Lesson Plan #:AELP-INT004
Submitted by: Cleo J. Bellah
School or Affiliation: Gardner Elementary School, Gardner, CO
Endorsed by: These lesson plans are the result of the work of the teachers who have attended the Columbia Education Center’s Summer Workshop. CEC is a consortium of teachers from 14 western states dedicated to improving the quality of education in the rural, western, United States, and particularly the quality of math and science Education. CEC uses Big Sky Telegraph as the hub of their telecommunications network that allows the participating teachers to stay in contact with their trainers and peers that they have met at the Workshops. Date: May 1994
Grade Level(s): 2, 3, 4
- Social Studies/US History
Description: The Native American has for hundreds of years been stereotyped. To help children understand that what they see in movies and television is not always historically accurate, I teach this unit.
The purpose to this unit and activities is to motivate and to make learning fun and interesting, while covering most subjects and concepts required by the district’s curriculum. This unit can be taught at any time of the school year. I’ve done it in October and ending it at Thanksgiving, when the parents join us for a Thanksgiving dinner, and also in January and ending it at the end of February or the middle of March where we culminate it with a play for the parents, community and student body.
The students will learn about another race of people and their culture, lifestyle and about the many different and important contributions they have made to benefit the American people.
Films, videos, library and coloring books, resource people, museums and art galleries, clay, greenware, ceramics, paints, beads, wire, yarn, weaving needles, cardboard or wooden looms, food stuffs and ingredients, pots and pans and utensils, measuring cups and spoons, silver, turquoise stones, tools for silversmithing, leathers and string for leather tooling, doll faces, paper cups, tissue or paper towel tubes, glue, scissors, pencils, writing and construction paper, crayons and markers.
Start with webbing. List all the categories you plan to cover.
Tying it All Together:
The units usually lasts about six to nine weeks depending on how extensive you want to go with it. The same applies on specific subjects you want to cover and the activities you want to do.
The number of lessons and activities one can do with this unit is unlimited since there are many fascinating things to do. The unit creates a great deal of interest, is a lot of fun and motivating and you will find it quite productive as far as learning goes and combines many different learning styles.
The subjects covered are reading, spelling, english, creative writing, handwriting, social studies, dictionary and library skills, grammar, sentence structure, geography, history, math, social skills, science, art and crafts, music and drama.
Unit teaching takes a lot of planning, hard work and takes a lot of time, but it is a lot of fun and a good learning experience for students and teacher and all those involved. I enjoy it and it works for me.