Standard(s):

• SS3H1 - Describe early American Indian cultures and their development in North America.

• SS3H2 - Describe European exploration in North America.

• SS3H2.c - Describe examples of cooperation and conflict between European explorers and American Indians.

• MGSE3.MD.3 - Draw a scaled bar graph to represent a data set with several categories.

• ELAGSE3RL3: Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

Objective: Students will explore the cultural backgrounds of both Native Americans and European explorers. Students will learn about their values, traditions, government structure, and motivations. Students will compare the lives of Native Americans to that of European settlers and develop a case for what would’ve needed to change in order for the two groups to live together peacefully in North America. Based on their understanding of Native American and European life, students will also create their own bar graph to present the number of cultural elements and topographical features (food, clothing, shelter, etc.) presented in a short story.

Project Product(s): Region Slide Shows, Culture & Feature Bar Graphs, Character Trait T-Charts, Story Boards, Movie Trailers

Timeline: August 21 - December 15

Entry Event: Classroom PowWows that incorporated watching the film, "Pocahontas," and arts & crafts.

Project Milestones: Entry Event, Student-Generated Questions, Listening Party, Film Set Day, Project Reflection, Film Festival

What we knew:

In second grade, students learned about the lifestyles and customs of the Creek and Cherokee Indians.

What we needed to learn:

• What did they eat and how did they obtain their food?

• Why did the Europeans try to take their land?

• Why were the Europeans in North America anyway?

• Why did the Europeans go to America in the first place? They had their own land.

• Where are Native Americans now?

• What did Native Americans wear?

• Why did they kill people?

• Why did the Native Americans and Europeans start to fight?

• How did Native Americans survive? How did Europeans survive back then?

• Who are the Native Americans’ ancestors?

• What are the traditions of the Native Americans?

• They didn’t have phones or devices, so what did Native Americans do for fun? Did they play together?

• Did they fight in wars often?

• Did they have pets?

• Where did Native Americans sleep?

• What did Native Americans drink out of?

• Did Native tribes fight with other tribes?

• How many Native Americans lived long ago compared to now?

• How did they survive for so long without stores, electronics, and buildings?

• Why did they have different clothing back then?

• Did they fight over food?

• Did they speak different languages than we do today?

• Did they have doctors?

Project Reflection:

To begin the reflection process, students were asked to make connections and produce a Character Trait T-Chart that would show the most important skills and traits they learned about Native Americans and share with peers how those traits are similar or different to who they are as a person. Examples from students are below (with more to come!). Reflection on this project will continue through January 2021!

Products:

The students have:

• created Storyboards as a plan for their movie about Native Americans and Europeans.

• created Movie Trailers to share reasons and examples of how and why Native Americans and Europeans could have lived together in North America. With this experience, students played the roles of Directors, Producers, and Cinematographers.

The students will:

• learn to read and analyze pictographs and use those skills to create their own bar graph to present the number of cultural elements and topographical features (food, clothing, shelter, etc.) used in a Native American story. These products will be posted in January 2021!