Fifth Grade Native Americans and Explorers Unit
Weeks 1- 9
Essential Questions
How were Native
American cultures
different based on their
location?
How did Native
Americans adapt to or
modify their
environment?
Enduring
Understandings
Assessments
U1.1.1
Required:
Cultures are different
Use
maps
to
locate
peoples
in
the
desert
Southwest,
the
Fifth Grade Native
based on their
Pacific Northwest, the nomadic nations of the Great
Americans and
geographic location.
Plains, and the woodland peoples east of the
Explorers Unit
Mississippi River (Eastern Woodland).
Assessment
Key Terms &
U1.1.2
Vocabulary
Nomads
Civilization
Bering Strait
Migration
Asia
How were the social
North America
structures of the Eastern Shelter
Oral history/origin stories
Woodland American
Generation
Indians different than
Climate
your family today?
Environment
Adaptations
Landforms
Artifact
Cultural Region
Matriarchal Society
Land Use
Primary and Secondary
Source
Life changes with
exploration.
How was life changed by Key Terms &
Vocabulary
exploration?
Why were people
GLCEs
Colonization
Technology
Navigate / Navigator
Compare how American Indians in the desert
Southwest and the Pacific Northwest adapted to or
modified the environment.
Formative:
Human timeline
U1.1.3
Describe Eastern Woodland American Indian life with
respect to governmental and family structures, trade,
District:
and views on property ownership and land use.
U1.2.1
Explain the technological (e.g., invention of the
astrolabe and improved maps), and political
developments, (rise of nation-states), that made sea
exploration possible.
U1.2.2
Use case studies of individual explorers and
stories of life in Europe to compare the goals,
obstacles, motivations, and consequences for
European exploration and colonization of the
Americas (e.g., economic, political, cultural, and
religious).
U1.4.2
Use primary and secondary sources (e.g., letters,
diaries, maps, documents, narratives, pictures,
graphic data) to compare Europeans and
American Indians who converged in the western
hemisphere after 1492 with respect to
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
District
Resources
motivated to explore new Expedition
Colony
worlds?
governmental structure, and views on property
ownership and land use.
Why was exploration
more possible at this
time?
U1.4.3
Explain the impact of European contact on
American Indian cultures by comparing the
different approaches used by the British and
French in their interactions with American
Indians.
Astrolabe
Compass
Explorer
Northwest Passage
Western Hemisphere
Columbian Exchange
Riches – silk, spices
Mission / Missionaries
Settlements
Founded
U1.4.4
Describe the Columbian Exchange and its impact
on Europeans, American Indians, and Africans
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
Fifth Grade Native Americans and Explorers Unit Lessons Breakdown
Title
Lesson 1 Migration
Routes of
the First
Americans
Lesson 2 Native
American
Cultures
GLCEs Included Resources
U1.1.1
U1.1.1
U1.1.2
U1.1.3
U1.4.1
Outline map of the world
Needed Resources
Suggested
Resources
Prior to Lesson 1 – Review
geographic concepts/map
skills/land forms/regions- It’s
necessary for students to own
these skills because they will be
used during this unit.
United States outline map
Native American Cultural Regions Map:
U-S-History.com. 14 Sept. 2005
<http://www.u-shistory.com/natammap.html>
United Streaming Video: American
Heritage: Native Americans (20 minutes)
Lesson 3 Marco Polo
and the Silk
Road
U1.2.1
U1.2.2
U1.4.1
U1.4.2
U1.4.3
Teacher Background Info: Matrilineal
Society
http://www.worldsinmotion.org/misconcep
tion.asp
European Exploration Graphic Organizer
An account of Marco Polo’s
travels and pictures or United
Streaming
Video: Animated Hero Classics:
Marco Polo
U1.4.4
Information on the Vikings
United Streaming
Video: Animated Hero
Classics: Marco Polo
United Streaming
video: Exploring the
World: The
Portuguese Explorers
Information on Columbus
Animated Hero
Classics: Christopher
Columbus
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
Exploring the World:
Christopher Columbus
and the New World
Marco Polo, A
Journey Through
China by Fiona
MacDonald
Encounter by Jane
Yolen (Book told from
a Taino boy’s
perspective)
Lesson 4 African Life
Before the
16th Century
U1.3.1
U1.3.2
U1.4.1
http://www.charleswrightmuseum.net/hist
ory/module1.html
Learning Modules: Ancient West
African History.
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
Fifth Grade Native Americans and Explorers
Prior to Lesson 1 – Review geographic concepts/map skills/land forms/regions- It’s necessary
for students to own these skills because they will be used during this unit.
Lesson 1
Title: Migration Routes of the First Americans
Grade Level: 5th
Unit of Study: Native Americans and Explorers
GLCE:
U1.1.1
Use maps to locate peoples in the desert Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the nomadic nations
of the Great Plains, and the woodland peoples east of the Mississippi River (Eastern Woodland).
Abstract: Students will be able to describe the migration route of the first Americans.
Key Concepts: Review Native Americans migration routes
Vocabulary words: migration, nomads, Bering Strait, Asia, North America, origin stories,
landforms
Sequence of Activities (Formative Assessment #1):
1. Students will use the outline map of the world to label the listed landforms.
2. They will identify ice sheets as well as land areas.
3. The will draw arrows indicating the migration routes of the first Americans from Siberia
to South America.
4. Legend should include glaciers, land areas, and migration arrows.
5. After completing the map, they will answer the essay question using the vocabulary
given.
Connections:
English Language Arts – Written summary.
Mathematics
Instructional Resources:
Equipment/Manipulative
Attached worksheets
Colored pencils
Student Resources
Teacher Resources
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
Fifth Grade Native Americans and Explorers
Write a summary of the migration routes of the first Americans using the
following words: migration, nomad, big game/food, and land bridge.
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
Fifth Grade Native Americans and Explorers
Lesson 2
Title: Native American Cultures
Grade Level: 5th Grade
Unit of Study: Native Americans
Abstract: Use maps to locate native peoples.
GLCE:
U1.1.1
Use maps to locate peoples of the desert Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the nomadic
nations of the Great Plains, and the woodland peoples east of the Mississippi River.
U1.1.2
Compare how American Indians in the desert Southwest and the Pacific Northwest
adapted to or modified the environment.
U1.1.3
Describe Eastern Woodland American Indian life with respect to governmental and
family structures, trade, and views on property ownership and land use.
U1.4.1
Describe the convergence of Europeans, American Indians and Africans in North
America after 1492 from the perspective of these three groups.
Vocabulary words: nomads, artifacts, shelter, climate, environment, adaptations, geographic
location, landforms, cultural region
Sequence of Activities:
1. Teacher will introduce the 4 major Native American Cultural regions and major
landforms using district resources or suggested internet/trade resources listed with this
unit.
2. Formative Assessment #2: The students will use the United States outline map to label
the 4 major Native American Cultural regions and major landforms. For each region,
label on graphic organizer the region name, artifacts found in that region, natural
resources, and any adaptations. (Could also include specific tribe names).
o Desert Southwest
o Pacific Northwest
o Great Plains
o Eastern Woodland –Discuss/Emphasis on Matrilineal society and practices
3. Spend as much time as needed (may take up to 4 days) to complete the graphic organizer
for each group.
Connections:
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
Fifth Grade Native Americans and Explorers
English Language Arts
Mathematics
Instructional Resources:
Equipment/Manipulative
Outline map of United States
Student Resources
Teacher Resources
Native American Cultural Regions Map. U-S-History.com. 14 Sept. 2005 <http://www.u-shistory.com/natammap.html>
American Heritage: Native Americans (20 minutes) United Streaming Video
Teacher Background Info: Matrilineal Society
http://www.worldsinmotion.org/misconception.asp
“The Survivors”
by Andy Knez
Background Discussion
Although Woodland Indian men were primarily responsible for hunting and protecting their families from
enemies, and Woodland Indian women were primarily responsible for cooking, tending the cornfields,
and taking care of the infants and toddlers, responsibilities were not as gender-specific in Native society
as they were in white society. The perception that Indian men did all the important things while women
were relegated to the more menial tasks implies that Woodland Indian women did nothing that required
any intellectual skills or important decision-making, but nothing could be further from the truth. First of
all, tasks that were often considered menial in white society, and therefore relegated to women, were not
always looked at the same way in Native culture. In white colonial societies, for example, sewing was
usually considered a woman’s work, but Indian men in Woodland societies sometimes repaired their own
clothes, and there was always at least one warrior in every war party or hunting expedition designated as
the moccasin mender.
o Ask your students to stop and think about how quickly a pair of moccasins could wear out while
tramping through the rocky, rugged terrain of the North American wilderness day after day for
months at a time – climbing cliffs, wading through streams, maneuvering your way through acres
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
Fifth Grade Native Americans and Explorers
of giant trees, deadfalls, and thorn bushes. A moccasin mender’s skills would thus be highly
valued.
Women in Iroquois society, in particular, were certainly not confined to menial tasks. In the
white man’s world, it took nearly 300 years for women to obtain the right to vote, and it wasn’t
until 1933 in FDR’s administration that any woman held an important position in government
(Frances Perkins – Secretary of Labor), but women in the Iroquois Confederacy always had
status and power. It was a matrilineal society. Women owned the home and the contents of the
home, and they played important roles in governance. In fact, Iroquois men couldn’t even wage
war without the consent of Iroquois women, and women could sometimes be found among the
ranks of warrior. For example, Weetamoe, leader of the Pocasset band of Wampanoag, who
fought against the English in King Phillip’s War, and Awashonks, leader of the Sakonnet.
Iroquois women also had the power to elect or depose a chief or impeach a member of council.
They sat on councils as voting members, they delivered speeches, they signed official treaties,
they passed on property (which was officially owned by the women), and they were the ones
who decided whether a prisoner of war would live or die.
Many activities in Woodland culture were also frequently done together, e.g. tanning hides, building
canoes, making toys for their children. Heckwelder notes that a wife would sometimes go hunting with
her husband, and a husband would sometimes help his wife gather sap at sugar–making time (History,
Manners, and Customs of the Indians Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania…, 156-57). Students also often
have the mistaken notion that there were only medicine men in Indian societies, not medicine women, but
many elderly Woodland women were “held in high esteem as herbalists and healers” (Herbert Kraft’s The
Lenape-Delaware Indian Heritage, 248). So a more accurate view of gender roles in Woodland Indian
culture would be that both Native men and women did what they needed to do in order to survive, and
few tasks were viewed as unimportant. There were, of course, macho men in Indian society, as there are
in all societies past or present, who considered a “woman’s work” beneath them, but in a matrilineal
society, a woman was not permanently condemned to second-class citizenship.
Eastern Woodlands- More Information:
The word matrilineal means inheriting or determining descent through the female line.
In the Iroquoian society the women were the head of the families and families were identified by
the women’s descendants.
The women arranged their children’s marriages. When daughters married, they would take their
new husband to live in the longhouse of their mother. When sons married they would go and
live in the longhouse of their new wife’s mother.
Many generations of families lived in the same longhouse (made of bark and pole shaped like a
rectangle)
There were many longhouses in one village.
The women would elect a man to represent their clan at the village meetings. If the women
thought the man did not represent them well they would replace him with someone else.
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
Fifth Grade Native Americans and Explorers
Women took care of the crops, men hunted and fished. Land and houses were common property,
owned by everyone.
The game and fish were brought back to the village and divided equally among the entire village.
The women were charge of the food once it was brought back to the longhouse.
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
Fifth Grade Native Americans and Explorers
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
Fifth Grade Native Americans and Explorers
Lesson 3
Title: Marco Polo and the Silk Road
Grade Level: 5
Unit of Study: Native Americans and Explorers
GLCE:
U1.2.1
Explain the technological (e.g., invention of the astrolabe and improved maps), and
political developments, (rise of nation-states), that made sea exploration possible.
U1.2.2
Use case studies of individual explorers and stories of life in Europe to compare the
goals, obstacles, motivations, and consequences for European exploration and colonization of
the Americas (e.g., economic, political, cultural, and religious).
U1.4.1
Describe the convergence of Europeans, American Indians and Africans in North
America after 1492 from the perspective of these three groups.
U1.4.2
Use primary and secondary sources (e.g., letters, diaries, maps, documents, narratives, pictures,
graphic data) to compare Europeans and American Indians who converged in the western hemisphere
after 1492 with respect to governmental structure, and views on property ownership and land use.
U1.4.3
Explain the impact of European contact on American Indian cultures by comparing the different
approaches used by the British and French in their interactions with American Indians.
U1.4.4
Describe the Columbian Exchange and its impact on Europeans, American Indians, and
Africans.
Abstract: In this lesson, students will learn about the technological improvements that enhanced,
promoted, and encouraged sea exploration. These improvements and inventions include:
astrolabe, caravel, sailing schools, sailor training, compass, and improved maps. They will also
learn about many of the key explorers.
Key Concepts:
Marco Polo published accounts of his travels to Asia. These accounts inspired others to explore.
Life changes with exploration
Sequence of Activities:
1. Read an account of Marco Polo’s travels and show pictures or United Streaming Video:
Animated Hero Classics: Marco Polo about Marco Polo’s travels.
2. Have the students smell spices and feel silk. Brainstorm why spices and silk would have
been sought by the Europeans (preserving meat).
3. Introduce graphic organizer and model for students how to fill it out for Marco Polo.
4. Providing information on the Vikings and then have class work together and complete the
row for the Vikings.
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
Fifth Grade Native Americans and Explorers
5. Provide information (books, movies, etc.) and then have students try to work on
Columbus on their own or in small groups. After most are completed, bring group
together and share responses.
6. Either assign groups as small groups or partners with explorers to continue the graphic
organizer.
7. Students may present their findings in PowerPoint, oral presentation, trading card
activity, etc.
Connections:
English Language Arts
Formative Assessment
Mathematics
*Possible connection – distance, map scale
Instructional Resources:
Equipment/Manipulative
Student Resources
http://library.thinkquest.org/J002678F/prince_henry_the_navigator.htm
Teacher Resources
United Streaming Video: Animated Hero Classics: Marco Polo
The United Streaming video: Exploring the World: The Portuguese Explorers can be used.
Animated Hero Classics: Christopher Columbus
Exploring the World: Christopher Columbus and the New World
Marco Polo, A Journey Through China by Fiona MacDonald
Book: Encounter by Jane Yolen (Book told from a Taino boy’s perspective)
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
European Exploration What made it possible for them to explore? (technological and/or political) Marco Polo Vikings Christopher Columbus Summary (Things in common with all explorers) Consequence? (What happened because of this) Obstacles? Motivation? (Anything hard for them) (Why did they want this) Extra Information Fifth Grade Native Americans and Explorers
Lesson 4
Title: African Life Before the 16th Century
Grade Level: 5
Unit of Study: Native Americans and Explorers
GLCE:
U1.3.1
Use maps to locate the major regions of Africa(northern Africa, western Africa, central
Africa, eastern Africa, southern Africa).
U1.3.2
Describe the life and cultural development of people living in western Africa before the
16th century with respect to economic (the ways people made a living) and family structures, and
the growth of states, towns, and trade.
U1.4.1
Describe the convergence of Europeans, American Indians and Africans in North
America after 1492 from the perspective of these three groups.
Abstract: In this lesson, students will learn about the life and culture of west African life.
Key Concepts:
Sequence of Activities:
This website is amazing! Go to http://www.charleswrightmuseum.net/history/module1.html.
Do Module 1.
Learning Modules: Ancient West African History.
Connections:
Instructional Resources:
Equipment/Manipulative
Student Resources
Teacher Resources
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project