Enduring Understandings - important ideas that students should carry with them years beyond the instruction received this year.

• Physical and human characteristics of places define the region.
• Historians use primary and secondary sources to ask and answer questions about the past and present.
• Chronology organizes people and events and helps explain historical relationships.
• People migrate and settle in different places for a variety of reasons.
• Societies are diverse and change over time.
• Decisions must be made about the use of scarce resources.
• Resources are used to produce and distribute goods and services.

Essential Questions - most important “big picture” questions students should be able to answer after completing learning activities.

• What are the physical regions of the U.S. and what are characteristics that define them?
• What sources of information do we use to find out about Native Americans?
• When and why did the first migration to America take place?
• What were the origins of the Native Americans, according to their stories?
• How were Native Americans in different regions alike, and how were they different?
• How does the exchange of goods and services lead to trade and interdependence?

Standards and Benchmarks

Standard History 1: Students understand the chronological organization of history and know how to organize events and people into major eras to identify and explain historical relationships.
Benchmark H1 A: Students know the general chronological order of events and people in history.
Standard History 2: Students know how to use the processes and resources of historical inquiry.
Benchmark H2 A: Students know how to formulate questions and hypotheses regarding what happened in the past to obtain and analyze historical data to answer questions and test hypotheses.
Standard History 3: Students understand that societies are diverse and change over time.
Benchmark H3 A: Students know how various societies were affected by contracts and exchanges among diverse people.
Standard Geography 2: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places, and use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of change.
Benchmark G2 A: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places.
Benchmark G2 B: Students know how and why people define regions.
Standard Geography 4: Students understand how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict.
Benchmark G4 B: Students know the nature and spatial distributions of cultural patterns.
Benchmark G4 E: Students know how cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of the earth's surface.
Standard Economics 2: Students understand how different economic systems impact decisions about the use of resources and the production and distribution of goods and services.
Benchmark E2 A: Students understand that different economic systems employ different means to produce, distribute, and exchange goods and services.
Other Standards and E-skills
Identify and describe physical characteristics of regions.

District 11 Diamond Units/Lessons Overview - includes information about the purpose, goals and structure of these sample instructional units:

Lessons 1-4: U.S. Regions
 
Duration: @ 4 class periods
Geography 2:  Students know the physical and human characteristics of places, and use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of change.
District Indicator: Identify and describe human and physical characteristics of places, and use them to define regions.
Enduring Understanding:  Physical and human characteristics of places define regions.
Essential Questions: What are the physical regions of the U.S. and what characteristics define them?
Resources: History Alive!  Chapter 1:  Geography of the United States; USA Simulation from Interact
Assessment:  History Alive!  Assessment 1 and/or on a blank map, students locate and name the 4 regions and give 2 examples of characteristics for each.  Explain 1 interaction between any 2 regions. 

Activities

1. Review, construct, identify and label 4 geographic regions on a map.

2.  Identify and describe characteristics of the following regions: plains, coastal, desert and mountain.

3. Describe how each of the following interacts within each region: bodies of water, plants, soil, animals, and climate.

4. Learn about Native American Indian groups and where they lived by looking a student authored web pages or the Virtual Native American Indian Museum.  

Differentiation
Support: Student points to the 4 regions. Students sort characteristics into regional categories. Student places labels on a map of the 4 regions. Students sort characteristics into regional categories.

Lesson 5: Primary and Secondary Sources
   
Duration: @ 1 class period
History 1:  Students understand the chronological organization of history and know how to organize events and people into major eras to identify and explain historical relationships.
History 2:  Students know how to use the processes and resources of historical inquiry.
Geography 4:  Students understand how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict.
District Indicator: Use primary and secondary sources to ask and answer questions (who, what, when, why, how) about the past and present, and to determine cause and effect relationships. Explain why people migrate and settle in different places.
Enduring Understanding: Historians use primary and secondary sources to ask and answer questions about the past and present (historical inquiry).
Essential Questions:  What sources of information do we use to find out about Native Americans?
Resources: History Alive!  Chapter 2: Native Americans and Their Land
Assessment: Use artifacts, pictures, illustrations and textbooks to categorize as primary and secondary sources.

Activities

1. Describe how to use artifacts as primary sources.  

2. Describe how secondary sources give additional information and perspective about past and present.    

3. Open and discuss the road map of Colorado. 

4. Pair with another student and locate map elements. 

Differentiation
Support: Present examples of various sources.  Student identifies them as primary or secondary. Have pictures of each item with the label.  Match to category sheet as primary or secondary.
Extension: Compare primary sources with a secondary source concerning the same event. Compare similarities and differences; critique secondary source in light of the primary sources.

Lesson 6-10: Chronology of Migration
 
Duration: @ 5 class periods
History 1:  Students understand the chronological organization of history and know how to organize events and people into major eras to identify and explain historical relationships.
History 2:  Students know how to use the processes and resources of historical inquiry.
Geography 4:  Students understand how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict.
District Indicators: Organize events and people in history chronologically. Explain why people migrate and settle in different places.
Enduring Understanding: Chronology organizes people and events and helps explain historical relationships.
Essential Questions: When did the first migration to America take place? Why did the first migration to America take place?
Resources: History Alive!  Chapter 2: Native Americans and Their Land
Assessment: History Alive! Assessment 2 and/or on a blank map, locate the Bering Strait and trace the migration routes.  Include when/ why Native Americans migrated.

Activities

1. Explain how continental drift and the land bridge between Asia & North America influenced migrations.

2. Use maps to locate the Bering Strait and trace migration routes in North America. 

3. Add the migration of Native Americans to the on-going timeline.   

Differentiation
Support: Roleplay migration by having students move from one part of the classroom to another for a part of the class period.  Have them explain what happened and why.
Extension: Find examples of other peoples who migrated to the Americas, when, and why.

Lesson 11: Stories of Origin
     
Duration: @ 1 class period
History 1:  Students understand the chronological organization of history and know how to organize events and people into major eras to identify and explain historical relationships.
History 2:  Students know how to use the processes and resources of historical inquiry.
Geography 4:  Students understand how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict.
District Indicator: Explain why people migrate and settle in different places.
Enduring Understanding: People migrate and settle in different places for a variety of reasons.
Essential Question: What were the origins of Native Americans, according to their stories?
Resources: History Alive!  Chapter 2: Native Americans and Their Land
Assessment: Using origin stories, students will identify 2 examples of cause/effect relationships specific to the environment of the story.

Activities

1. Explain how Native Americans used tracing and story telling to describe their origins.

2. Read origin stories of different groups of Native Americans. Legends of Our Times and Circle of Stories
   Using origin stories, students will identify 2 examples of cause/effect relationships specific to the environment   of the story.

Differentiation
Support: Present origin stories orally (books on tape, read aloud, buddy reading, etc.)  Retell story orally.
Extension: Prepare and present an origin story (their own, or known story) in a storytelling format.

Lessons 12-15: Cultural Region Similarities and Differences
 
Duration: @ 4 days
History 3:  Students understand that societies are diverse and change over time.
District Indicator: Describe cultural similarities, differences and interactions among various groups in both past and present.
Enduring Understanding: Societies are diverse and change over time.
Essential Questions: How were Native Americans in different regions alike, and how were they different?
Resources: History Alive!  Chapter 3:Native Americans Cultural Regions
Assessment: History Alive! Assessment 3 and/or on a blank chart, classify the similarities and differences of cultural regions. 

Activities

1. Construct a cultural region map of various groups of Native Americans.

2. Watch the video American Heritage: Native American Stories (20:00)

3. Identify housing, moccasins, clothing, resources, culture, and the government of tribes in different regions using a graphic organizer.

4. Watch the video on Plains Indians.

5. Compare and contrast cultural features of each region, i.e. clothing, housing, use of natural resources. 
   Create a comparison chart of several tribes.

Differentiation
Support: Provide pictures or word cards of cultural characteristics.  Students sort by placing each on a culture region map.
Extension: Individually, or in small groups, construct dioramas of the culture of one or more regions.

Lesson 16: Native Americans’ Resources

Duration: 1 class period
Economics 1: Students understand that because of the condition of scarcity, decisions must be made about the use of scarce resources.
District Indicator: Decisions must be made about the use of scarce resources.
Enduring Understanding: Decisions must be made about the use of scarce resources.
Essential Questions: How did Native Americans utilize natural, human, and capital resources?
Assessment: Create 3 scenarios that include scarce resources.  Students must problem solve the best way to use the resources or find suitable alternatives.
Resources: History Alive!  Chapter 3: Native Americans Cultural Regions

Activities

1. Describe the production and distribution of goods, trade, exchange, interdependence, and communication among Native American people and tribes.

Differentiation
Support: Orally discuss examples of scarcity from students’ lives, and then connect to an example from Native American life.  (e.g.  What would Native Americans in the plateau region be lacking for building a shelter?  How would they solve this problem?)
Extension:  In small groups, create and act out scenarios about scarcity for the class. 

Lesson 17: Native Peoples’ Interdependence
   
Duration: @ 1 class period
Economics 2:  Students understand how different economic systems impact decisions about the use of resources and the production and distribution of goods and services.
District Indicator: Identify ways goods and services are distributed through trade, exchange and interdependence.
Enduring Understanding: Resources are used to produce and distribute goods and services.
Essential Questions: How does the exchange of goods and services lead to trade and interdependence?
Resources: History Alive!  Chapter 3: Native Americans Cultural Regions
Assessment: Class will participate in a bartering activity to simulate the interdependence that develops.  Each student explains in writing what occurred.

Activities

1. Explain how, why, and for whom goods were produced and exchanged among Native American people and tribes. Use the Native American Web Resources:
   Legends of Our Times and Circle of Stories  and Native American Immigration.
   Colorado Indians Website - includes a virtual field trip to the Ute Indian Museum, information about food, clothing, shelter, work and tools, transportation, community life and families

2. As Native Americans left their communities and ventured out to trade with other tribes, how did they know where to find those tribes. Do you think they created their maps? Did they draw on animal hides, on rocks? Did they tell stories that would help others find where they had been? What would they have used for their maps? Did the know how to find directions by looking at the stars? In the next lessons you will learn how to think like a map maker, a Cartographer.

Differentiation
Support: Explain what occurred orally rather than in writing.
Extension: Identify and research a current situation of interdependence.  Explain who, why, what, where.

Lessons 18: Thinking Like a Cartographer
   
Duration: 3 class periods
Enduring Understanding: Physical and human characteristics of places define the region.
Essential Questions: What are the physical regions of the U.S. and what are characteristics that define them?Standard Geography 2: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places, and use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of change.
Benchmark G2 A: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places.
Benchmark G2 B: Students know how and why people define regions.
Geography 4:  Students understand how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict. 

Activities

1. Learn how to think like a cartographer.  If you were a Native American scout sent to trade goods with others, how would you describe a land and a community or village to someone who had never seen it before? In this lesson you will imagine a place that exists only in your mind. It will be an imaginary place exactly like you want it to be. But your job as a map maker, or Cartographer, will be to describe it using elements of a good map. Since you have already learned about latitude, longitude, map legends, scale, and regions, now you will apply your knowledge and draw an accurate map of an imaginary island.  Create a rough draft of your map. The map will need to include all of the elements of a good map.

2. Choose a theme for your island.  Make sure your  theme is unique so that there is not repetition and each student is thinking for themselves within that theme.  Use the theme to name all the map’s physical features.  For example, if you choose Precious Stones as your theme, you might label a volcano as Ruby Volcano.  Be creative!
   Give island an interesting title.
   Include a Compass rose and a key of physical features (must have 20 features that match island’s theme)
   Include a scale of miles
   Natural resources legend (must have 6 resources that connect with island’s theme)
   Once the rough draft of map is complete, the teacher will check the draft to make sure that items are labeled correctly and that the map includes all of the required items (spelling and capital letters count).
3. Now that students have had the opportunity to create a rough draft of their map, they will begin working on their final draft.  As a whole group, set up the pencil version of the final draft.  Discuss the importance of maps being accurate, clear, and easy to read.  Using a ruler, divide the large white construction paper into sections: Physical Features Key, Natural Resources Legend, Title, Compass Rose, Scale, and of course, the island itself.  Once the pencil version of the final draft is complete, students will begin coloring the map.  Colored pencils are recommended to make the map clear and easy to read.

Differentiation
Support: Explain what occurred orally rather than in writing.
Extension: Identify and research a current situation of interdependence.  Explain who, why, what, where.

Lesson 19-20: Cartographer’s Challenge
   
Duration: 2 class periods
Standard Geography 2: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places, and use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of change.
Benchmark G2 A: Students know the physical and human characteristics of places.
Benchmark G2 B: Students know how and why people define regions.
Geography 4:  Students understand how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict. 

Activities  

1. At this point, the students have created a map based on a theme that is important to them personally.  Students have invested a lot time and energy into creating a map of in imaginary place that in all-consuming within their theme.  To say that they will be proud of their final map is an understatement. 

2. Today the class will share their maps with their peers.  Review how to present in a whole group setting and how to listen to peer presentations.  As students present, they will explain why they chose their theme and explain their perspective.  They will also point out a few of their more clever labels for physical features, etc…The audience will also get the opportunity to interpret and share what they appreciate about the individual maps. 

3. Once the presentations are finished, students will self-assess their map based on all of the separate components.

Differentiation
Support: 
Extension: 

Parent Resources

If you have not yet taken your child to the Indian Cliff Dwellings in Manitou Springs, this is a perfect time to do so. Your child will see how these Native Indians used natural, human, and capital resources to adapt to their environment. Your child will be able to see how this Native American group compares to others studied during this quarter. He or she will see how the Ute Indians used the natural environment to provide all of their needs. When the environment changed due to an extended drought, the entire population relocated and left the ruins we see today.

ABCs of Elementary Years: These ABC Tips are designed to help you support your child’s learning in social studies during their years in elementary school.