Lesson Plans

Middle School Lesson Plans

Lesson 1: Early Inhabitants of Virginia
Lesson 2: Contributions of American Indians (First Americans)
Lesson 3: Locating American Indian (First American) Tribes
Lesson 4: Folk Tales from American Indian (First American) Tribes
Lesson 5: Culture and Lifestyles of American Indian (First American) Tribes

Lesson 1: Early Inhabitants of Virginia

Materials

  • World map - classroom size
  • Virginia map - classroom size and 1 per student
  • Chart paper/chalkboard and markers
  • Index cards
  • Crayons
  • American Indian village picture
  • Textbook, trade books, or other instructional materials
  • Computer with Internet access

Instructional Activities

NOTE: The following Web sites may be helpful to both teachers and students:

1. Review the explorers, and ask students if they remember the name of an explorer (from third-grade history) that traveled from Europe to the New World looking for a new route to India. Who was he? (Christopher Columbus) Ask the students if they recall what Christopher Columbus called the people whom he found living in the New World. Answer: Indians. Why did he call them Indians?

2. Locate Columbus' voyage via the Atlantic Ocean on a world map. Ask the students what Columbus saw when he arrived, and emphasize that most of the land was covered with forests.

3. Complete a KWL chart about the American Indians with the students, using graphic organizers from the following Web sites:
http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/
http://www.sdcoe.net/score/actbank/torganiz.htm

4. Have students read a teacher-selected book about the early Virginia American Indians.

5. Have students read Becoming a Homeplace from the Virginia Historical Society Web site: http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/homeplace.htm

6. Point out that the Virginia American Indians were called the Eastern Woodland Indians. Help the students conclude that the land in early Virginia was covered with forests.

7. Show pictures of a Virginia American Indian village, and discuss what the students observe and what these pictures show about the Eastern Woodland Indians. Lead the students to understand that climate and environment played an important role in the way of life of the Virginia Indians in acquiring food, clothing, and shelter for their survival. Explain that Virginia had a relatively mild climate with four distinct seasons, resulting in a variety of vegetation.

8. Introduce the term artifact. Display any sample artifacts. Ask students, "How do we know Indians lived in Virginia?" and record the responses on a chart. Define artifact with the students and make a list of possible artifacts. Discuss what the artifact tells us about the Virginia American Indian. Show the picture from the Web site entitled Virginia Indians' Artifacts:http://chumby.dlib.vt.edu/melissa/posters/vastudiesposter.html.

9. Explain there were three major language groups in early Virginia. Display a Virginia map that demonstrates the location of each language group. Use the available map in the Virginia Atlas.

10. On a Virginia wall map, label the location of each language group in one color and use another color label to identify a tribe of each language group. Have the students label their own Virginia maps as well.

11. Have the students draw pictures to show how Virginia American Indians (First Americans) acquired food during each season.

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Lesson 2: Contributions of American Indians (First Americans)

Materials

  • Materials for making crafts
  • Teacher-selected legends and books about the Powhatan, Sioux, and Pueblo Indians

Instructional Activities

1. Review the three selected American Indian groups.

2. Discuss with students the many contributions of the three American Indian groups studied in this organizing topic. All American Indians are known for their deep respect for nature. Their contributions in the arts include jewelry, pottery, and weaving. They are also known for their legends and oral stories. Farming was a contribution made by the three American Indian groups.

3. Have students create sample crafts of the three American Indian groups.

4. Read teacher-selected legends and books about the three American Indian groups.

5. Learn more about how the three American Indian (First American) groups respected nature and contributed to farming, using the following Web sites:
Information on the Powhatan people: http://www.mariner.org/chesapeakebay/native/nam002.html
Information on the Plains/Sioux people: http://inkido.indiana.edu/w310work/romac/plains.html
Information on the Pueblo people: http://inkido.indiana.edu/w310work/romac/swest.htm

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Lesson 3: Locating American Indian (First American) Tribes

Materials

  • Physical outline maps of the United States
  • Textbook
  • Desk atlas
  • Internet access
  • Colored pencils

Instructional Activities

1. Explain to students that the purpose of this lesson is to show how physical and climatic features of a geographic location influenced the culture and lifestyles of the American Indian (First American) tribes living there. Place students in pairs, or have them work individually. Give each student or pair a physical outline map of the United States (see http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/usphys.pdf). Instruct students to research the location of the following tribes: Inuit, Kwakiutl, Sioux, Pueblo, and the Iroquois. Students may use a desk atlas, their textbook, and/or the Internet to find the locations.

2. Have the students use colored pencils to mark the locations on their maps, shading and labeling the appropriate areas. Have students title their maps and create a legend.

3. Have students consider how the physical and climatic features of each tribe's location influenced its culture and lifestyle. To help students grasp this concept, ask them how hurricane season influences or impacts their own life today -- their attendance at school, their vacation. Have them consider ways that other factors in their environment might alter their lives. Ask students who have lived in other parts of the United States to describe ways that their previous location differs from/resembles their present location and ways the physical and climatic features of that location affected their lives. (Students also might consider how technology has altered our interactions with the environment, e.g., indoor soccer fields, football stadiums, machines that make snow.) Help students name some ways the physical and climatic features of each tribe's location probably influenced its culture and lifestyle.

4. Have students locate on a contemporary political map of the United States three major cities located in the areas that once were home to the Indian tribes above. Have students use the Internet to gain information about climatic conditions in these areas: for example, have them refer to the United States Climate Page at http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/USclimate/states.fast.htmlfor climatic data. Have students consider how these Indian tribes may have lived without the benefits of modern technology.

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Lesson 4: Folk Tales from American Indian (First American) Tribes

Materials
Copies of folk tales from the Inuit, Kwakiutl, Sioux, Pueblo, and Iroquois

Instructional Activities

1. Explain to students that much of what we know about American Indian culture comes from folk tales. Indian tribes practiced an oral tradition. While many of these folk tales are lost to us today, fortunately some were written down. Indian folk tales often attempt to provide explanations for occurrences in the natural world. Nature was essential and often sacred to the lives of American Indians. Explain to students that they will read a series of American Indian folk tales and compare and contrast various reoccurring elements.

2. Choose a variety of American Indian folk tales that addresses several themes, or select tales across tribes that share similar themes, such as creation or origin. Web sites that provide the full text of folk tales or offer a bibliography of folk tales are listed under Sample Resources for this organizing topic. The list is inclusive of all the Indian tribes mentioned above.

3. After students have read the folk tales, lead them in an examination of the stories. Graphic organizers may be useful to help students comprehend the stories and make comparisons. Ask students:
What are some of the common elements of the folk tales?
What purposes did folk tales serve?
What can one learn about the beliefs and cultures of the various tribes from reading the stories?
What instruments or methods do we use today to help us make sense of the world?

4. To extend the lesson, have students write their own folk tales. Review some of the basic elements of a folk tale before having the students write their stories. Have them consider a natural occurrence they would wish to explain, such as: How did squirrels get their bushy tails? Why do snakes crawl on their bellies? Students also may choose to write a folk tale that addresses a creation myth. They may choose to include illustrations with their stories.

Folk Tale Resources

Lummis, Charles. Pueblo Indian Folk-Stories.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/sw/pifs/
This site provides a collection of stories from the Isleta Pueblo people of New Mexico.

"A Partial Pueblo Bibliography." Books of the Southwest, University of Arizona Library.
http://southwest.library.arizona.edu/inte/back.1_div.3.html
This site offers a useful bibliography of books about the Pueblos.

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Lesson 5: Culture and Lifestyles of American Indian (First American) Tribes

Materials

  • Shallow boxes, e.g., tops of copy-paper cartons
  • Cardboard
  • Colored paper
  • Markers
  • Colored pencils
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Research materials, such as library books, textbook, and access to Internet
  • Shadow Box Artifacts Observation Worksheet (below)

Instructional Activities

1. Explain to students that they will create a shadow box containing "artifacts" that reflect one of the following American Indian (First American) tribes: Inuit, Kwakiutl, Sioux, Pueblo, and the Iroquois. Divide students into pairs or trios, and assign each group a particular tribe, or let students select. Make sure that each tribe is represented.

2. Have students research their assigned tribe before creating their shadow box. Make resources available in the library and point students to resources on the Internet. Students' research should cover the following: types of dwelling, clothing, food, arts and crafts, tools, and other applicable information.

3. After completing their research, allow students to begin assembling their shadow box. Encourage students to make replicas of artifacts such as baskets or clothing, to include pictures (either hand-drawn or printed from the Internet), and to include a title on their shadow box and to label each artifact. You may wish to have students write a short report explaining the significance of each artifact. The shadow box should provide a complete picture of the culture and lifestyle of the tribe.

4. Display completed boxes in the classroom. If students wrote reports, place them next to the boxes. Have students explore and complete "Shadow Box Artifacts Observation Worksheets" related to the tribes they did not research.

5. Once students have completed their worksheets, conduct a whole-group discussion. Have students consider the major similarities and differences between the tribes. Ask: How did geography influence the tribe's culture and lifestyle? Have students refer to the map exercise they completed in the first session.

Download this pdf file of the Shadow Box Artifacts Observation Worksheet to use with this activity.

Then examine the shadow boxes around the room. Select two tribes to investigate other than the one you researched, and complete the chart below for each tribe. Be sure to include a description of each item and also its significance.

 

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