Thursday, October 13, 2011

Native American Studies Begins

This week has been filled with an introduction to the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains.  Currently numbering 92,000, the Sioux, also known as the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota tribes, once roamed what are now the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska and Southern Canada. We are studying current information about the tribes as well as information from the 1800-1850 time period.

As part of our study, students will begin conducting research on a particular aspect of the Sioux way of life: clothing, transportation, food, or housing. Students will compare this aspect of living to the Haudenosaunee and Hopi tribes past and present.

The 2D Kings and Queens painted a medicine wheel today.  The wheel represents the deep connection between health, the earth, and spirituality for the Sioux.  The students, ever the environmentalists, were excited to learn about the colors used in the wheel, but also that the lines that make a cross in the wheel represent the four cardinal directions on a map: North, South, East, and West.  This ties perfectly into our study of maps.  The students recently learned about the Compass Rose and the globe as a map.

Our study of nouns has been quite exciting this week.  We learned about PROPER and COMMON nouns: ask your 2D Queen or King how to tell the difference in their very proper voice!  We played Nouns Around the World and took on a team challenge to come up with the most nouns in all categories (person, place, thing, and idea) in 10 minutes...it was a close one!

Tomorrow we construct tipis and look forward to more noun madness with a categorizing game!

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