Category Archives: history

Visiting Grandma: ELA Lesson 1

This Common Core-aligned English/ Language Arts unit, combines ELA and indigenous history as your students follow in the footsteps of the grandchild on their visit to grandmother’s house.

In this first lesson, students receive a letter from grandmother.

📖Standard

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6
Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.1
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.2
Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.5.4
Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

⏰LESSON TIME

45 minutes

📲TECHNOLOGY REQUIRED

A device with a web-browser – PC, Mac or Chromebook – or phone or tablet

📃Summary

Students will be introduced to a 10-unit English/ Language Arts unit centered around a visit to their grandmother. In this first lesson, students receive and correct the grammar and spelling in their grandmother’s letter. The lesson ends with playing misspelled words and grammar sections of Making Camp Premium.

📚Lesson Plan

1. Introduce the Unit

This Google slides presentation introduces the unit. Students are given a letter to read and correct. The link to the letter is in the slides presentation, so you can open the presentation, read it to your students and then assign it on Google classroom. The presentation includes links to sound files to read the slides and letter to students to accommodate individual students. This presentation can be used in the classroom, in a web meeting or done individually by students at home.

1a. Assign reading letter and correcting errors

The letter is linked in the Google slide presentation. You can also find the link here.

The teacher answer key for the letter can be found here.

2. Play Making Camp Premium

Go to Making Camp Premium. Select WORDS and then go to the third screen.

Bottom left is misspelled words. Top right is grammar.

Play the game on the bottom left to practice spelling. The box on the top right will practice grammar. An example is shown below of a response after the student has answered correctly.

RELATED LESSON

The next lesson in this unit, letter to grandmother, focuses on organization in writing.

ASSESSMENT: Making Camp Premium Teacher Reports

You can view your students’ progress on mastering this standard by viewing your Making Camp Premium Teacher Reports. You can view the Making Camp Premium reports here.

State Standards

Missouri Learning Standards (MLS)

Writing 1C (5.W.1.C.a-b) – Apply a writing process to develop a text for audience and purpose.

-Revise/Edit – Reread, revise, and edit drafts with assistance to do a variety of tasks as stated in a-b.

Language 1A (5.L.1.A.a-e) – Communicate using conventions of the English language.

-Grammar – In speech and written form, apply standard English grammar for a variety of reasons as stated in L.1.A. a-e.

Speaking/Listening 1A (5.SL.1.A.a-d) – Listen for a purpose.

-Purpose – Develop and apply effective listening skills and strategies in formal and informal settings by following SL.1.A. a-d.

Making Camp – 10 minute history

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📖Standards

Minnesota History Substrand 2, Standard 3. Historical events have multiple causes and can lead to varied and unintended outcomes.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.4-Determine the unknown whole number in a multiplication or division equation relating three whole numbers.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.C.7– Fluently multiply and divide within 100

⏰Time

10 Minutes
These 10-minute lessons can be done as stand-alone activities at the beginning or end of a class to raise student engagement, or the three in this unit can be combined for a single 30-45 minute lesson.

📲Technology Required

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

📃Summary

Ojibwe History Integrated with Math + History = Making Camp

That’s Making Camp in a nutshell, um, equation. If your students are like most people, you’re having a hard time getting them to focus. That’s why we’ve created short lessons for you. Each of these only takes about 10 minutes, teaches Ojibwe (Native American) history , multiplication or division. You can do these at the beginning or end of class as a warm-up, as an assignment for those students who finish early.

As the game introduction says …. let’s get started on Making Camp.

📚Lesson Plan

1. Download or follow the link to get started on Making Camp!

The game can be downloaded for any Apple or Android phone or tablet. It can also be played online. The links you need will be in the game pages for your device. You will have received the password to access this page in the training you attended. To access the games for your device, click the appropriate link below. These pages are password protected, but the password you received will work on all three pages.

If you have forgotten your password, email growingmath@7generationgames.com, let us know the name of your school and mention in the email you forgot your password.

2. Students will need a username and password

We strongly recommend you assign the username and password rather than having students assign their own.

Watch the two introductory videos that explain about the Ojibwe migration and how to play the game. This will bring you to the choice screen.

Click on the NUMBERS option which will bring up the screen below.

MATCHING MULTIPLICATION

Click on the top left box (with cards) to play a memory game, matching multiplication problems with their answers.

The Multiplication Dog

This lesson opens with a paragraph explaining that some tribes used dogs to haul heavy loads, using a type of sled called a travois. The player then has the opportunity to earn a dog and items for their dog by answering multiplication problems.

Assessment

Remember that you can always see your students’ performance on the problems in Making Camp Premium by accessing the reports page. You will need to enter the password you received during training.

That’s it. That’s your ten minutes of learning social studies and multiplication. Next post in this series: Trade for a wigwam

State Standards

Minnesota Math Standard 3.2.2.2 – Use multiplication and division basic facts to represent a given problem situation using a number sentence. Use number sense and multiplication and division basic facts to find values for the unknowns that make the number sentences true.

Minnesota Math Standard 4.1.1.1 – Demonstrate fluency with multiplication and division facts.

Related: Making Camp – 10 minute history (Bilingual English & Spanish)

The lesson above has a companion lesson for English Learners. Making Camp – 10 minute history (Bilingual English & Spanish) is the same lesson from above but provides the resources in English and Spanish, featuring Making Camp Bilingual.

Trade for a Wigwam

1 Reply

📖Standard

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

10 Minutes

These 10-minute lessons can be done as stand-alone activities at the beginning or end of a class to raise student engagement, or the three in this unit can be combined for a single 30-45 minute lesson.

📲Technology Required

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

📃Summary

Today we are focused on the Ojibwe history part of Making Camp. As one of our very favorite middle school history teachers said,

History is more than names and dates. It’s how people lived, the things they used.
– Jose Gonzalez, Social Studies Teacher, Gompers Middle School, Los Angeles

Students will watch two brief videos, one on building a wigwam and one on trading between tribes. They then trade in the points they have earned for items for their wigwam. Clicking on each item gives information on how that item was used by the Ojibwe. If you did the previous ten-minute lesson, your students already have points. If not, they’ll need to earn some by playing Making Camp mini-games (just click on anyone of the choices on the main screen).

📚Lesson Plan

1. Click on the wigwam icon to watch two videos

Table of items to trade in wigwam with Making Camp Ojibwe

If you have been following along in order, the player now has enough points to get a wigwam and at least two items to supply their wigwam.

NOTE: If the player does not have at least 1 point to trade, the wigwam video will not play and instead, he/she will be told that at least one point is needed to trade for a wigwam.

If the player does not have at least 3 points to trade (1 for the wigwam, plus two more) after the wigwam building video, h/she will be told that at least two points are needed for trading.

The first time a player clicks on the wigwam icon the on the bottom left of the screen it will play a video on how a wigwam was built. This will be followed by a second video that briefly discusses that trading existed between and within tribes long before the settlers came. The player then has an option to trade points for items for the wigwam.

2. Click on the inside of the wigwam image in the bottom right corner to bring the player to the wigwam where items purchased can be moved to decorate or interact.

Clicking on an item will bring up a text box with information on how that item was used or obtained by the Ojibwe people.

Some items also perform actions when clicked. For example, the parfleche opens to show pemmican inside, the dog walks across the wigwam.

Go to the next lesson in this series, Rabbit Stew & Multiplication

10 Minute Mini-Lesson: Rabbit Stew & Multiplication

2 Replies

📖Standard Standards

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.4 – Determine the unknown whole number in a multiplication or division equation relating three whole numbers.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.C.7 – Fluently multiply and divide within 100

⏰ Time

10 Minutes

📲 Technology Required

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

📃 Summary

Students learn about what foods the Ojibwe people ate and how their diet changed when they were forced on to the reservation. They play a multiplication tic-tac-toe to snare rabbits and spend the points earned in the game to outfit their wigwam.

📚 Lesson

1. Watch a one-minute video on rabbit stew

Narrated by Deb Gourneau, of Turtle Mountain, this video explains the importance of rabbit stew in helping people survive when food was scarce.

2. Play Rabbit Tic-Tac-Toe in Making Camp Premium

Remember, clicking on the link with the boxes in the bottom left corner will always take you to the choices page.

Click on the box with the rabbit to play a tic-tac-toe game in Making Camp. Each correct multiplication problem snares a rabbit. Incorrect problems leave an empty snare.
When you win this game, there will be an arrow to go back to the numbers page.

3. Play a Matching Game to earn more points

Click on the box with the buffalo to match multiplication problems with their answers.

4. Learn what else was part of the Ojibwe diet

Now that you have 4 more points, go back to the wigwam and if you have not already traded for these, select the fish, deer hide or parfleche to see what else the Ojibwe would eat. Click on each of these items in your wigwam to learn more about it.

Assessment

Remember that you can always see your students’ performance on the problems in Making Camp Premium by accessing the reports page. You will need to enter the password you received during training.

State Standards

Minnesota Math Standard 4.1.1.1 – Demonstrate fluency with multiplication and division facts.

Minnesota History Substrand 2, Standard 3. Historical events have multiple causes and can lead to varied and unintended outcomes.