Author Archives: Christy Hanson

mushrooms

Fungi, mushrooms and ethnomycology

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📖STANDARDS

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.6-8.3 Follow precisely a multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks.

⏰LESSON TIME

75- 150 minutes – time may vary dependent on optional activities

📃SUMMARY

Vocabulary and historical events key to mycology are provided in a slide presentation. Students learn more about mycology through videos and activities, including mushroom dissection, crossword puzzle, word journal and actual or virtual collection of mushrooms. Academic vocabulary is at the 7th grade level. The lesson ends with a game and an optional virtual field trip to a mushroom farm.

📚Lesson

Presentation on Fungi and Indigenous Peoples Use of Mushrooms

Introduce vocabulary, mycology, and Indigenous cultures and histories of the usage of fungi with this slide presentation on fungi and Indigenous peoples use of mushrooms. The same presentation as a PowerPoint is found here.

Mushrooms on the Warm Springs reservation

VIDEO: Fungi Lesson for Kids & Crossword Puzzle

First, pass out this crossword puzzle. Let students know that the answers to the crossword are in this video. It’s a great way to get your students to pay close attention to the video and retain the information.

ANSWER KEY FOR CROSSWORD PUZZLE – I apologize for my poor handwriting.

Fungi Lesson for Kids (7:36) is a resource from the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History that introduces students to fungi structure, growth and variety.

Complete word journal with new vocabulary

Students add words or terms with which they are unfamiliar to their word journal. Some teachers call it a personal dictionary, to others it’s a word journal. Regardless, the goal is the same, for students to record new words, give a dictionary definition and “make the word their own”. This can be done by rewriting the definition in their own words, using the word in a sentence or including an illustration of the word.

Two dictionary sites to recommend for definitions are below. An added bonus to mention to students is that they can hear words pronounced.

Since students often ask for an example, here is an example you can link in your lesson. 

The personal dictionary assignment, with all links, can be found here. Feel free to copy and paste into your Google Classroom or other site, or print out for your class.

Be Naturalist: Dissect a mushroom

  • WATCH AND LEARN: Mushroom Dissection: Have students watch the mushroom dissection video from the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History as preparation for the mushroom dissection activity. (7:40) Inform students if they have not been able to solve the crossword puzzle, they may find the answers in this video.

Mycology Workbook

The instructions below can be copied and pasted in Google Classroom or other CMS.

  1. Students can choose between making a mycology journal out of construction paper, notebook paper, and drawing paper stapled together or an individual or collaborative digital mycology document using Google Docs.
  2. Find and identify at least 8 mushroom species.
    1. WALKING TOUR: If you live in an area known for mushroom fruiting and it’s fall or spring, there will be a good chance of mushrooms. Students can sketch mushrooms they find or take a picture of them with a phone or an iPad to include in Google Docs or print out and paste into their workbook.
    2. VIRTUAL TOUR: If you don’t have an area to walk to find mushrooms, search the internet for types of mushrooms you can include in your workbook. Here is a good place to start. https://www.mushroomcouncil.com/varieties/

Differentiated Instruction: Extra activities to make science fun.

Play Making Camp: Deer and Salmon

Students can play Making Camp: Deer and Salmon modules for 15 minutes. (Game will be available Fall, 2022). The following instructions can be copied into Google Classroom, pasted into a Zoom chat or given in class.

Visit the Games Portal for Kids and select this game

MAKING CAMP: DEER AND SALMON

Play through until you reach the LIFE tab and select the GATHERING tab. It is the one that matches the icon at right.

Optional: Virtual Field Trip to a Mushroom Farm

This virtual field trips is to R & R Cultivation (34 minutes) will teach students about the process of growing mushrooms. We bet at least one or two facts about mushroom farming will come as a big surprise. They will also discover many different types of mushrooms.

ASSESSMENT

This lesson includes five forms of assessment

  1. Crossword puzzle, matching words to definitions.
  2. Word journals are graded based on correct or incorrect definition. 
  3. Mycology workbooks are graded based on the number of species identified.
  4. Mushroom sketches based on dissection.
  5. Making Camp Deer & Salmon Reports (Coming Soon)

The Navajo-Churro: America’s First Domestic Sheep

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📖STANDARD

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2 Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

7th-8th Diné History Standards – I will understand historical/factual events, people and symbols that influence my family. Concept 1.PO2.  I will identify an event relating to important people in Diné history.

⏰LESSON TIME

90 minutes including time for research

📃SUMMARY

Vocabulary and historical events key to Navajo sheep farming are provided in a slide presentation. Students learn more about Navajo agriculture and history through a video, their own research, and a game combining math and history. Academic vocabulary is at the 7th grade level.

📚Lesson

Navajo-Churros: America’s First Domestic Sheep

Introduce sheep farming in Navajo and southwest history with this presentation, for an editable Google slides version, go here. The same presentation as a PowerPoint is found here. Students will learn vocabulary words related to general livestock farming and specifically to sheep.

VIDEO: Irene’s Churro Lambs

YouTube video: Irene’s Churro Lambs

Research and Writing Assignments

This assignment has two parts. In the first part, students research one of these events in history to learn more about it. They locate a primary source and a secondary source with citations, and then write an objective summary. In Part B, students select two research questions of interest, from a list provided, and conduct research to find the answers. A Google doc of the assignment can be found here.

Answer key for Part B can be found here.

Differentiated Instruction: Accommodations for learners with special needs

For the assignment above, for learners with special needs, you may wish to assign only one of the two parts. Generally, we would assign Part B, finding the answers to research questions. This is also a modification for students who are English language learners.

GAME: Making Camp Navajo LIFE Module 

Students can play the three Making Camp Navajo modules for 20 minutes. The following instructions can be copied into Google classroom, pasted into a Zoom chat or given in class.

Go to Making Camp Navajo https://www.7generationgames.com/making_camp_navajo

Play through until you reach the LIFE tab and play all of the activities you find there.

These are the three activities you will play

  • Lots of Lambs
  • The Many Uses of Sheep
  • Navajo Weaving 

ASSESSMENT

This lesson includes three forms of assessment

  1. Objective Summary of Research (written assignment)
  2. Research to answer questions on an event with primary/secondary sources
  3. Making Camp Navajo Gameplay

Making Camp Navajo – Student Activities completed can be seen in the Making Camp Navajo teacher reports

  1. Assessment in lamb care/lambing season. (True or False)
  2. Assessment in the Many Uses of Sheep for Navajo history. (Matching game)
  3. Students can screenshot a picture of their rug design, like below. 

Weaving in Navajo history and culture

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by Christy Hanson

📖 STANDARD:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.
Dine’ Content Standard for Grades 7-8 (Government) 4.PO.2 – I will identify changes in customs and goods.
Dine’ Content Standard for Grades 7-8 (Culture) 1.PO.2 – I will show responsibility by knowing the stories related to my belongings.

⏰ Time

30 minutes

📲 Technology required

This lesson requires a Chromebook, PC or Mac computer with an Internet connection.

📃 Summary

Students watch a video by Albert Brent Chase, a longtime Navajo culture educator. Next, students read a passage on sheep resources and rug weaving in Navajo history. The video, How It’s Made: Navajo Rugs is also provided in this lesson. Students end the lesson playing Making Camp Navajo and designing their own rugs.

📚 Lesson

Set up the lesson by watching a video

Arizona lands rug, by Albert Chase

In this five-minute video, Navajo weaver Albert Chase gives an overview of creating a pictorial rug with Germantown yarn.

Read a passage on sheep resources after the Navajo Long Walk

The article , Post-Long Walk Sheep Resources and Rug Weaving , can be added to your own Google drive and assigned to students. It can be printed out or students can complete on their computers.

Complete two vocabulary assignments

Students provide definitions of vocabulary words based only on the context clues from the reading assignment. Next, they look up the definition of each word in the dictionary and compare their original definitions with those in the dictionary.

The ANSWER KEY for questions assigned on the reading can be found here.

Optional (but highly recommended) video on how Navajo rugs are made

This five-minute video covers every aspect of rug-making from creating yarn from raw wool to creating different colors of dye to weaving on a loom.

Make their own rugs in the Making Camp Navajo game

This game teaches more information about Navajo weaving and allows the students to weave their own virtual rugs. Instructions are below and can also be found in this Google doc that can be added to your Google classroom.

Instructions for students:

  1. Go to the Games Portal for Kids here https://www.growingmath.org/games-portal-for-kids/
  2. Scroll down and select Making Camp Navajo
  3. Go to the page that gives choices of numbers, life or random. Pick LIFE. (If this is your first time playing the game, you will have to play through the introduction to get to this page.
  4. Select the middle picture, the one with the woman weaving, to learn more about Navajo weaving and make your own rugs.
Earn page with choices of Numbers, life and random

Assessment

This lesson plan is assessed through the student assignments for vocabulary definitions. The student completion of the rug-making assignment can be documented by screenshots of their rugs. Students design a digital rug design in the Rug Design Tool and share the results with the class. The teacher can then post them in an online gallery for everyone to see.

Raising Sheep and Rational Numbers

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📖 Standards

Dine’ Culture Standards (3.PO2) I will develop an understanding of Dine’ way of life through Iina’. I will implement and recognize the Dine’ lifestyle. I will present the stories related to Land and Water Beings.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.EE.B.3 Solve multi-step real-life and mathematical problems posed with positive and negative rational numbers in any form (whole numbers, fractions, and decimals)

⏰ Time

45 minutes

📲 Technology Required

Device with web-browser – Chromebook, laptop or desktop computer, phone or tablet

📃 Summary

Why would a Navajo sheep farmer need rational numbers? Our sheep farmer wants to build a new sheep corral. He would need to know positive and negative numbers, fractions, and decimals. This middle school lesson on rational numbers is integrated with some Navajo sheep history and is for grades 7 to 8. The examples are detailed and include word problems of rational numbers as applied to finding sheep farming profits. Operation rules are covered along with application of ratio and perimeter skills.

📚 Lesson

1. Bell ringer: Navajo Sheepherding Life

Have students watch this short spotlight video of Navajo sheepherding life in Arizona.

2. Write answers to prompts

Write a short response to it to keep in their notes for discussion during the history parts of the lesson.

  • What do you notice about the northern Arizona terrain?
  • What do traditional Navajos think of land ownership?
  • How does the grandmother, Helen, care for her animals?

3. Math Lesson on Rational Numbers

This presentation, Raising sheep and rational numbers, introduces the concept of rational numbers as anything that can be explained as a ratio. Negative numbers are illustrated both as loans a sheep farmer would take out and depth of holes in the ground that the farmer needs to consider in selecting the size of posts. Students are given rules of integer addition and subtraction to use as an aid in solving problems.

4. Play Game

Play Making Camp Navajo – Sheep Herding and Rational numbers.

Select the game with this icon

Differentiated Instruction

For students who may need a review of the basics, this video on What are Rational provides a good and entertaining refresher.

Related Lessons

Adding and subtracting decimals — Students watch two videos explaining decimal and fraction equivalence. They are then presented with a brief reminder of natural, integer and rational numbers. A slide presentation discusses adding and subtracting decimals. The lesson ends with teacher and student-generated practice problems.

Assessment

There are five problems within the presentation to be worked as a class. Teachers can present the question and have students write the answers and then present the answers. Alternatively, for students working at home, each slide with questions is followed by worked answers.

Teachers can also see which standards students have attempted and how many problems they have answered correctly in the Making Camp teacher reports.

Ojibwe Clans and Migration

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📖STANDARDS

NCSS theme – The study of people, places, and environments enables us to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world. 

Minnesota State Standard – History Sub-strand 4, Standard 15 “North America was populated by indigenous nations that had developed a wide range of social structures, political systems, and economic activities, and whose expansive trade networks extended across the continent.”

⏰ Time

40 minutes

📲 Technology needed

Internet connection on a PC or Chromebook laptop, tablet, or phone.

📃 Summary

This Ojibwe clan lesson for Grade 3 is focused on Ojibwe culture. Students learn where people and places are located and why they are there. They will become familiar with the causes, patterns and effects of Ojibwe settlement and migration. They will learn of the different population centers in Ojibwe society and investigate the impact of human activities on the environment. 

📚 Lesson

The downloadable Google Slides presentation is available here. This has a digestible summary of the Ojibwe migration, and why and how it happened. The Ojibwe clans are introduced as well as the new lifestyles that the Ojibwe adopted after they migrated to the Great Lakes area and Ontario, Canada.

Game

Making Camp Premium can reinforce clans and culture studies using the Life section.

  1. Select the LIFE button from the main choice screen.
  2. From the LIFE choices, click on the box in the middle of the bottom row, the one with the four people, and watch the video about Ojibwe social structure. Answer the questions that follow the video. 
  3. Next, select the box on the bottom right. Watch the overview video on clans and totems. Answer the questions.
  4. Students can also click on each individual clan totem icon to learn more about each Ojibwe clan and answer a question about each of them to earn points.
  5. Return to the wigwam and trade with the points earned in this lesson.
Choices page for Ojibwe history in Making Camp

Alternatively, students may also play Forgotten Trail, which is an adventure game that homes in on the Ojibwe migration. Two kids in the game retrace the Ojibwe migration on their own and learn more about Ojibwe history along the way.

Assessment

Teachers will be able to view student reports for Making Camp Premium to view how many modules students completed in the LIFE section and their scores for each one.

Related Lesson

“Ojibwe Clans and Migration (Bilingual English & Spanish)” – The Bilingual version of the lesson plan above featuring Making Camp Bilingual.

Animal Idioms

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📖Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.5.B Recognize and explain the meaning of common idioms, adages, and proverbs.

⏰ Time Required

45 minutes

📲 Technology Required

Students must have access to laptops, desktop computers, or tablets with an internet connection if they are playing Making Camp Premium in a web browser. Teachers need a projector with a laptop to present the slideshow.

📃 Summary

This idioms lesson for Grades 3-4 begins with a presentation, popular song about idioms, a list of animal idioms, two video games, and an idioms matching activity. Also enclosed is a book list for Grades 1-4 about idioms.

Note: This lesson can include the Idioms Book Activity (which needs paper, coloring tools, and some preparation time for booklet assembly).

📚 Lesson

It’s a piece of cake
  1. The lesson slideshow, Animal Idioms, begins with a song video about idioms and then a short warm-up using three idioms. The answers to the warm-up are provided. Students will gain more understanding of how some idioms can have the same meaning.
  2. Match the Idioms: Students can work together in groups, pairs, or individually for the Match the Idioms formative assessment activity with manipulatives. The answer key for the two sets (20 in all) is provided here. Distribute a copy of the Slides file and review the answers with them later, using the answer key.
  3. Use idioms in a creative writing activity: If you are remote or in class, students can pick some animal idioms from the Match the Idioms answer key to use in sentences, a short story, or a poem using their chosen idioms.

Assessment

  1. Students can choose their favorite idioms to illustrate in their Idiom Book, which they can make themselves, for assessment. This activity is great for in-class activity as the materials are easily accessible, but can be done remotely as well.
  2. For formative/summative assessment, have students play Making Camp Premium idioms mini games so their game progress will be recorded and accessed from your teacher reports dashboard.

Game

Students will play the Words section of the Making Camp Premium from our selection of Growing Math games. The Words section features four minigames that focus only on idioms. If they are remote, students may use their phone or tablet app or play using the web browser game link on a desktop computer. You will be able to monitor the student answers from your teacher reports account. This will also inform you if the students have participated in practicing using the video games.

Enclosed in the slides is another link to a web browser game about idioms offered from a standards-aligned website. You won’t be able to monitor the students on it, but it can be used as another potential resource for idioms practice.

Primary and Secondary Sources with Buffalo Hunting

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📖Standards

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.

⏰ Lesson Time

40-60 minutes

📲Technology

If you would like to incorporate the game, students will need access to computers with Spirit Lake installed on them.

In class: If you are teaching in person, you will need a laptop and projector for your slideshow presentation. If you want to include Spirit Lake gameplay, your students will need access to Mac or Windows computers that have Spirit Lake installed, along with their assigned usernames and passwords. Alternatively, Making Camp Dakota can be played on any device.

Remote: Students need internet connections to see your presentation, watch the videos, and view and enter answers on their worksheets.

📃 Summary

Discover why primary sources are important with a story about Dakota buffalo hunting. Have your students watch the following two videos back to back within the downloadable slideshow. These two videos together are great resources for a lesson on the value of primary sources. Included are questions for discussion and critical thinking. Students can do a primary sources scavenger hunt at the Library of Congress (LOC) website. Included in the slides are two curated museum videos about American bison.

Example usable to teach with primary sources: Black and white video of galloping buffalo

📚 Lesson

Present the lesson Buffalo Hunting – Primary and Secondary Sources. The slideshow comes with several examples of primary and secondary sources from the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian museum, and YouTube.

Videos with Primary and Secondary Sources

Two videos about the Dakota buffalo hunters are presented within the presentation for your students to compare and contrast. The first video contains primary sources, and the second is an interpretation of the narration using animation as a secondary source.

If you want to go directly to the two videos included in the Google slides presentation, these are linked below.

Video with Primary Sources
Video with Secondary Sources

Questions included within the Google Slides presentation

These can be discussed together in class or assigned to students to answer individually.

  1. Reflect: Which video did you like better? What did you like about it?
  2. Compare and Contrast: Was there any information you could get from the first video that you did not see in the second?
  3. Explain: Do you think both videos are equally accurate?
  4. Analyze: The first video used photos and paintings. The second video used animation to help tell the story. Both were made about the buffalo hunt. Which source did you think was more trustworthy? Why?
  5. Synthesize: Imagine if you could add some more facts to the video using primary and secondary sources. List one primary source you would add. List one secondary source.

Differentiated Instruction

Note: For differentiated instruction, you can have students select one or two of the questions to answer. In more advanced classes, you may wish to discuss how the oil painters could be biased in their representation of their subjects, and how even photos could be biased in the subjects photographers chose to capture.

Virtual Scavenger Hunt

  1. Review the copy and paste functions with your students as learning a key introductory component of online research using the LOC. Enclosed are instructions for students to help walk your students through.
  2. Have students research primary sources at the LOC website. Click the following link for downloadable graphic organizers to distribute to your class. One answer model has been filled out. Students will copy and paste URLs for six primary sources from the LOC site and label three of them.

Game

Spirit Lake is an adventure game with multiplication, division, and geometry practice that plays on Mac or Windows computers. This is tied in with Dakota culture and history. You can have your students play for 20-30 minutes, hunt rabid wolves, and hunt buffalo. Look out for primary and secondary sources!

Don’t have a Mac or Windows computer? Making Camp Dakota can be played on the web and also includes content with buffalo hunting, as well as examples of primary and secondary sources.

Assessment

To check their data, you need your Spirit Lake teacher data reports username and password and your students’ usernames and passwords roster added to your account for Spirit Lake.

Related Lesson

Primary and secondary sources

Primary and Secondary Sources

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📖Standards

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.

⏰ Time Required

40 minutes

📲Technology Required

Students must have access to laptops, desktop computers, or tablets with an internet connection. Students also need a camera for taking pictures of their primary and secondary sources to email to the teachers.

📃 Summary

This history lesson for Grades 5-6 introduces primary and secondary sources as it relates to history.

This 40-minute lesson begins with a 7-10 minute presentation on sources with some formative assessment using manipulatives. Students can learn about secondary sources through the telephone game presentation. Students then delve into two different types of sources: primary and secondary sources. Students can do a KidCitizen online module about Primary Sources. The lesson provides a summative assessment activity where students generate two primary sources and one secondary source about an event in their lives.

📚 Lesson

Introduce the Lesson
The lesson slideshow, Primary and Secondary Sources, begins with the telephone game. Students will gain more understanding of why sources are important to keep track of.

Critical Thinking

Students think, “Why are sources important for studying history?” Question words are included in the slides: “Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?”

KidCitizen Module

The link for the Primary Sources interactive module is included in the slideshow. Students undergo a self-paced but short online module to understand primary sources. Also, you can click here to explore the module and copy the URL.

Assessment

This activity, which does incorporate writing, is included in the slideshow, but is also written below. Just copy and paste the text into your Google classroom or other LMS.

You are living history! Tell the class about an event that happened in your life using primary and secondary sources. You may change the number of sources they submit to you.

  1. THINK: What resources do you need?
  2. SELECT two primary sources in your home about yourself and one secondary source. Label your sources as Primary Source and Secondary Source. 
  3. Take a picture of your two primary sources and of your secondary source. Email it to your teacher. 
  4. Write a paragraph about your historical life event in your own words using your sources as proof of what happened.

Medicine Ways

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📖Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.9
Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

⏰ Time Required

40 minutes

📲Technology Required

Students must have laptops, desktop computers, or tablets with an internet connection. Make time to transition from doing a slides presentation to having students log into Making Camp Premium.

📃 Summary

This social studies lesson for Grades 3-5 explores the history and application of plants as both medicine and food in the every day lives of indigenous people of North America.

This 40-minute lesson begins with a 20-minute presentation on how indigenous people used plants for medicine and a plant-based diet to insure their health. It ends with 20 minutes of gameplay in Making Camp Premium to help reinforce how plants were used by the Ojibwe, indigenous people living on the Great Plains. Here’s an overview of the bite-sized minigame you can use to reinforce this slideshow lesson.

  • Making Camp Premium’s wild rice game features a two-minute long passage that is read aloud. and then playing a mini survival game. Players collect wild rice in a canoe. They must avoid a hungry, pursuant bear and hazardous logs.

📚 Lesson

Introduce the Lesson
In the Medicine Ways Google Slides presentation, students learn a brief history of Native American herb gathering and how indigenous people are pursuing health and wellness with plants. This presentation uses an example of a diet called the Waianae Diet, which is an indigenous diet used in Native Hawaiian cultural diet revitalization.

Personal Dictionary
The Vocabulary List is available with five vocabulary words from the presentation. Students have the extra option to add these words to a personal dictionary. Here are directions for making a Personal Dictionary, and here is a finished example for you.

2. Students will play Making Camp Premium for 15-20 minutes.

Games

Play Making Camp Premium.

In Making Camp Premium, click the icon called LIFE, and then find the icon that has a brown wild rice plant. Students will listen to the audio being read with highlighted paragraphs. They won’t be able to skip ahead or skip the passage.

Engage in an Ojibwe tribal activity mini-game. Students learn about some of the historical challenges of collecting herbs in the wilderness in the passage and the mini-game. There was a good degree of risk-taking involved in subsistence gathering.

Assessment

  • This lesson has a section of formative assessment in the form of manipulatives for classifying junk food and healthy food.
  • Students have the option to make a Personal Dictionary.
  • The wild rice minigame is a gamified learning segment about history and culture.

Related Lesson

See the social studies lesson, Cattails, for Grades 3-5 for an in-depth look at this all-around useful herb that boosts survival in the harsh wilderness, and is still being used today, with new applications as biofuel and pollution clean-up.

Cattails

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📖Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.4.4.A Read grade-level text with purpose and understanding.

📃Summary

Students will listen to or read a slide presentation. They will read an informational passage on cattails, write a summary and add new vocabulary words to their personal dictionary. The lesson ends with playing a game that teaches how medicinal herbs were used by indigenous people.

⏰Lesson Time

40 min

📲Technology Required

📚Lesson

Introduce the lesson

Use this Google slides presentation to introduce the lesson and provide some information on traditional and modern uses for cattails. It also discusses the use of plants by Native Americans and in games.

Personal Dictionary/ Word Journal

Students read the seven new vocabulary words introduced, with definitions. They then add these seven words to their personal dictionary.

If this is the first time your students have had a personal dictionary assignment, they can read What is a personal dictionary? in this Google Doc. This link is also within the assignment.

Reading Activity

Students read the passage, How Native Americans Used Cattails.

Writing Activities

Students complete an assignment given at the end of the informational passage they have just read.

Game

Play Making Camp Dakota: Past and Present. After logging in, select LIFE.

Select the LIFE button

From the LIFE section, select the icon with the pink and yellow flowers (the first icon in the bottom row). This will play a short video on use of herbs in traditional indigenous cultures in the upper Midwest.

Select the icon with the pink flowers

After watching the video, students complete an activity where they match the herb with its use.

OR

Have students play either Spirit Lake: The Game, available for Mac or Windows.

Spirit Lake: The Game is available for Windows and Mac computers

In the Spirit Lake game, students learn that the purple cone flower was used for medicine and use multiplication to compute the number to bring back from the woods in the virtual world.

Assessment

Students produce written assignments assessing vocabulary and reading comprehension. Data reports on students’ performance on math problems and progress in the game for Spirit Lake can be accessed at growingmath.org with your password.