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Celebration Symbols and Their Meaning
Students develop a symbol that represents something they wish to celebrate or include in a celebration of their choosing.
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Native American Friendship Dance
The performing arts offer artistic perception, creative expression, historical and cultural context and aesthetic valuing. This dance helps students understand dance history and develops cultural awareness. Students are given the...
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European Expansion in America
Students explore human settlement in America - from the 1500s to about the turn of the 20th Century. They follow the relationships and changes beginning in the east, then head west to witness the final battles of this era.
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Creating a Pot: Repetition as a Unifying Design Element
Students use subjects, themes, and symbols that demonstrate knowledge of contexts, values, and aesthetics that communicate intended meaning in artworks.
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BASKET MAKING
Students create individual basket plaques emphasizing Native American techniques and designs. Students learn to identify Native American tribal symbols and incorporate them into their basket plaque.
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Children of the Earth and Sky
Fourth graders explore the culture and traditions of Native Americans. After reading "Children of the Earth and Sky," students discuss the lives of Native American children in relation to their own. They create replicas of Hopi...
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A-maizing Facts
Students research the lives of Native Americans living in the Northeast Woodlands region, focusing on how the climate, location, and physical surroundings affected their way of life.
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The Matrix
Second graders compare and contrast groups of Native Americans and culture groups from different regions and times.
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Pictograph Stone Carving
Students examine pictures of pictograph writing by Native American tribes, and discuss why this method of communication was used. They create their own messages with symbols and drawings on pieces of Styrofoam to simulate rock carvings.
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Totem Transformations
Students are introduced in the Humanities class, as they explore the origins of Totems in Native American folklore. In the computer lab, students read Totem stories and explore the meaning and symbolism behind the myths using various Web...
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Lewis and Clark: Prized Possession
Students create a Sacagawea-inspired wampum belt. In this Native-American lesson, students study Sacagawea and her influence on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Students learn about wampum and prized possessions and work in groups to...
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Talking Rocks
Artists imitate the symbols used by tribes of the Southwest or use their own word pictures that communicate something about themselves. This lesson is a perfect blend of visual art and social studies. Students create a beautiful piece of...
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Art to Zoo: India-Where Remarkable Differences Are Ordinary
Students "visit" India to learn about its culture and the lives of children in India. For this India lesson, students conduct research and report on the lives of Indian children in the form of a mock interview between a journalist and...
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It's All Part of the Story
Students explore storytelling through pantomime, improvisation, and dramatization. They watch an online video, discuss Native American earth stories, role-play various situations, explore websites, and present an oral story to the class.
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Dreams and Shields
Students study and view examples of shields from the Lakota, Crow, Cheyenne, Black Feet, and Shoshone tribes. They find the meaning of the symbols used on the shields and then make their own shields out of cardboard.
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Pages Out of the Past
Students examine examples of rock art and the reasons why they were made. They translate the images into a creative writing piece that be attached to their own rock art.
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Sand Painted Teepees
Second graders create "Sand Painted teepees" using sand, paper, glue, and information about Native American culture in this 2nd grade Art lesson. The lesson includes a vocabulary list, a materials list, a resource link, and a short...
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Ft. Vancouver the Fur Trade: A Skin for a Skin
Students study Fort Vancouver. They discuss trading and what is meant by "a skin for a skin." They complete math story problems that represent possible trading scenarios. They explore the Chinook Jargon trade language.
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Wappo Indians of Napa County
Third graders describe the American Indian nation in their local region long ago and in the recent past in terms of national identities, religious beliefs, customs, and various folklore traditions. They synthesize their findings into a...
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Rock Art Stories
Students examine different types of rock art. They analyze them to try to figure out the meaning of the art. They create their own rock art that tells a story. They share their creation with the class.
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Picture Writing
Fourth graders create symbols. In this visual arts lesson, 4th graders study cave drawings, Native American pictographs, and Aboriginal Drawings prior to creating their own communication without using words.
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Create a Family Crest
Students create their own family crest using prior knowledge and Japanese and Native American examples of symbolic art. Lesson extensions include the creation of a school crest or woodblock examples of crests.
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Rock Art
First graders create and share their own rock art. They listen and read stories: "Mathematics from Many Cultures" and "The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush."
Channel Islands Film
Telling Your Own Story
After watching and discussing a video on the Voyage of Cabrillo, individuals craft their own origin story and design and build an artifact they feel best represents their history.