each child--and cut them out. Give each child a section on which to draw an animal face. Glue their sections onto the mailing tube to create a totem pole.
Use construction paper and glue to make Native American tepees. Roll several pieces of construction paper into cone shapes and glue them together, then pass them out to the kids to paint. Allow the kids to decorate the tepees in the ways the Native Americans did, by adding geometric shapes or drawing pictures of animals.
Have the children use empty toilet paper rolls, Styrofoam balls, beads and feathers to make Native American kachina dolls. The toilet paper rolls can be used for the body and the Styrofoam balls glued on top for the heads. Children can paint the body, glue on feathers and beads for adornment and draw faces on their dolls with markers. Allow the children to make male or female dolls and give them personalities.