Legend of the Indian Paintbrush

This is 1st grade's role in the Native American Unit I do every November. We read a great book called The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, which is a story about how a boy named little gopher had a special talent of painting. The story is a legend of how there were these magic paintbrushes that sprung from the hill sides that encompasses all the colors needed to create a sunset painting. So after reading the book and discussing the native culture we create our own watercolor sunset painting. They always turn out beautiful and I love the book and its relation to the unit.

TOTEM POLES

This lesson is done with 3rd grade as part of my Native American Unit. Every grade level does an art project that focuses on the native culture. In this particular lesson we study what it means to make symbols and the idea of creating "spirits". By using construction paper we create a 3-D piece of art work. During this lesson we learn about the differnce between balance and symmetry when designing how our poles will look. The process of digging through the large scrap bin and finiding interesting ways to create faces, symbols and charactors is always a process that the students enjoy. This lesson takes approx. 3-4 40 minute periods (including a day of discussion and practice sketching then 2-3 days of work time). We usually end by having a class critique "native style" we sit in a circle on the floor and discuss the meanings behind our poles. All in all, it is a student favorite.