Historical Artifacts

Most often it takes a little more than reading out of a textbook for students to really connect with whatever content their learning. Luckily, in social studies we teachers have quite a few options that can help us bring history to life.

For our historical artifacts assignment in class, I decided to show third grade students what some of the Native Americans in Indiana were like. I brought in pictures of where each tribe of Native Americans lived, what their homes and communities looked like, and a painting depicting their fight against the European settlers.

I think these are incredibly important for students to see in order to make this subject more real to them. Many students don't have any sort of background knowledge of Native Americans, so giving them visuals really help them to understand their culture better.

There are many great resources on this topic; Connor Prairie has an interesting site with tons of pictures to show students.

My Life in a Shoebox

This activity was one of my favorites this semester. I'm going to be honest and say, yes, I do very much like talking about myself; the shoebox activity gave me the perfect opportunity to do just that. The biggest problem was figuring out the five things that were most important to me, the five things I'd want to take with me if I only had a shoebox in which to carry my possessions.

 I love to read, so I'd have to have at least one book with me. I chose Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows because it is one of my all-time favorite books. I could read and reread my self-annotated version for the rest of my life.

 This is what I used to call my "Teddy Bear Blankie" (yeah, I was a really creative toddler). It's been with me for as long as I can remember. If I had to uproot myself and leave most of my possessions behind, I would definitely want this to comfort me.

 I'm a writer, and I hate taking notes on the computer or my phone, so I have a ton of random pieces of paper covered in scribbles. I'd need this with me, along with at least a few clean notebooks.

 This is the FedEx Kinkos receipt from when I printed and bound the first short novel I wrote and actually finished. Though this wouldn't really be something I'd need with me, it's very important to me. You can't even see the ink anymore because it's been in my wallet for six years, but it's a reminder of a day I'll never forget.

This is a picture of me and my grandfather on my thirteen birthday. It's the last picture I have of him because he died five days later. This picture reminds me of who I used to be since after he died it seemed like everything started to change.









To go along with this activity, the Bureau of Land Management has a Pack Your Wagon lesson, and Edsitement has a cool lesson on imagining traveling the Oregon Trail.

Trade Fair

Every since I was given the idea using a trade fair to teach students about money I have desperately wanted to actually be able to do one. I truly believe that this lesson, like the Dragonfly Pond lesson, has the potential to authentically assess students on a myriad of skills. The trade fair that we had in our class was to demonstrate how trade would have worked in the past, I think that it could go far beyond that.

I wrote a lesson plan for third grade that gave students the opportunity to both trade the way fur traders did in the Midwest and then think about how that trade would be different if they had had actual money instead of just trading goods.

This is a great idea in my opinion, but I still think that the lesson can go farther. Teaching the barter system is one way to incorporate social studies, but another would be to have students dress up as different types of traders, from European settlers and Native Americans to Romans and even Mesopotamia. Whatever culture the students are exploring that has a barter system could be used in a trade fair similar to the one we had in class.

And instead of just trading items without any rules as to what each is worth, student could devise as system of trade, figuring out how much of one thing is worth how much of something else. If you introduce coin or paper money into the equation, that integrates many math standards across multiple grades. Having students write out receipts or persuasive signage brings in writing and language arts.

The History Channel has an excellent video on the fur trade to give students background, and Fair Trade Research Nation has many great ideas for different kinds of trade fairs to have in the classroom.

ISTEP Graders

My third grade class doesn't always have a lot of time to do art; however, when the students do have time to create anything, they go all out. I honestly have never seen students so invested in their work as this class is.

These are their pictures of the people they think might be grading their ISTEP tests.








This student has incredible artistic abilities. It is amazing to watch him draw anything; he focusses and knows exactly what his finished project is going to look like before his pencil draws a single line.

Some of the portraits were more realistic than others, but either way it was fascinating to see what the students thought the people who graded their tests might look like.

 

I also found it very cool to see each student's distinct artistic style. No two portraits look anything alike, which tells me that they've been given a lot of creative freedom in the past. No cookie-cutter art here!

For information about why art integration is so important, visit the Teaching Channel.

Multimedia Art

"Shield"

This celtic knot carving was my final art project and I'm very proud of the effort I put into it. I've always loved celtic symbols and very much wanted to learn more about them and their meanings.

I chose this knot design because it is a shield knot in celtic culture and I really liked the intricate pattern.

It is imperative that teachers celebrate the cultures of their students, and teach students about other cultures throughout the world. Although it's inadvisable to suggest using dangerous carving tools with young children, allowing students to have hands-on experiences with the art of other cultures is a great way to engage them in social studies lessons.

Civics and Community: Dragonfly Pond Activity

Civics was always a difficult concept for me to get a true grasp on as a child because it's not necessarily something that young children usually get to participate in or see first hand. Therefore, I was very happy to start the Dragonfly Pond activity in class.

This activity is so great in my opinion because of it's versatility. Building a community out of cardboard boxes and paper doesn't sound like much, but when taught the correct way can integrate so much more than just art.

To be honest, in class this activity meant very little to me because of the circumstances and confusion involved when we started it. However, once I took a good look at it and worked with it to create a short unit for my third grade class, it took on a whole new life. I'll be writing more about that unit later.

Our Dragonfly Pond Community

For more information on teaching civics, visit the National Constitution Center.

Pop Art

I have always loved pop art, mainly because of the bright colors and seemingly endless possibilities for subject matter. However, when I started researching pop art for my third project I realized just how versatile it could be.

My memories of pop art were mostly from a childhood being told about Andy Warhol and his soup cans (The Warhol has a great lesson on them), as well as a love for Roy Lichtenstein. However, I found that I enjoy the general idea behind pop art so much more than the limited view of it I'd received.

Pop art is actually much more inclusive that I first considered it to be. In creating pop art, an artist takes something commonplace, or something seen in popular culture and mass media, removes it from its context, and uses it to make a statement.

So it can be a can of Campbell's soup painted over and over, but it can also be Heath Ledger's Joker, Beyonce and Pepsi, President Obama, or Mr. Clean.

I think pop art is a great way to get students to think about the images they see around them, especially when they are taken out of context. It grabs people's attention because of its bright colors, but students can learn to look deeper and think critically about the world around them.

"Caskett"

This is my finished pop art project. At first glance, all of these images mean nothing to each other. However, they mean something very specific to me as a group; they represent different references to the tv show Castle, but only mean anything to someone who has an extensive knowledge of the show.

I really loved painting this piece and I now have a new perspective on an art form that I've always loved.