Sequoyah lesson

Hi! Future Ticia 2024 here, I’m updating this Sequoyah lesson to help make it more useful from my original post in 2012, and make it a better history lesson. This falls into early US history lessons, I think this is probably in American Westward Expansion time period, maybe part of an Oregon Trail Unit. Now back to Past Ticia 2012.

Hey!  I spelled it right!  I was so sure I was going to spell that wrong. Every now and then you find a book that just works completely.  It presents the information well, the pictures are interesting, and it’s something you didn’t know before.

This was one of those books.

I’ve heard of Sequoyah trees, and now I know I’m spelling something wrong because his name is spelled differently than the trees. I knew the person’s name, but not much beyond that.

I learned Sequoyah created the Cherokee alphabet and persevered through people burning his house down to stop him and other hardships.  Isn’t that cool?

I’ll be back.  I promised to teach the kids how to use the “hot glue gun.”  Can it really be called that if it’s a low temp one?

I’m back.  The kids are now happily gluing away.  I foresee another trip to buy lots of wooden supplies.

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Resources for this Sequoyah lesson

Future Ticia 2024 butting in here, apparently I never actually ever linked to the book, or named the book.

Thankfully the library still has a copy of the book, so I was able to find the book.

Sequoyah, the Cherokee Man who Gave His People Writing– the books covers all of the struggles Sequoyah went through to create a written language, both from within his own people and from without as they said it wasn’t necessary.

This is what really intrigued me about this book.  It includes the story written in Cherokee.

I love when kids get to see other languages, especially when there is a different alphabet.

Okay, but let’s look at some videos about Sequoyah. One fun thing about the growth of the internet is the new things available to teach now, so you can actually hear the Cherokee language.

And this video is from the Cherokee nation. So they’re celebrating the person, and have a slightly different focus, and a slightly longer video:

Ooooh, and here’s a dramatic storytelling of the invention of the Cherokee alphabet.

There really are so many cool things to distract you if you go down the internet rabbit hole. So many fun things to distract you.

If you can’t find the book I found at my library, here are a few others from some trusted sources (series I know, or authors I usually trust), but I haven’t actually read these to completely vouch for them:

• My Itty-Bitty Bio Sequoyah– I’ve been warned this can be a very hit and miss series, so just know that
• Sequoyah and the Written Word
• Sequoyah Man of Many Words

And some resources online:

• Sequoyah from Duckster– this was my go-to site for reports for kids in early elementary, just the right amount of information
• Britannica Sequoyah– I like using a good encyclopedia as a source
• Georgia history: Sequoyah– which is interesting because when I searched him, I put him in Tennessee, I guess he moved around a bit
• A good solid Cherokee website did not come up in my initial searches, so if anyone has one they would like to suggest, I will gladly add it

Now, on to our lesson.

More early American history lessons

• Johnny Appleseed lesson
• Immigration booklist
• Fredrick Douglass lesson
• Colonial America Games
• Make a haversack

Sequoyah lesson what we did

After reading the book I challenged the kids to create their own version of the alphabet.

Future Ticia 2024 popping in to say the printable is on the Subscriber page ( JOIN MY NEWSLETTER) with the Tennessee printable.

Which they happily set to.

My boys created various blobs. An older friend made a rather ingenious alphabet based on musical symbols and other symbols he knew.

Princess just recopied the alphabet.  She was not getting it.  Younger friend again happily scribbled.

Okay, so they’re not going to invent alphabets, but they did learn about a cool man who stood up for what he believed in.