Classroom Activities
This unit will take place over the course of 3 weeks. I will first discuss important opening lessons that will begin the unit, then I will discuss the three main sections of the unit as described above in "Strategies." It is also important to note that I will be teaching them the facts about each tribe as listed in Appendix A throughout the unit.
Lesson 1: Introductory Activity
In the first lesson, the focus will be on activating prior knowledge. The focus of the lesson will be reading Turtle Island ABC. This book lists and describes something associated with Native Americans, starting with each letter of the alphabet. A chart will be placed in front of the classroom with one letter from the alphabet in each square (see figure below). Each student will be given up to four sticky notes and will be asked to write down a word or short phrase on two of them before the book is read and place it on the alphabet chart. This word or phrase will be something they already know about Native Americans or American Indians. After the book is read, the students will write two more words or short phrases on sticky notes and place it on the alphabet chart. If there is enough time, the teacher may choose students to read their words.
Lesson 2: Change Over Time
In this lesson, students will be reintroduced or initially taught the concept of change over time. In Virginia, first grade students are introduced to the concepts of past, present, and future, but many do not have a solid grasp of the subject matter when they progress to the second grade. In this lesson, students will be taught to the concepts of future, present, near past, and far past. A large timeline will be placed somewhere in the classroom for the students to see. During this and subsequent units, items will be placed on the timeline in their respective places.
During the first lesson, images of what the future may look like, images from the present (maybe a picture of the class), photographs from various times in the previous hundred years, and images from before the previous century will be shown to the class. Discuss the concepts of past, present, and future, but pay particular attention to the past. Focus on what "near past" and "far past" mean and how we can determine where something lands in that time frame. The images should be big enough to be seen from afar because as each image is shown, it should be placed in order on the timeline. Specific dates should not be placed on the timeline (although they may certainly be discussed), because the point of the activity is simply to give the students a concept of change over time.
Students may be placed in small groups and given 5-10 images to put in order by time of occurrence. These images may have a particular theme such as transportation, telephones, or clothing. Then, as a group you may go through each set of images and discuss why they are placed in a particular order.
Lesson 3-7: Native Americans of the Southwest
These lessons will focus on the culture of the Native Americans from the Southwest, but the focus will also be cultural sensitivity. To begin, I will introduce the words "cultural" and "traditions" by using the vocabulary instruction described above.
I will begin by reading When Clay Sings by Byrd Baylor. This will be an introduction to the Southwest region through the use of poetry. I will ask the students questions such as "What did you notice about the setting of the book?" and I will ask them to imagine they are in the desert. For their Guided Listening activity focusing on visualization, they will draw a picture of the desert as they understand it from their own experience and from the book. This will lead to questions about what they see in the desert, which will subsequently lead into the next stories of the section.
Going along with the theme of clay, I would next read Children of Clay by Rina Swentzell. The graphic organizer we will use during Guided Listening will be a main idea and details web where the students will list what is needed to make clay pots. We will connect the two texts and begin making clay pots, asking questions such as "Can you explain what is happening when they are making the pots?" In the meantime, we will be discussing how the adobe houses are made from wood, clay (mud), grass, and rocks, and as the week progresses I will bring in a replica of an adobe house made of cardboard to be used as a reading nook in the classroom. We will add pictures of the adobe house and a modern house to our timeline.
The next three books will be about storytelling and will include (in order) The Storyteller by Joan Weisman, Coyote and the Laughing Butterflies by Harriet Peck Taylor, and The Magic of Spider Woman by Lois Duncan. Throughout the reading of these stories we will discuss the importance of storytelling in Native American culture, Coyote as a trickster character, and creation stories. The students will be using the skills of prediction, asking and answering questions about the text, and drawing conclusions (by finding the themes or lessons from the stories). While discussing the book on Spider Woman, we will begin weaving "mug rugs," which are small, yarn-woven creations. We will continue to work on these throughout the unit. We will take the characters of the coyote "trickster" and Spider Woman and analyze them. This will be done by showing or drawing a picture of each on chart paper and asking the students to list character traits on sticky notes that will be placed on the chart paper.
Lessons 8-12: Native Americans from the Plains
In the second major section of the unit, we will mostly be reading and discussing stories and storytelling. The themes of the importance of nature and creation will be brought to the forefront as the students learn other basic facts about the Native Americans (see matrix in Appendix A). In How the Mouse Got Brown Teeth by George Littlechild, students will practice predicting what will happen in the story and checking their predictions. Sky Dogs by Jane Yolen will bring in another creation story. During the Guided Listening activities of these two stories, the students will be asked to write the events in order on a graphic organizer and compare and contrast the two texts. Questions that will be asked to guide them include "How are these stories similar and different?" "How would you summarize this story?"
These stories lead us into Deer and Loon Were Traveling, a wordless picture book by Vi Hilbert. We will go through this story and discuss what is happening while we practice making interpretations of the story together. To do this, we will go through the story initially silently. Next, we will discuss what we think is happening by first discussing it with our partners and then discussing it with the whole group. Next, we will write a paragraph about what we think is happening in the wordless text.
Finally, we will read Sky Sisters by Jan Bourdeau Waboose and discuss past vs. present. We will make connections to the text, and I will ask the students how they are the same as or different from the girls portrayed in the story. During the unit, a tipi will be brought into the classroom that will be used as another reading nook (like the Adobe house). We will decorate the tipi by drawing images like those they have seen on the side of this type of ancient dwelling and attach these images to the tipi. We will add pictures of the girls from the story Sky Sisters and a picture of a tipi to our timeline. During this lesson, it is necessary to discuss the importance placed on nature and how the girls seem to be tied to the land by assigning personality traits to various parts of nature.
Lessons 13-17: Native Americans from the Eastern Woodlands
The third section of the unit will include poetry and creation stories, and will lead us into the challenge of debunking stereotypes and explaining how Native Americans live in the modern world. We will begin with Did You Hear Wind Sing Your Name? by Sandra De Coteau Orie. Before, during, and after reading we will discuss the appreciation and connection with nature. I will ask the students to compare and contrast the feelings for nature portrayed in the book with their own feelings by using a Venn Diagram.
Next, we will read The Animals' Ballgame by Lloyd Arneach. It is another wordless text, and I plan to have them work in partners to come up with a text that goes with the illustrations. The next story, And Still the Turtle Watched by Sheila MacGill-Callahan, will point us in the direction of change over time. Here we will add images from the book to our timeline.
The next two books, Shi-shi-etko by Nicola I. Campbell and Powwow by Linda Coombs, will illustrate what American Indian children went through when they were forced into boarding school and how they celebrate their heritage today. A small longhouse will be brought into the classroom that will be used as a reading nook like the others. We will add pictures from the two books and a picture of a longhouse to our timeline.
Lesson 18: Tying it all together
The final book of the unit will be Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back by Joseph Bruchac and Jonathan London. It brings illustrations from tribes throughout the United States together in one group of poems. It will be a good culminating activity, as the students will use their knowledge of the seasons and of Native American tribes to figure out the time of year and tribal region. They will then create an image of a moon and relate it to a season just as the book did. They will integrate images from a specific tribal region to be placed in a classroom book.
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