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Plum Stone Dice Game
Students read about a Native American dice game online. They make replica games, and practice playing with them. They predict the outcome of the dice rolls by completing a dice throw chart.
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Pottery-making Methods
Students become experimental archaeologists using three methods of pottery making before the invention of the pottery wheel.
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Prehistoric Native American Lesson Plan: Make a Mississippian-style Gorget
Students create a Mississippian-style gorget using clay and a stylus to etch a design of a stylized spider.
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TORNADOES!
Third graders compare the parts of a real tornado with the parts of a tornado created in a demonstration, label "Tornado Alley" on their maps, and label the locations of famous tornado disasters on their maps.
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Activity: Polymer Clay Millefiori Cane Beads
Students show an understanding of how millefiori beads are constructed by making some in several styles in polymer clay. They view images and techniques on a website imbedded in this plan and then attempt to make their own.
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Weaving with Seed Beads on a Bead Loom
Students describe, and try, the process of weaving and demonstrate how Native Americans and others wove beads on a loom to create long, narrow bands for hair and bracelets.
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Ojibwa Sewn Bead Designs
Students recognize and describe the sewn beading style of the Ojibwa tribe that was influenced by seventeenth-century French floral embroidery and fabric prints imported by the French traders. They adapt and recreate an Ojibwa bead motif.
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Natural Dyes From Plants
Students investigate how natural dyes from plants was an expression of Native American cultures. They examine objects dyed from natural sources, conduct Internet research, and create their own dyes using various plant sources.
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Drawing Plants with Plant Studio Freeware
Students identify parts of plants by name and the relationship among these parts as they use Plant Studio Freeware Wizard and tools on the computer to draw a particular plant from life or from a picture.
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Frank Sadorus Collection: Photographic Family Tree Activity
Young scholars collect and place photographs of their parents, grandparents, etc., in a family tree-like chart or positioned by generation. They find out more about the occupations and lives of their ancestors.
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Depression Era Art: The Federal Arts Project
Students research Depression-era art and WPA arts programs. They discuss the purposes of representational art, list topics that would make good representational art today, and produce a work of art representing a current theme.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Section Four: How Can We Protect Biodiversity?
Look into the future with a lesson plan on biodiversity and natural habitats. Learners read articles about different perspectives when it comes to planning future development, and decide which angle is the highest priority in a...
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Concealed Handguns
Should adults be allowed to carry concealed handguns? Pupils use the website to research the topic thoroughly and weigh the pros and cons. They read background information on gun control and learn about the main arguments surrounding the...
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Buffon's Needle An Analysis and Simulation
If you dropped a needle on a lined sheet of paper what is the probability that the needle will cross one of the lines on the page? Surprise your class with how calculating this probability can approximate pi. This question is known...
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Baseball--Where the Parks Are
In this social studies instructional activity, students utilize a map to label the location of each city with a Major League team and then with colored pencils label the homes of the All-American Girls League teams.
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Prairie In A Bottle
Second graders observe images of prairie ecosystems and discuss the needs of living things. They create a prairie habitat in a closed jar to observe the water cycle and plant growth.
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Taming Wild Land
Third graders consider the habitat needs of living things and how extensive farming in an area can affect the plants and animals of a region. They participate in a simulation to show how changing the habitat in one area can greatly...
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Bug Work
Students explore the life cycles of insects and how they interact with each other in the prairie to create a healthy ecosystem and viable food chain. They list animals or insects in their own community that are similar to the prairie...
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Prairie Adaptations
Twelfth graders consider the survival of prairie plants. They examine how some tallgrass prairie species are adapted to the conditions of their ecosystem. They make a prediction of how a species might change given new conditions.
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Mapping the Prairie
Fifth graders study maps of the Chicago area looking at defining characteristics and place names. They investigate settlement patterns by looking at the maps.
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Prairie Plant Investigation
Students carefully observe prairie plants and record their observations in a science journal. They examine the root systems of grasses and flowers and surmise how these plants can grow together on the prairie.
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Passport to Africa
Learners begin the lesson by reading a novel about the diversity of geography in Africa. They are to create an oral report based on information they research. They also communicate with someone through email about the situation in Africa.
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Art or Junk? Discovering the Triangle Inequality
Middle schoolers study the triangle inequality. They will identify, compare, and analyze attributes of two and three-dimensional shapes. Then they develop vocabulary to describe the attributes. They also use manipulatives to analyze the...
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Prairie People
Eighth graders interview a person who explains the lifestyles of people who lived on the prairies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They examine how today's lifestyles impact the environment and write up what they learned.