Native American Investigation (Visit)

The children will review the environment of the Canadian Northwest Territory and the American Southwest Territory. They will experience art from those two areas through a museum visit and slides. They will recognize that art is derived from indigenous materials and represent this through journal writings and illustrations.

A lesson plan for grade 1 Visual Arts Education, English Language Arts, Information Skills, and Social Studies

By amy yost

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Related topics

• Learn more about English language arts and social studies.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• review through discussion and use of chart from (Pre-Visit) the environment of the territories.
• visit the museum and view slides to experience art from the two cultures.
• then come back and represent their understanding of the use of environment in art through journal writing and illustrations.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

3 Days

Materials/resources

• Inuit Curriculum Kit containing slides and pictures (acquired from Ackland Art Museum)
• Chart Paper from Native American Investigation (Pre-vist) Lesson
• Student Journals
• Crayons/Markers/Pencils

Technology resources

Slide Projector and Screen

Pre-activities

A brief reminder of the rules and procedures for a field trip.

Activities

1. Review with the children the findings (on the chart paper from the Pre-Visit Lesson) on the environment of the American Southwest Territory and the Canadian Northwest Terrority.
2. Look at some pictures of the art of the two above areas. These may be found in the slides from the Ackland Art Museum. These slides and any others from books or Web sites may be used. Have the children to recall the elements of the given environments and see how the art can be found in those environments. Ask if there are similarities in the art and in the environments.
3. Go to the museum. The museum gallery teachers will meet with the children in a full group and discuss the way people may create art from beginning concept to finished product. The children will be reminded of their previous knowledge of other’s environments. The teachers will ask the children to go around the museum to find a piece that inspires them and imagine how the artist came about creating that piece while concentrating on their surroundings and how that influenced the pieces. The teacher will then ask the children to share verbally. The children will be broken down into groups and with a gallery teacher discuss in a small group setting a specific piece from one of the territories in the study.
4. Upon returning, have children complete the following sentence in their journals: “In the museum I most liked the .….” They should then create an illustration to go with their sentence.
5. The students will refocus on the topics discussed at the museum by looking again at books or pictures. Choosing one picture or sculpture from each territory, have the children illustrate the pieces and create a sentence to tell how the piece was inspired by the environment. “The ______ (surroundings, animals, or wildlife) inspired this piece.”
6. Have the children read their journals and discuss them with the fifth grade class. (The two classes are working together on the final lesson (Post-Visit) as well.)

Assessment

Check Journal for illustration appropriate to the museum you tour.

Check the journals for correct sentence completion and appropriate illustrations.

Supplemental information

This is the second lesson done of a three-lesson unit where we worked with the fifth grade of our school. The other two lessons are Native American Investigation (Pre-Visit) and (Post-Visit).

Related websites

http://www.ackland.org/index.php

Comments

After completion of this lesson I did have to make some changes I would like to explain. The trip to the Ackland Museum did not work out. We have 60 students to get there and we are a private catholic school so we have to hire out a bus service. No dates that we were available or the bus was available was the museum able to take us all. That can happen to you so I wanted to let you know that the slides and the websites were perfect for completing the lessons successfully. The children loved viewing the slides and the computer teacher allowed the children to search the web for information during computer class during the duration of this lesson. The journaling was a huge success. Their creativity was evident in their written descriptions of the objects. I would definitely do it all over again.