LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

In the Spirit of...(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 grade 5 English Language Arts and Social Studies

By Shannon Kelly

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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:

Related websites

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History Web site has wonderful information about American Indians!
http://www.clpgh.org/cmnh/exhibits/north-south-east-west/

Chicano/LatinoNet
http://clnet.ucr.edu/MUSEUM.HTML

This site has fabulous poetry from a Cherokee poet!
http://joyce.eng.yale.edu/~joant/Cherokee.html

The Maya Adventure Web site has some neat activities you can do with your science classes.
http://www.smm.org/sln/ma/index.html

Town Creek Indian Mound Historic Site in North Carolina - “A Native American Legacy”
http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/town/town.htm

The Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte has in their collections, “Arts of Ancient America.” It also has “D.I.G.S.,” an investigation of ancient cultures for fifth graders.
http://www.mintmuseum.org

Comments

Please see “In the Spirit Of…(Museum Visit)” and “In the Spirit Of…(post-visit)” for complete lessons in the unit. These lessons can be found in the LEARN NC Lesson Plan Database.
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.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Social Studies (2003)

Grade 5

  • Goal 1: The learner will apply key geographic concepts to the United States and other countries of North America.
    • Objective 1.01: Describe the absolute and relative location of major landforms, bodies of water,and natural resources in the United States and other countries of North America.
    • Objective 1.02: Analyze how absolute and relative location influence ways of living in the United States and other countries of North America.
  • Goal 3: The learner will examine the roles various ethnic groups have played in the development of the United States and its neighboring countries.
    • Objective 3.01: Locate and describe people of diverse ethnic and religious cultures, past and present, in the United States.
    • Objective 3.02: Examine how changes in the movement of people, goods, and ideas have affected ways of living in the United States.

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 5

  • Goal 3: The learner will make connections through the use of oral language, written language, and media and technology.
    • Objective 3.06: Conduct research (with assistance) from a variety of sources for assigned or self-selected projects (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people, libraries, databases, computer networks).
  • Goal 5: The learner will apply grammar and language conventions to communicate effectively.
    • Objective 5.04: Determine the impact of word choice on written and spoken language.