Projects About the Plains Indians
Written by: Marian Broida
Illustrated by: Rodica Prato
Published by: Marshall Cavendish Corporation in Tarrytown, NY in 2004
ISBN: 0-7614-1601-3
Genre: Picture Book, Informational Text
Reading Level: Grade 3
Activity Level: Grades 2 & 4
Summary: This is a great book about Plains Indians. It has information about Cheyenne, Lakota, and Hidatsa Native Americans. There is not an actual storyline to this book, but there is information about how each group live(s/d), what their homes were like, and what some of their rituals were like. This book even includes projects to do with students regarding each group of Native Americans. It also has boldface words within the text that are defined in the back of the book where there is also a Metric conversion chart for readers.
Response: I really like how this book teaches children that not all Native Americans lived in tipis and not all of them were primitive nomadic people. I also really appreciated how it taught about more in-depth aspects of their lives, like how they gathered food and what they ate, etc.
The illustrations in this text are paintings as well as actual photographs of Natives. The pictures add an element of reality to the book that I believe is important for children to recognize. One picture shows a Native American riding on a horse in the dress we traditionally think of when we think of these people, but it also shows the rest of the Natives in the picture sitting around their tipi in slacks, button-up shirts, and hats, just like whites. This can help students understand that not all Native Americans wear headdresses and animal skins for clothing (even though this picture was likely taken after the Natives had become more accepting of whites and their culture, it can still show that our stereotypes are not correct).
Teaching Connections: This book is already set for ways to incorporate it into the classroom. It comes full of project ideas such as building tipis, matching parts of a buffalo with the way a Native would use them, a moccasin game, model of a travois that students can build, learning how to grow a sunflower (science incorporation), making a felt pouch, and numerous other activities that will aid student learning about the traditions of the native American culture.
A teacher could use this book with her second grade class. On the first day of the lesson should could have a discussion with her class about what they know about Native Americans and write that on chart paper at the front of the classroom. She could then spend one day discussing each of the tribes in this book by reading about each one to her class and then having them complete one or more of the coordinating activities. On the fourth day of the week, she could have a discussion about what her students knew before about Native Americans and what they have learned through the lesson. On the final day of the week, students could review all that they learned about Native Americans.
For a fourth grade classroom, the teacher could read about one group of Native Americans each day and have the students do the activities in the book, much as they second graders would do (except that the activities chosen could be the more difficult ones for fourth graders). This should take three days. On the fourth day of the week, the teacher could show her students the Disney movie “Pocahontas” and they could have a discussion about what is correctly and incorrectly portrayed in this movie regarding Native Americans. On the fifth day of the week, students will make presentations about the other group of Natives (besides the three in the book) that they chose to study at the beginning of the week in groups.
What Students Learn: From this book and these activities students can learn about the real (not the stereotyped) Native American culture and learn through hands-on activities about certain aspects of their lives.
Image Retrieved From: http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/prod_images/688/35217688.jpg.
Written by: Marian Broida
Illustrated by: Rodica Prato
Published by: Marshall Cavendish Corporation in Tarrytown, NY in 2004
ISBN: 0-7614-1601-3
Genre: Picture Book, Informational Text
Reading Level: Grade 3
Activity Level: Grades 2 & 4
Summary: This is a great book about Plains Indians. It has information about Cheyenne, Lakota, and Hidatsa Native Americans. There is not an actual storyline to this book, but there is information about how each group live(s/d), what their homes were like, and what some of their rituals were like. This book even includes projects to do with students regarding each group of Native Americans. It also has boldface words within the text that are defined in the back of the book where there is also a Metric conversion chart for readers.
Response: I really like how this book teaches children that not all Native Americans lived in tipis and not all of them were primitive nomadic people. I also really appreciated how it taught about more in-depth aspects of their lives, like how they gathered food and what they ate, etc.
The illustrations in this text are paintings as well as actual photographs of Natives. The pictures add an element of reality to the book that I believe is important for children to recognize. One picture shows a Native American riding on a horse in the dress we traditionally think of when we think of these people, but it also shows the rest of the Natives in the picture sitting around their tipi in slacks, button-up shirts, and hats, just like whites. This can help students understand that not all Native Americans wear headdresses and animal skins for clothing (even though this picture was likely taken after the Natives had become more accepting of whites and their culture, it can still show that our stereotypes are not correct).
Teaching Connections: This book is already set for ways to incorporate it into the classroom. It comes full of project ideas such as building tipis, matching parts of a buffalo with the way a Native would use them, a moccasin game, model of a travois that students can build, learning how to grow a sunflower (science incorporation), making a felt pouch, and numerous other activities that will aid student learning about the traditions of the native American culture.
A teacher could use this book with her second grade class. On the first day of the lesson should could have a discussion with her class about what they know about Native Americans and write that on chart paper at the front of the classroom. She could then spend one day discussing each of the tribes in this book by reading about each one to her class and then having them complete one or more of the coordinating activities. On the fourth day of the week, she could have a discussion about what her students knew before about Native Americans and what they have learned through the lesson. On the final day of the week, students could review all that they learned about Native Americans.
For a fourth grade classroom, the teacher could read about one group of Native Americans each day and have the students do the activities in the book, much as they second graders would do (except that the activities chosen could be the more difficult ones for fourth graders). This should take three days. On the fourth day of the week, the teacher could show her students the Disney movie “Pocahontas” and they could have a discussion about what is correctly and incorrectly portrayed in this movie regarding Native Americans. On the fifth day of the week, students will make presentations about the other group of Natives (besides the three in the book) that they chose to study at the beginning of the week in groups.
What Students Learn: From this book and these activities students can learn about the real (not the stereotyped) Native American culture and learn through hands-on activities about certain aspects of their lives.
Image Retrieved From: http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/prod_images/688/35217688.jpg.
No comments:
Post a Comment