The teachers wanted to work together so that their classes, both of which were studying Native Americans, could share information and ideas. The fourth graders built models of Iroquois longhouses. Then the team introduced the students to the tipi dwellings of the Plains Indians by showing them pictures and making a model of a tipi in the classroom. To help the students connect more deeply with Native American color and pattern, the architects divided the children into groups and gave them a series of color swatches and a baseboard on which to play with different patterns and create a final design. Then, the team had the children form a medicine wheel in the classroom, using gradations of color swatches that each child chose. The teachers talked about the path of the sun and its significance for agriculture in relation to the medicine wheel. The children created pueblos for their final project out of kits that the architects designed. Each student created and illustrated a floorplan from this kit of parts, and used that as a base for their models. The children enjoyed the three-dimensional work. They used clay, crayons and collage to decorate their models. At the end of the project, the teachers took them to the school library to lay out a village composed of all their models.
Pueblo Village Enlargement: (83K)| Conference Room |
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