This lesson was inspired by a Utah core Social Studies standard for 3rd grade:
Standard 2: Students will understand cultural factors that shape a community.
Objective 2: Explain how selected indigenous cultures of the Americas have changed over time.
Pottery (5 minutes)
Teacher: show several pictures of pueblo pottery on the smart board, overhead, or printed copies.
The Pueblo Indians made pottery to use for bowls and containers and to trade with other people. First they searched for good clay from the ground. Search through the room. Search high and low. They thanked the earth for the clay that they took. Then the clay was ground, mixed with water, and rolled. Now, roll on the ground. Find a new way to roll. Can you roll just one body part? A head? Arm? Leg? Roll your whole body. Then they shaped the clay into a piece of pottery. Quickly and silently stand back to back with a partner. Without saying one word, decide who will go first. Partner number one, shape your partner into a work of art. Partner number two, let you partner mold your arms, legs, back, and head into their own piece of pottery. Switch roles. After the pottery pieces were molded, they were fired in a kiln. This sealed them into their shapes and made them hard. If the pottery was not made perfectly it would crack and shatter. On the count of three, shatter or explode!
Designs on Pottery (3 minutes)
After the pottery pieces were fired, they were painted with many designs. Pick a shape from the pictures you see. Make that shape with your body and freeze. Repeat.
Hunting (12 minutes)
Pueblo hunters used bows and arrows. They hunted American pronghorn and rabbits. American pronghorn is the second fastest land animal—second only to cheetahs. Move as quickly as you can. Can you move quickly down low? Backwards? Etc.
Rabbits have good hearing and escape predators by hopping in a zig-zag motion. You are the rabbits and I am the hunter. Pueblo hunters had to sneak up on animals to use their bow and arrows because the animals they hunted were so fast. Crouch in a low shape with your eyes closed. Use your good hearing to listen for me coming. If you think I am getting close, jump in a zig-zag motion to get away from me. If I tap you on your shoulder, make a shape lying on the ground and do not move until we start over.
Irrigation (5 minutes)
Pueblo Indians lived in a desert where water was scarce, or hard to find. They had to strategically use their resources to have enough water to grow their corn, squash, and beans. One of the ways they used their resources wisely was through irrigation of water. They built pipeline systems to bring water from a stream or lake to their fields.
Create a shape chain — like terraces to funnel water from one place to another. Start behind a starting line. One at a time, cross the starting line and freeze in a shape. Once the first person is frozen, the next person may cross the starting line and freeze in a shape. The second person’s shape must be connected to the first person’s shape. Continue one person at a time adding to the chain as it grows longer and longer, farther away from the starting line.
Make a chain from high to low where each students’ shape must be slightly lower than the shape before them, then low to high.
Building a Pueblo (7 minutes)
Move through the process of building a pueblo. First, Dig the foundation (explore movements that take a lot of effort – pushing, pulling, straining). Next, search for clay (move like you are searching and looking). Make bricks out of clay (Sharp, cutting movements). Add poles for structural foundation (Freeze in a straight shape). Fill the walls with bricks (Gathering movements). Add a new coat of clay to the walls every year (Repetitive spreading movements). At active pueblos, every year a new coat of adobe mixture/clay is added to the wall to keep them firm.
Once your pueblo is completed, it does not have a door or windows to climb through. Instead, there is a hole in the ceiling that you must climb down through. First, climb up the ladder to get to the roof. Next, climb down the ladder into your house. If enemies were coming, you’d pull the ladder inside so that no one could get into your pueblo.
Review (5 minutes)
Go through all the movements you have experienced today and identify what each movement symbolized. Review the facts about pueblos, hunting, farming, and pottery.
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