"So get Back, Back, Back to ...Native Americans"

Yes, this is totally a Sugarcult reference! "back, back, back to where we lasted..."

Since this is my life...

and yours, I'm sure. 

I just want you to know, all of you who find time to blog ... you are my heroes! 

I am playing blog catch up!

So come back, back, back with me to our Native American Unit: 

Before studying each Native American Region, I try to present artifacts that I have collected over the years in different ways to help engage the kiddos in inquiry. 

For the Great Plains, since it is our first region, I show then the items, and break down the inquiry thought process (really it is to model where I want their thinking to go when they do the activity later independently). 
For the Southwest, students observed the items as groups and discussed together their uses, what they would have been made from, etc. and which region we were about to study. 

For the Eastern Woodland the kids completed museum inquiry sheets as they walked our "museum" of artifacts. They were not allowed to touch the artifacts this time - observing like it was a museum. 

For the Northwest Coast, I had the students do a picture thought walk of the different artifacts. I placed them in the middle of large posters and they students walked around jotting down their thinking on each item. 

For the Southeast, we pretended to be Archaeologists who had uncovered artifacts in the ground pertaining to daily life. We had learned that Archaeologists take detailed notes about the items they discover and often add a labeled sketch in their notebooks. The students practiced describing the item, sketching the item and, like good historians, predicted what they thought the item would have been used for. 

For the Arctic, they look at the items and come up with inquiry questions of their own as if they were creating a test/assessment as a teacher. 
Overall, using artifacts and pictures in the classroom has proved to be a great way to help students develop good thinking skills, get them excited about learning and the new unit, and it gives them something tangible to connect with and discover. 

Adaptation Simulation

I tried something new this year during my introduction of Native American Indians. 

New. Favorite. Intro. Period. 

A big focus, according to our standards, is on how the different Native American groups (and people in general) adapted to their regional environments. Starting at the beginning, we talked about how groups of hunter/gathers crossed the land bridge and began settling across the continent. 

I then gave my groups a tube with different pictures of natural resources found in their "region". I also added a larger picture of the natural environment to help them visualize it. 

If you are interested in this activity, check it out HERE at my TPT store! 

 They had to come up with adaptations for shelter, food, transportation, and clothing using the natural resources provided in their tubes. It was SO cool listening to them discuss how they would utilize the resources. Some of them came up with very innovative creations, while some of them were DEAD on with what the natives in that particular region used for shelter and clothing. The activity also allowed for great connection between what they already know about survival and Native American culture (for example, my arctic region immediately went to ice block houses and many of them chose animal skin clothing.) An active KWL if you will ;0) 

Students presenting their environment and adaptations 

As we learned about the different regions we traded out OUR adaptations for the actual adaptions by the different regional groups. 

The most profound impact for me was their internalization of HOW a group of people adapt. Throughout the rest of our unit, I was impressed at how often they connected what they were learning about the Native Americans to how THEY had decided to survive. 
"Look! They adapted by using a similar shelter to ours!" 

"Wow, they used cotton for clothing, we didn't even think of using that!" 

"I know why they raised their houses off the ground, there are poisonous reptiles and alligators roaming around!" 

Success. 

Teacher heart is full. 

If you are interested in this activity, check it out HERE at my TPT store! 

Here are some more Native American Activities: 

Native American Inquiry Research {Web Quest Included}

We have been having a wonderful time discovering the different Native American Tribes through the process of Inquiry. Too often, kids are taught the information and not given the tools to learn, discover, and question on their own. During the process of inquiry, kids are encouraged to ask questions, wonder about the world around them, research answers to their questions, and make discoveries. 

Through inquiry based discovery HERE, we were able to evaluate "artifacts", infer what we believed them to be used for, ask questions, make wonderings, and come up with a plan of research. It also introduced us to the different Native American regions allowing us to choose which group we wanted to do more research on.
For the last two weeks in November, we went on a WEB QUEST attempting to help the Michigan History Museum replace their precious Native American Quilt which was "stolen"!

NATIVE AMERICAN WEB QUEST

We started by getting into our regional groups shown on the bulletin board above and creating oaths that promised we would be good group members, work hard together, participate, and encourage one another. We also chose which topic we wanted to help our group research in depth clothing, housing, religion/beliefs, natural resources.

Then, we dove into research. Thanks to an AMAZING grant, fifth grade has been BLESSED with a class set of Chrome books and we have been getting our money's worth out of them!

First, we began researching informational books and our text book and filling in our I-Charts based off the information we found. 

Next, we used internet websites and Google search options to find more information on our chosen topic. 

Lastly, we watched educational videos from our different regions and worked together in our groups to glean information that could add to our different topics.

Now that we have our research, we will be working on helping replace the Native American Quilt by adding illustrations that share our topics information as well as write short informational paragraphs about our findings. Please stay tuned! 

Learning how to be Historians

I'm a bit behind in my posts - this year has been full of craziness - really, like every year - I am always in AWE of those of you who blog EVERY STINKIN DAY! Props to you my friends! Truly, I am inspired. But my New years resolution this year is to a) blog more b) get CAUGHT up! 
So if you see a strange January post talking about Thanksgiving, it's just me holding myself accountable to catching up and getting my stuff up - better late then never right? 
ugh. Forgive me. 
We had a fabulous time (On NOVEMBER 22nd! HAHA) discovering more what it is to be like a historian during our Grandparent's Day festivities.
We have been learning about primary and secondary sources in social studies along with the questions that historians ask to learn, discover, and explore the past. First, we worked together with our grandparents to create a salt dough "secondary source" based on our previous research on the False Face Society of the Eastern Woodland Indians and our study of the Northwestern tribes Totem Poles out of salt dough. Stay tuned for the updated painting of these incredible pieces!

To be a historian one must use what they are seeing with their eyes, what they already know (background knowledge or "Schema") and ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS to help them make important discoveries. Today we did just that as we explored our Native American Region discovery boxes. With the guidance of our grandparents, we touched, smelled, and explored lots of different artifacts from the different regions. We also filled in a SEE, THINK, WONDER sheet to share our findings and make new discoveries.

For some reason, it keeps uploading my horizontal documents vertically - ugh! 

Next week we will be taking these findings and using them to spur on our research of a chosen region.