Elementary Lesson Plan

Subject Area(s): Cross-Curricular Therapeutic Academics Lesson Plan

Grade Range: K-3

Purpose:
To create awareness of animal totems and totem poles importance to Native Americans, to create a link between the student and recognition of the Native culture. To further understand one's own behaviors, goals, and characteristics.

Description:
Students will visit web sites related to animals, animal totems and totem poles.
Students will create personal totems that reflect their power animal.
Students will write a cinquain poem about their power totem.

Prerequisite skills:
Basic computer skills. Fine motor skills.

Teacher's Notes:

The Power Totem is our primary animal spirit that walks, flies or swims beside us as constant companion, guide, protector, teacher, or soul brother/sister. Similarly, the Power Totem is that Animal Spirit which is most closely related (of spirit) to us, and thus will reincarnate with us again and again, and from lifetime to lifetime, as it is our constant ally. The Power Totem is a reflection of our own Soul, and likewise represents our Life Path and the major lessons, attributes and abilities of our individual and eternal spark.

• excerpted from " Life Paths, Power Totem, Animal Totems & Earth Medicine" http://wolfs_moon.tripod.com/powertotrole.html

Activities/Tasks:

• As a whole class or small groups discuss characteristics of people, themselves, the class etc:
  • How are the life and deeds of a person remembered in our society? (trophies, plaques, books, movies)
  • What kinds of qualities are remembered? (good ones)
  • When people die, how are they memorialized? (tombstone, eulogy, funeral, wake, mourning period)

• Discuss the characteristics of "Animal Spirits"

• Have the students explore the following website "My Power Totem Animals" and have them find their "power totem". (This site contains great line drawings of animals that have extensive information about habitat, size, characteristics, etc that the students can print out and color for other assignments.)

• Once they have found their "Power Totem" the students will write a "Cinquain" poem that describes this power animal. (This can be done through handwriting or by developing a template in Inspiration, StoryBook Weaver, or any publishing software.) These can be printed and/or saved to create class displays, web pages, slideshows.

• The students will then create a family or "clan" "totem pole" that represents the class or groups within the classroom.

Tools and Resources necessary

• Websites listed below, access to computers with graphical software, Internet access, printer(s).
  
  • The Totem Project
    http://st.aemilian.tripod.com/projects/totems/index.html
    http://st.aemilian.tripod.com/projects/totems/elem/cinquain.html
    http://st.aemilian.tripod.com/projects/totems/elem/totempole.html

  • Individual pictures of totems:
    http://www.sfu.ca/archaeology/museum/bc/totem/tnail.htm
    http://www.pacific101.com/woodage/
    http://www.totemlodge.com/
    http://www.akpics.com/avp_glto.htm (requires Java capable browser)
    http://www.bcbooks.com/totem2.html

  • Other artworks:
    http://www.northwest-coast-art.com/htm/fsp_obj.htm

Assessment:

Teacher and/or peer and/or self evaluation. Students may want to participate in creating a rubric from which to create and evaluate this project with. For instance, how many stamps, length of description, neatness, different facets of family and personality.

Click Here for Examples

English Language Arts:

• Reading/Literature:
  
  • A.4.4 Read to acquire information

• Writing:
  
  • B.4.1 Create or produce writing to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes

• Oral Language:
  
  • C.4.1 Orally communicate information, opinions, and ideas effectively to different audiences for a variety of purposes.
    
  • C.4.2 Listen to and comprehend oral communications.
    
  • C.4.3 Participate effectively in discussion

• Media and Technology:
  
  • E.4.1 Use computers to acquire, organize, analyze, and communicate information.
  • E.4.2 Make informed judgments about media and products
    
  • E.4.3 Create media products appropriate to audience and purpose.

• Research & Inquiry::
  
  • F.4.1 Conduct research and inquiry on self-selected or assigned topics, issues, or problems and use an appropriate form to communicate their findings.

Mathematics:

• Mathematical Processes:
  
  • A.4.1 Use reasoning abilities
    
  • A.4.2 Communicate mathematical ideas in a variety of ways, including words, numbers, symbols, pictures, charts, graphs, tables, diagrams, and models

• Geometry:
  
  • C.4.1 Describe two-and three-dimensional figures (e.g., circles, polygons, trapezoids, prisms, spheres)
    
  • C.4.2 Use physical materials and motion geometry (such as slides, flips, and turns) to identify properties and relationships
    
  • C.4.3 Identify and use relationships among figures

• Measurement:
  
  • D.4.1 Recognize and describe measurable attributes*, such as length, liquid capacity, time, weight (mass), temperature, volume, monetary value, and angle size, and identify the appropriate units to measure them
    
  • D.4.2 Demonstrate understanding of basic facts, principles, and techniques of measurement, including
    
  • D.4.3 Read and interpret measuring instruments (e.g., rulers, clocks, thermometers)
    
  • D.4.5 Determine measurements by using basic relationships (such as perimeter and area) and approximate measurements by using estimation techniques

Social Studies:

• History: Time, Continuity, and Change
  
  • B.4.1 Identify and examine various sources of information that are used for constructing an understanding of the past, such as artifacts, documents, letters, diaries, maps, textbooks, photos, paintings, architecture, oral presentations, graphs, and charts
    
  • B.4.3 Examine biographies, stories, narratives, and folk tales to understand the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people, place them in time and context, and explain their relationship to important historical events
    
  • B.4.4 Compare and contrast changes in contemporary life with life in the past by looking at social, economic, political, and cultural roles played by individuals and groups
    
  • B.4.7 Identify and describe important events and famous people in Wisconsin and United States history
    
  • B.4.9 Describe examples of cooperation and interdependence among individuals, groups, and nations
    
  • B.4.10 Explain the history, culture, tribal sovereignty, and current status of the American Indian tribes and bands in Wisconsin

• Behavioral Sciences: Individuals, Institutions, and Society:
  
  • E.4.1 Explain the influence of prior knowledge, motivation, capabilities, personal interests, and other factors on individual learning
    
  • E.4.2 Explain the influence of factors such as family, neighborhood, personal interests, language, likes and dislikes, and accomplishments on individual identity and development
    
  • E.4.3 Describe how families are alike and different, comparing characteristics such as size, hobbies, celebrations, where families live, and how they make a living
    
  • E.4.4 Describe the ways in which ethnic cultures influence the daily lives of people

Information and Technology Literacy:

• Media and Technology:
  
  • A.4.1 Use common media and technology terminology and equipment
    
  • A.4.2 Identify and use common media formats
    
  • A.4.5 Use Media and Technology to Create and Present Information
    
  • A.4.6 Evaluate the Use of media and technology in a production or presentation

• The Learning Community:
  
  • D.4.1 Participate Productively in workgroups or other collaborative learning environments

Art and Design Education:

• Visual Communication and Expression:
  
  • E.4.2 Communicate complex ideas by producing design art forms, such as graphic design, product design, architecture, landscape, and media arts, such as film, photography, and multimedia
    
  • E.4.5 Use the visual arts to express ideas that can't be expressed by words alone