Tales of the Past
The fifth graders just finished studying different kinds of American Indians. As we wrapped up our study on Indians, we have read several books by Paul Goble. Paul Goble is an illustrator of children's books. He specializes in Native American stories. One of his books, The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, won a Caldecott Medal in 1979.
Paul Goble was born in England, but was always interested in the American Indian, so much that he moved to America and became a citizen. He loved the Plains Indian culture, which he depicts in all his illustrations and shows a close relationship with nature.
The children each took one book to read and now they are summarizing the story that they read to themselves. Their summaries will go through the 5-step writing porcess. From there, they will type them on the computers. They have also made tepees out of construction paper and decorated them as the Plains Indians would with brightly colored paper. Inside the tepees they will display their finished product for all to read.
In the fifth grade, it makes it more interesting when we integrate reading, English, art and technology into our studies. The children get to learn a little more about the Indian culture and express their talents through art and writing.