Community-Based Lesson Plans for Middle School Students |
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| Title: | Empowering the Community: Children's Library Services |
| Subject(s): | Language Arts and Library Skills |
| Grade(s) | K-6 |
| Description: | Storytelling at Santa Clara Day School by community Elders is a way
to preserve the oral history of the Pueblo and provide a means for
permanent integration of local culture into the curriculum. An important
aspect of the project is to create a video archive of all storytelling
activities. The purpose of the project is to keep local traditions alive.
These include dancing, hunting and speaking the Native language, Tewa. |
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| Title: | Constellation Observation |
| Subject(s): | Science, Language Arts, Social Studies, Technology and Math |
| Grade(s) | K-6 |
| Description: | The community of Santa Clara and the Santa Clara Day School participate in experiences related to constellations and the solar system. Storytelling activities shared by community members will help to reinforce classroom learning. Students have the opportunity to create a planetarium, identify individual constellations, and then view them through a telescope. Community members share legends and folklore associated with the constellations. |
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| Title: | San Diego Farm Project -- Horno Component |
| Subject(s): | Interdisciplinary Studies |
| Grade(s) | K-8 |
| Description: | The farm project is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary unit involving all grades in the process of cultivating and harvesting crops Native to the community, creating marketable produce/products from the crops and selling the goods produced through this process. Students learn traditional farming and food preparation methods by interacting with community members. The horno project involves the process of building a traditional horno teaching students its varied uses in baking traditional Pueblo foods utilizing the crops that are grown by the students. |
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| Title: | Pit to Pot |
| Subject(s): | Math, Science, Tiwa Language and Culture and Technology |
| Grade(s) | K-8 |
| Description: | Established Goal(s): The student will understand how natural resources of the community are collected, used, and respected by the people of Taos Pueblo to make traditional Pottery; The students will apply strategies and skills to comprehend information that is read, heard, and viewed during pottery demonstrations; the students will communicate effectively through speaking and writing about the pottery process; the students will compare and contrast various techniques in pottery making such as coil, pinch, and wheel; the students will understand the concept of location by using and constructing maps, and other geographic tools to identify the environments visited to collect clay. |
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| Title: | The Impact of the Railroad on Isleta Elders' Childhood Memories |
| Subject(s): | Social Studies, Math, Language Arts, Science, Art and Technology |
| Grade(s) | 5th-6th |
| Description: | Students of Isleta Elementary School have the opportunity to learn more about the history of Isleta Pueblo through tribal Elders’ stories and recollections of specifi c events and activities that have occurred as a result of the railroad’s impact on the culture of Isleta people. The union of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (A.T. & S.F.) and the Southern Pacific railroad not only resulted in the infl ux of people from the east and west coasts, but resulted in an irreparable change among the people of Isleta Pueblo because the railroad line ran straight through the center of the pueblo, splitting the village in two. Isleta Elders share their memories and stories of the slick red and silver trains. |
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| Title: | Native Agriculture |
| Subject(s): | Science |
| Grade(s) | 5th-6th |
| Description: | Understanding(s) Students will understand: • the growth cycle. • the process of pollination and how photosynthesis plays a role. • that the type of soil plays a part in the growth cycle. • that photosynthesis occurs when the plant’s leaves capture the sun’s light and use it to make the plant’s food from carbon dioxide and water. When this happens, oxygen molecules are given off into the air. |
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| Title: | Native Architecture |
| Subject(s): | Architecture |
| Grade(s) | 5th-7th |
| Description: | Understanding(s) Students will understand: • that different materials retain heat differently. • that adobe is made from hay, mud, sand, and water • that modern cement is made by heating a crushed mixture of clay and limestone to a very high temperature. The mixture is heated in a huge furnace until large glassy cinders called clinkers are formed. The clinkers are ground into a powder. When water is added a chemical reaction takes place, resulting in a durable artificial stone that does not dissolve in water. |
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| Title: | Tanning Hides |
| Science/Social Studies | |
| Subject(s): | Math, Science, Tiwa Language and Culture and Technology |
| Grade(s) | 5th-6th |
| Description: | .Understanding(s) Students will understand: • the process and procedures for preserving and preparing tanned hides. • that skin is made up of collagen. • that when an animal dies, the skin’ collage begins to decay right away. • that salt can stop the decaying of collagen. • that skin is the barrier between animal and outside world. It is waterproof and helps with insulation. Protects animals from infections. • That not many actual tools are used. S.F. used mostly rocks such as: pumice, and sandstone. S.F. uses hand (knuckles) to skin animals. Sometimes a “rasp” might be used to make fleshing easier. • that creatures should be treated with respect and shouldn’t be killed unless the whole animal will be used. • Not all tribes tan hide the same way (i.e., Taos uses brains to soften hide/S.F. hide is not dehaired). • Tribes in the past have used hides as a method of communication. |
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| Title: | San Diego Farm Project: Using Native Foods in Novel Ways |
| Subject(s): | Interdisciplinary Studies |
| Grade(s) | 7th |
| Description: | A Taste of Jemez” is a fun, hands on unit that takes students through every phase of designing and operating a small community restaurant. As part of the community related goals, it makes use of the crops grown in the fi eld used for the San Diego Farm and Horno Projects. Community members’ expertise is utilized in the development and testing of recipes, business management and proper etiquette for wait staff. Content learning is incorporated throughout the unit, the history and culture of the area, the types of food grown, its uses and preparation, the chemistry of the cooking process and the development of menus and a cookbook. The students practice all their skills in a “mock-restaurant” environment. The project allows the students to explore ways in which foods are refl ective of different cultural backgrounds. |
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| Title: | Native Garden |
| Subject(s): | Interdisciplinary Subjects and Acoma Keres Language |
| Grade(s) | 7th-8th |
| Description: | The 7th-8th grade classes and their teachers develop a natural Native garden on the school premises. Students collect plants that are Native to Acoma Pueblo, learn the Acoma (Keres) names for the plants and classify them according to their uses. Classifi cations include food for people or animals, medicinal uses, dyes, uses for social dancing or use to make musical instruments. The collection of Native plants will be displayed in a photographic or illustrated portfolio and planted in the Native garden. The Acoma Language will be reinforced in classroom activities and throughout the school grounds, in conversations with grandparents, parents and other community members. |
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