In the spirit of... (museum pre-visit)

This is an integrated unit that focuses on masks in cultures as reflections of individual spirits. In this pre-visit lesson, students will explore the cultures of the Western Hemisphere.

A lesson plan for grades 5–6 Visual Arts Education and Social Studies

By Shannon Kelly

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Related pages

• Native American music: Two North Carolina tribes: In this lesson plan, students will listen to songs from two North Carolina tribes. Students will learn about the music through listening, analyzing, singing, moving, and playing instruments.
• Museum of the Cherokee Indian: Official site of the museum of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina.
• North Carolina Cherokee Indians: The Trail of Tears: In this two week unit, students will study the Cherokee by participating in literature circles, learning about Native American story telling, writing a letter to Andrew Jackson to protest against the Creek War, and more.

Related topics

• Learn more about American Indians, United States, anthropology, arts, culture, history, pottery, and social studies.

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Learning outcomes

The student will examine geography, belief systems, art forms, and aesthetic values of peoples in the Western Hemisphere.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1 week

Materials/resources

• Maps
• Media Center
• Seven 10/12-inch terra cotta pots
• Permanent markers
• Small paint brushes
• Assortment of acrylic paints
• Plastic utensils for digging
• Rubber mallet
• Index cards for labelling dig sites
• Outside planting area or cardboard boxes with sand or cardboard boxes with packing peanuts for burying the archaeological treasures

Technology resources

• Computers with Internet access
• Digital camera

Pre-activities

• Students should understand the definition of culture and relate it to their own families. Each student can create a totem pole that represents their family’s culture (similar to that of a family tree).
• Students need to discuss and understand the use of masks in different cultures.
• Students should research the four categories of masks (ceremonial, theatrical, burial/death, festival) and be able to articulate their functions in those cultures.

Activities

1. Divide the class into Northwest Pacific Coast Indians, Hopi, Cherokee, Iroquois, Maya, Aztec, and Inca groups.
2. Using research information about the cultures, each group will decorate its terra cotta pot with symbols and colors appropriate to the group’s researched cultures.
3. Introduce the “breaking” ceremony where terra cotta pots are carefully broken to create shards as in a puzzle. Pots can be gently tapped with a rubber mallet or rolled and tapped on the floor for this purpose. Ensure that the shards are relatively large; small pieces will be difficult to fit together for the investigation.
4. Use a soft, waxy substance, like the “stuff” you can buy at candle shops to firmly attach candles in holders, (the product is called “candle wax adapters”), to coat the broken edges of each shard.
5. Each group will then bury the shards of its pot in the designated area. The teacher will assign groups to the archaelogical dig sites which may be labelled A,B,C,D, E, F, and G.
6. When each group locates all shards using careful digging procedures, the shards can be put together to form the pot, just like a 3-D puzzle!
7. Groups will observe and analyze the artifacts based on research to determine their cultural identity.
8. Present findings and artifact to class.

Assessment

Once the “artifact” has been dug up and put back together, the groups will have to determine which culture/society the pot is from using their research information. The group must explain how they came to their decision based on the colors and symbols used to decorate the pot. The teacher will determine through observation of activity and presentation whether the students effectively completed the task.

Supplemental information

Teachers can use the digital camera to record the process of decorating pots, breaking pots, and burying pots and the archaelogical dig, as well as the completed presentations.

We have attached a PowerPoint presentation on masks from different museums and websites that can be used as a supplemental resource or for those teachers/students who do not have access to a museum. In addition to the PowerPoint, we have provided a worksheet to go along with researching students’ cultural identities.

Attachments:

• Spirit Mask PowerPoint
• What Is Your Cultural Identity?

Comments

Please see In the Spirit Of… (museum visit) and In the spirit of… (museum post-visit) for complete lessons in the unit.

This lesson plan was created in a LEARN NC workshop held in Chapel Hill. This workshop was funded by the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics for the purpose of giving teachers the time, energy, and resources to create lesson plans. Using the Ackland Museum in Chapel Hill was an inspiration for helping us to incorporate the elements of arts education into our series of lessons.