Educator Resources

Filter Your Results

Showing 11 results for ancestry ...

Pottery of the Ancestral Pueblo
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

Essential question: How did the ancestral Pueblos make their pottery? What did they use to paint their pottery, and how did they choose their designs? Students will be able to: Identify the stylistic attributes of Acoma, Jemez, San Ildefonso, and Santa Clara pottery and distinguish between the traditional Acoma, Jemez, San Ildefonso, and Santa Clara pottery design motifs and forms. Recognize and create similar objects and stylistic motifs

Mesa Verde National Park

The Dirt on Ancestral Puebloan Plaster and Paint
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

Plaster and paint are integral parts of archeological research at Mesa Verde. In this lesson, students use soil to create their own plaster artwork. They also act as archeologists and use the scientific method to explain how the Ancestral Pueblo people used soil to make plaster and paint. By the end of the lesson, they will be able to answer the question: What can archeologists learn from studying plasters about the Ancestral Puebloan people and their artwork?

Petrified Forest National Park

Simulated Archeology Dig
  • Type: Field Trips
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

Students engage in archeological field techniques while learning to measure, map, and identify artifacts of the ancestral Puebloan culture. Group size is limited to 25 students.

The War Relocation Centers of World War II: When Fear was Stronger than Justice
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

In 1942, fear and prejudice combined to confine nearly 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, citizens and aliens alike, in relocation centers established by the U.S. government in remote areas west of the Mississippi River. Many would not pass through the barbed wire fences surrounding the centers until the war was over.

President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site

Family Tree of Student's Life
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

In class, Instructor will lead a discussion in what is a "family tree". Teacher will model by sharing their individual family tree using one of the tree options and the ovals. Analyze the lifestyle of your ancestors in comparison to yours today. Students will complete a family or household tree at home. Students will write one paragraph (on the blank side of the page) explaining why they chose that particular tree design to populate.

Who are the Gullah Geechee?
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade

The Gullah Geechee are African Americans with ancestral roots in the Southeastern U.S., from southeastern North Carolina all the way down to northeastern Florida. Their ancestors, taken from West and Central Africa between the early 1600s and the 1850s, were forced into labor due to their skills and strength. To preserve their heritage, they created the Gullah Geechee language by blending native African languages with English.

Mesa Verde National Park

Tales of a Time Traveler
  • Type: Field Trips
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

This post-visit activity is intended for use after a trip to Mesa Verde National Park and an educational tour of Balcony House. Students will write a story describing a trip back through time to Balcony House in the year A.D. 1250. Students will describe the environment, their daily activities, and how they meet their basic needs. A class discussion will enhance the lesson by comparing and contrasting their lives with the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people.

Stones River National Battlefield

Better Know a Regiment
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade

Teachers and students will accompany a ranger by bus or foot in search of the path taken by ancestral Civil War regiments during the Battle of Stones River. Prior research by the students using primary sources and historical documents will allow them to actively participate in the program, not just observe. Students will learn the history of their ancestors, the importance of the Battle of Stones River, and experience firsthand a small part of what the soldiers did more than 150 years ago.

Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park

Kaloko Loko I'a (Fishpond) Curriculum
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade

Kaloko-Honokōhau is a wahi kūpuna (ancestral place) that is deeply loved and cherished by the kamaʻāina (natives) of Kona. Remembered today for the fishing village that existed along the coast, these reminders of the ancestors remain. Remnants of the fishing village includes kahua (ancient house site platforms), heiau (religious sites), loko iʻa (fishponds), holua (toboggan slide), kiʻi pōhaku (petroglyphs), papamū (kokane game boards), ahu (altar), and ala hele(trails).

Mesa Verde National Park

Can You Solve It? A Scavenger Hunt
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade

“Can You Solve It?” is a FIELD TRIP activity designed to engage students in an active exploration of the Chapin Mesa Archeological Museum. It complements a self-guided visit to Spruce Tree House nearby. Activity cards describe fictional scenarios that depict the life of Ancestral Pueblo people in A.D. 1200 to A.D 1275. Much like a scavenger hunt, students must locate objects, solve problems, and answer questions by examining exhibits, making observations, and recording what they find.

Lake Clark National Park & Preserve

Can You Identify Me?
  • Type: Lesson Plan
  • Grade Levels: High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade

Students will have the opportunity to study and identify fish as really wildlife biologists. They will watch clips taken of salmon swimming up stream through the Silver Salmon Weir in Lake Clark National Park. Their job will be to use their identification cards and see how many salmon they can identify as they swim past. Be careful -- some salmon look awfully similar!