Native American Unit

I think this is one of my favorite units of the year. I have always been fascinated with Native American culture and hope to give my kiddos a little insight into traditions they are probably not already familiar with yet. Unfortunately, this week I was at professional development for 3 days so we haven't yet been able to incorporate many of the activities. Hopefully we'll have some good examples from the upcoming 2 days we have left.

Some ideas to increase rigor in Native American activities.

Using GT Icons:

1) Ethics is an obvious one-was it fair the way the Native Americans were treated? But also to write about the ethics of the people as a culture. They way the tribes worked together, the way they never wasted anything.

2) Multiple Perspectives: They could compare the perspective of a pilgrim to someone coming to America today. Perspective of a tipi compared to that of a house, pilgrims to the Native Americans.

3) Big Idea-storytelling was a constant tradition and after hearing a story we discuss what the big idea learned was. My kids make storytelling belts out of colored pasta-they make an image and then write a story about it-what is the big idea learned from that story?

4) Language of the disciplines-we incorporate this into a unit about homes-so vocab of an architect. Or that of a historian.

5) Overtime-how has America changed since the Pilgrims landed? How has the Native American culture changed? How have Native American homes changed over time.

Higher-level thinking ?'s:

What would have happened if the Pilgrims hadn't made the voyage to America? How would the life of the Native Americans be different? Would our environment be different today?

Creativity:

We love to make tortilla tipis. Using food coloring the students paint the tortillas and put pretzels at the top for the wood. Nothing like eating art! :)

I've never been brave enough to try this (and I don't think this is the class to do it with yet):  http://artlessonsforkids.me/2009/03/15/cave-art-comes-alive/  how cool would that be?!?

Using a feather to create something new (trying to get back on the horse after the leaf fiasco :)

Leaves and Ethics

Ok, so the kiddos were supposed to write about the ethics of leaves-is it right or wrong that the leaves fall off the trees? The directions were to write 1st and then paint, but the idea of painting was a little too exciting for many of them. :) I had to write what they dictated after the paint dried.

What I love about activities like this is how their creativity really comes through. Look how different each image of the leaves are. Some did blobs, some did little dots, some made patterns...each and every one is unique which I think is such an important lesson. I've been in classrooms where teachers dictate what color to make the sky, the tree, the turkey--whatever the subject is. I can't bring myself to do that because I selfishly love to see what they come up with on their own. I limited their color choices, just because it was easier to give them palettes of certain colors--but their vision was all their own!

My favorite reasoning!

Over Time Icon

Time is a tough nut for little ones. They will often say "yesterday I am going to go to Wal-Mart" or "tomorrow I forgot to do my homework". So the concept of over-time when it comes to looking at how characters changed over past/present/future is a challenging one. The students chose any character from the Wizard of Oz story we finished reading, and wrote about how that character changed over time. I thought they did a pretty good job considering it was their first time with this concept.

The lion from coward to King of the Forest.

Dorothy on the farm, having to do away with the witch and then life back on the farm.

I like that they future is good for Dorothy!

I love that this student sees Dorothy going on more adventures when she gets older. I know there are other books in the series.

Dorothy in the land of Dainty China People, clicking her heels and then home again.

Our First Frames

Frames are a staple of GT curriculum. They are a way to make connections between the students' thinking and various icons. We are reading the Wizard of Oz right now (anyone who knows me knows I am a great advocate of reading to kiddos above their grade level-not only for the vocab and listening skills they can develop; but also because it lends itself to activities like this).

The students used the concepts of multiple perspectives, details, big idea and ethics. They chose their own ideas from the story to match each icon. Considering this was a new activity for them and we aren't very far into the school year (and they are 5-years old :)-I thought they did a really remarkable job! It was a challenging task to ask them to do; and not one of them complained-I was very proud of them!

This student did perspective from different characters in each side.

Pro vs. Con

I love to do this activity when we have 5 minutes left before lunch. The kids get into pairs -one takes the pro side and one the con side and then I assign them a topic to debate.

The catch is they have to give a reason for their argument. That's actually the purpose of this exercise-it's critical thinking, but also being able to verbalize their reasoning. This is typically hard especially for the younger kiddos because they are used to just saying it's right, not necessarily why it's right. Each student talks for about 1 minute, the other gets a turn for 1 minute; and we come back together and share some of our insights.

A few topics we've used so far this year:

1) A shark would/would not make a good pet.
2) Girls should/should not be allowed to be President of the US.
3) Money is/isn't the most important thing.
4)  Students should/should not be able to make their own rules.
5) Aliens really do/don't exist (my kids are obsessed with aliens this year, I don't know if they were watching Falling Skies all summer like I was or what :).

If you try this and it doesn't work at first, don't give up. It takes time for them to have the confidence even to think this way. But I really think it helps in the long run. They know how to justify their reasoning when it comes to writing or eventually open-ended test responses.

Adding Rigor to Halloween Activities

Just a few activities to spice up your Halloween theme with some challenges:

1) Ethics: are spiders/bats/monsters good or bad, why?

2) Changes over time-from pumpkin seed to jack o'lantern

3) What are the rules for making jack o'lanterns? Being a scarecrow? Being a monster (did this activity with my kiddos last week, will post the pics-I loved some of their responses!).

4) Perspective of a spider compared to that of other insects (I realize spiders aren't technically insects, but they do eat them), perspective of a scarecrow, an owl compared to that of a bat, pumpkin in a pumpkin patch compared to that of a jack o'lantern.

5) Scarecrow for the 21st Century-invent a new way to keep crows away from crops

6) Where did the idea for making jack o'lanterns come from? Why pumpkins? Theorize a creative reason. Create a new symbol for Halloween.

For Fall Activities:

1) What would happen if there was no fall season?
2) Ethics: is it right or wrong for the leaves to fall off the trees
3) Perspective of a leaf in the tree compared to that on the ground.
4) Changes for a leaf over time
5) Theorize a creative reason: why do the leaves change color?
6) Rules for the changing leaves
7) New uses for fallen leaves-what could we use them for?

Halloween Perspectives

Since the kids are allowed to wear their costumes to class for Halloween, we give it a little twist. I ask the students to choose literary characters (and yes, I give in to have that include superheroes, comic books are a form of literature :). They write a few lines from the perspective of that character: how do they feel, what do they believe, wish for, etc. Then we present it to their parents. This not only helps us develop that perspective concept, but also helps them get practice being good speakers. We discovered that's a talent that doesn't necessarily come naturally. They talk to their toes, twirl their hair, look up in the sky... typical nervous behaviors. But by the end of the week many had developed eye contact, learned to stand still and some even to project their voices a little bit.