SuccessLink Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education Friday, September 3, 2010

Great Teaching Ideas

lesson & unit viewer

Native Americans

published on: 2/28/2003

Contributing Teacher(s): Tammy Priest

Subject Area: Social Studies/U.S. History

Grade Range: Lower Elementary (K-3)

Materials Needed: See each activity materials list.

Objective:

Students will compare and contrast Hopi and Iroquois homes and ceremonial Kachina and False Face Mask. Also see activities for objectives.

Process Standards:

Goal 2.1 plan and make written, oral and visual presentations for a variety of purposes and audiences

Content Standards:

Social Studies 6. Relationships of the individual and groups to institutions and cultural traditions

Fine Arts 1. Process and techniques for the production, exhibition or performance of one or more of the visual ...

Time Allowance: 1-2 hours for each activity, or 9 total hours

Description: Five lessons demonstrating knowledge learned from a bigger Native American unit, the lessons on the Hopi and Iroquois tribes.

Classroom Component:

The five lessons are part of a bigger unit on Indians. The Native American tribes of Hopi and Iroquois are the main focus because they are in our social studies textbook Share Our World published by Houghton Mifflin copyright 2000. The lessons will take approximately five days of two hour time blocks. The students will demonstrate knowledge learned about the two tribes’ homes and ceremonial activities.

The students will need prior knowledge (we discussed seven different tribes and their habitat and culture) of the two tribes’ homes and ceremonial Kachina and False Face Mask. As a part of the bigger unit on Native Americans we discussed the location of the tribes and how this influenced the natural resources used to build their homes.

Activity One: Hopi Pueblo

Objective:

Students will construct a pueblo.

Directions:

You are to construct a three level pueblo.

Time Needed:

appx. 2 hours

Materials Needed:

3 boxes of graduated sizes
Brown or black paint
Sponges or paintbrushes
Sand or cornmeal
Toothpicks or Popsicle sticks
Glue
Scissors or craft knife
Construction paper
Scoring guide

Procedure:

The idea to make a pueblo is from the book Kidswork Native Americans Tales and Activities by Mari Lu Robbins copyright 1996. Students paint their boxes brown or black and sprinkle with cornmeal or sand to create a rough look. Using black or brown construction paper students cut out doors and windows to be glued onto their pueblos. Students use toothpicks or Popsicle sticks to make ladders. The boxes dry very quickly and then they are glued together.

Sample of work
student sample

Activity Two: Kachina Mask

Objective:

Students will make a Kachina Mask.

Directions:

You are to make a Kachina Mask.

Time Needed:

appx. 1 hour

Materials Needed:

large paper bag
Markers and/or paint and paintbrushes
Cardboard tubes
Construction paper
Feathers, yarn
Glue
Scissors
Pencil
Scoring guide

Procedure:

Students cut two eyeholes out of the bag. A good tip to get the eyeholes approximately were they are needed is for one student to put his/her bag over his/her head and another student draw the holes. The holes are best cut out with a craft knife but scissors will work. Students create a face and then can add detail with the feathers, etc.

This idea comes from the book:

Native Americans Projects, Games, and Activities by Diane Teitel Rubins copyright 1994.

Sample of work
student samples

Activity Three: Iroquois House

Objective:

Students will construct a longhouse.

Directions:

You will construct a longhouse.

Time Needed:

appx. 2 hours

Materials Needed:

Popsicle sticks or tongue depressors
Brown paint
Markers
Construction paper
Glue
Tagboard
Scissors
Scoring guide

Procedure:

Students construct walls out of tongue depressors or Popsicle sticks. The roof is made out of tagboard or construction paper. Students make 2 doorways and one roof hole. Students will glue the walls and roof together.

The idea is from the book:

Native Americans A Complete Thematic Unit by Evan-Moor Corp. copyright 1996.

Activity Four: Iroquois False Face Mask

Objective:

Students will make an Iroquois False Face Mask.

Directions:

You will make an Iroquois False Face Mask.

Time Needed:

appx. 2 hours

Materials Needed:

Posterboard 9”x12”
Red and black paint
Black yarn
Scissors
Stapler
Hole punch
Scoring guide

Procedure:
Students round the corners of one end of the poster board. This is the chin of the false face. Cut a slit in the two remaining corners. Overlap the two sides of each corner and staple. Students cut two eyeholes in the mask, a craft knife used by the teacher works well. Students punch holes along the top for hair holes. The mask is painted red or black. Students add scary details to t he face. Put strands of yarn through the holes for hair and knot in place. Punch a hole on either side of the face and string yarn in so the mask can be hung and displayed.

Sample of work
student sample

Activity Five: Written Report

Objective:

Students will write a report on the Hopi or Iroquois homes and ceremonial Kachina or False Face Mask.

Directions:

You will write a report about the Hopi pueblo and Kachina or the Iroquois longhouse and False Face Mask.
Include information about their habitat and how this influenced what natural resources they used.

Time Needed:

appx. 2 hours

Materials Needed:

Paper
Pencil
Rubric

Procedure:

Students write about their chosen Native American tribe. A rough draft will be proofread by a peer and by the teacher before the final copy is made.

Modifications

Enrichment:
Students needing extra topics for enrichment can explore the other tribes we discussed in the bigger Native American unit- the Apache, Cheyenne, Sioux, Chippewa, Inuit, or Mohawk. The Native Americans Projects, Games, and Activities book by Diane Teitel Rubins has a lot of projects that could be made. Students can make a Hopi or Iroquois village instead of just one home, complete with landscaping/habitat.

At Risk or Slow Learner:
Students took their projects home if they needed more time. Also parent volunteers worked one on one with students that needed help.

IEP:
For someone one on a reading modification I would have someone work one on one with the student and they could complete the assignments on their own time frame. The special education teacher could help. The writing assignment could be broken down into the two paragraphs and the student could complete with help.

Foreign language activity:
Students can explore the Sioux language using the book written by Diane Teitel. Also students can make pictographs with Native American symbols.

Parent Involvement:
Parents were allowed to help their child solve any construct problems involved in making the projects. Parents were encouraged to help out in the classroom with any student that needed help. Parents donated many of the items needed to complete the projects.

Listening Skills Activities:
I orally read from a variety of Native American books and questioned the students. I read information to the students from the book by Diane Teitel Rubins and the students had to complete a worksheet that matched the tribe with the name of the home and a picture (this worksheet is in her book). Also instructions for the projects were given orally as the students followed them, even though they had the scoring guides as a guide, oral instructions were very important.

Integration:
The projects/assignments we completed were to enhance our Social Studies Chapter 3, which talked about the Iroquois and Hopi tribes. Language arts is also important because we wrote the written report and used proofreading/editing skills. In the bigger unit on Native Americans I also included math and science activities. Reading was a very important component of the bigger unit because the students read from Native American books and worked on related worksheets.

Bibliography

Evan-Moor Corp. Native Americans A complete Thematic Unit. 1996
Robbins, Mari Lu. Native American Tales and Activities. Teacher Created Materials, Inc., 1996.
Rubins, Diane Teitel. Native Americans Projects, Games, and Activities. Troll Associates, 1994.

Teacher Notes

I have taught a Native American unit for many years. Working on the requirements for this class I added some interesting projects to my list of activities. Our new social studies book had the two tribes discussed in a chapter on early colonization and I decided to focus some of the Native American activities on these two tribes. I found a wide variety of teaching thematic books on Native Americans and I enjoyed reading them. Our library has a lot of non-fiction books about Native Americans which enhances my theme. The hardest part was decided what I wanted to include in my theme. I could not possible include all the activities and tribes because of time management.

After deciding what tribes I was going to concentrate on I looked for materials on those tribes. My Internet searching was very frustrating, most of the sites I went to did not have information or ideas I could use. I made available to my students reading materials about many different tribes. The time allotted did not seem to be enough for exploration of the different tribes. The time allotted for each of the assignments was plenty for most of the students. I had some students that needed extra time and they were allowed to take their projects home. The directions for the pueblo were very good and the students were able to make the pueblo easily. Some students had a hard time making the ladders. The next time I teach this unit I am going to have a sample ladder made up instead of just showing pictures of the ladders. The Kachina mask was fun to make. A craft knife works best to cut out the eyeholes. Some students were very excited to create their own Kachina design others needed some guidance. The next time I teach this unit I am going to have the students complete a written assignment that tells what their Kachina was used in ceremonies for. The Iroquois longhouse is the most difficult project because I did not have any specific directions from a book to work with, making the top of the longhouse curved was very hard. The Iroquois False Face Mask was fun to make. The eyeholes were a little hard, I had to use a craft knife to cut them out.

I had a hard time making the scoring guides even though they are very basic. After looking at several SuccessLink ideas and scoring guides I realized that a wide variety of rubrics and scoring guides can be found. I have not made many scoring guides and I feel very uncomfortable making them. I worry that I am making an assessment guide that will really assess what students have completed fairly and will help them learn to guide their own choices. Students have to realize they earn their grades, that grades are not randomly given and scoring guides can make this connection. I found my scoring guides to be very basic, after the unit was taught, but it made me have and objective way to grade their projects. I enjoyed using them.

Classroom management is always much harder when students are allowed to make projects. The students were allowed to talk during their work phase of their projects. Everyone was well behaved but some students were so excited they had a hard time listening and following directions, even though I gave the directions before they were allowed to talk. Next time I teach the unit using these lessons I may try to work with smaller groups and get different groups going at different times.

All of the thematic books I used were great. I wish that these projects would come with rubrics or scoring guides. I would be more willing to complete projects in my class if I could use them as a grade. I like being able to complete projects with the students because it enhances their learning and allows the to connect the knowledge they have learned with a performance task. The books had wonderful ideas but none had any rubrics or scoring guides. A lot of the books had great writing activities with open-ended questions and creative writing activities.

Students need to expand their background knowledge in a variety of subjects and a theme on Native Americans allows students to explore history and also habitats and how daily live is affected by our surroundings. It allows students the chance to learn tolerance for different cultures. Students seem to really enjoy exploring the different tribes and how their culture is different. One area I need to address is how the Native Americans have lost a lot of their cultural ways. I have not added this component to my theme unit yet because I am not sure how much third grade students would understand. Also information on Native American tribes today is not as easy to find as books about the past.

I have enjoyed expanding my Native American theme as a result of completing the course requirements. I now have more information that I can continue to expand my theme the next time I teach it. I wish I could spend more time on the theme. I may try to include some of the information in our study of the states by allowing the students to explore the tribes that lived in that state. Also as extra writing practice students can explore other Native American tribes.

Scoring Guide / Rubric

Hopi Pueblo

Criteria	Points Available
For having 3 Levels	5
For having 3 Ladders	5
For having 1 Roof hole	5
For having 3 Windows	5
For Being Painted	5
Total Points	25

Kachina Mask

Criteria	Points Available
For having 2 eyeholes	5
For having at least 2 facial features	5
For using at least 2 materials other than colors/paint	5
For having color	5
Total Points	20

Iroquois Longhouse

Criteria	Points Available
For having walls and roof	5
For having color / construction paper covering	5
For having a roof hole	5
For having 2 doorways	5
Total Points	20

False Face Mask

Criteria	Points Available
For having 2 eyeholes	5
For having 2 rounded corners	5
For having hair	5
For having paint	5
For having at least 2 scary facial details	5
Total Points	25

Written Report

Criteria	Points Available
For having a Title	5
For having at least 2 paragraphs, one on the home and one on the Kachina or false face mask	10
For having Indented paragraphs	5
For 5 or less spelling, punctuation, grammar mistakes	10
For Neatness	5
For Habitat / natural resources information	5
Total Points	25

What do you think of this lesson? SuccessLink needs to know. Click here to tell us.

For additional information contact :
Tammy Priest
Cuba Elem.
Crawford Co. R-II
(573) 885-2534
EMAIL: tspriest@writeme.com