Native Americans

So I stayed up SUPER late Wednesday night making bowls and bowls of salt dough - 50 kids worth! (recipe = 1 cup of salt to 2 cups of flour - add water till moldable) Thursday we created Native American pinch pots, coil pots, and totem poles to go with our Native American Unit. Next year, I will definitely order some real clay, but for the most part, this seemed to have worked pretty well. It was kind of a last minute idea - most of mine are recently! I took them home and baked them (200 degrees) and we painted them on Friday -they turned out AMAZING :)

 We're also started our Native American pocket notebooks to store all of our stories, writings, artifacts, pictures throughout this unit.

Again, the kids were totally geeked! They are Kings and Queens of coloring - which always makes their end projects look so AMAZING! I absolutely thrive on their passion and excitement over every activity we do together!
I checked out different Native American Legends from the library and am Super excited to use Cardigans and Curriculum's Native American Legends Idea! It is awesome and definitely worth checking out if you teach Native Americans - does a great job of using cross curriculum connections!

Off to an inter mural football game at my Alma Mater ... YAY EXERCISE!

Note: Please be aware that that as a social studies educator, my purpose is to get students excited about learning other cultures as well as their own. I am not perfect in my education of this, though I do try and do a lot of research before teachings cultures and history. Concerning the dioramas, I try to educate students on the breaking of stereotypes and regional uniquness as much as possible from my findings and research but do not claim to be an expert. By using tangible items it help spur students passion for the cultures and history we study and creates in them a desire to learn and discover more. If there is something that bothers you or have questions on my instruction concerning your culture or any other topic I may teach in my room, please feel free to email me personally to help me gain more understanding. I love learning about others and am always striving to educate my students better.