Times Have Changed
Activity can be done anywhere.
Gentle Rain: My family learned how to adapt and survive at Mesa Verde by using what nature provided. Because of this, my life at Mesa Verde was very different from your everyday life. At a young age, children helped with daily chores. We didn’t go to school, but we learned valuable life lessons everyday. We learned how to grow crops, hunt, make pottery, and build houses with mud and stone. We gathered materials from our surroundings to make what we needed. We also learned about our history through stories told by our grandparents.
Directions—Discover how we lived in Mesa Verde by completing the following activities for your age group.
Draw a line from each item in the left column (things we use or do today) with an item in the right column (things the Ancestral Pueblo people used or did then.)
| Now | Then |
|---|---|
A. | |
B. | |
C. | |
D. |
The boxes list items used by Ancestral Pueblo people at Mesa Verde. Read the items in each box, then use the blanks beside the box to write the name of the natural resource used to make everything in the box. One is started for you. (Hint: Answers are in the 10-up activity word list below.)
Bowl
Mug
Mortar
Plaster
Sandal
Rope
Mat
Shampoo
Needle
Basket
Food
Paintbrush
Feathers
Food
Bone tools and jewelry
Warm blanket
Pine nuts (food)
Timber for building
Pitch for waterproofing
Firewood
To learn more about Gentle Rain’s life in Mesa Verde, fill in the blanks to read the following story. If you have little brothers or sisters, they might like to hear the story when you are done. (Use the word list to fill in the blanks and complete the story.)
clay corn hand kivas metates pinyon pottery rabbits seep turkey yucca
My family and I live in a stone room of a cliff dwelling. The people of my village wake up very early and start cooking fires in the rooms and courtyards. Every morning, my mother goes to collect water from the nearest
As soon as the morning meal is eaten, the men and boys climb up the cliff face using
Throughout the year, the men hunt mule deer and
When the
No matter the time of the year, my people are busy with the daily tasks needed to survive in Mesa Verde.