Chipping Away

Download as Word Document

AUTHOR: Barbara Woods

HISTORICAL TOPIC/ERA: Petroglyphs

GRADE LEVEL(S): 3rd

TIME REQUIRED: Two 30 minute class period.

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND: There are four tribes native to the state of Nevada. They include the Western Shoshone, the Northern Paiute , the Southern Paiute, and Washoe, which are the Native Americans that inhabited the Reno area. All of these people have developed similar ways of life and culture.

Native American groups have lived in Nevada for over 8,000 years. They created a lasting legacy in rock art images which are either carved or painted on stone surfaces.

Petroglyphs are carved into stone. It is the most common form of rock art remaining in Nevada. Pictographs were painted onto the surfaces with red, yellow, and sometimes green pigments made from minerals or plants.

The variety of images include animals, people, and hunting scenes. We do not know what many of the images mean, but the native people living in Nevada today have traditional stories that incorporate some of the images.

NEVADA STANDARDS:

Nevada History Standard 5..3.6 Identify Native North American life prior to European contact.

Nevada writing Ítandard 5.3.5 Write composition that retell events of a story in sequence.

STUDENT LEARNING GOALS/OBJECTIVES:

Students will discover the artistic culture of the Native Americans prior to European contact. They will make a pictograph of their own and write a story to go with it.

MATERIALS/SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS:

The students will need access to computers to go to www.onlinenevada.org. At the end of the lesson they will need art paper, crayons, and writing paper.

ACTIVITIES/STRATEGIES:

1. Have students share within their group what they know about Native Americans.

2. Provide students with a background information on Native Americans and the difference between petroglyphs and pictographs.

3. Go to the computer lab and open www.onlinenevada .org .

4. Click on Peoples of Nevada.

5. Click on Anasazi Rock Art

6. Click on Media Gallery

7. Click on first picture (Picnic Cave)

8. Teach students to zoom and us panoramas.

9. Visit the following pictures and revisit the difference between petroglyphs and pictographs: Dry Lake, Toquima Cave, Wall of Pictographs, Lake Lahontan, and

10. Sloan Çanyon

11. Students will return to class and draw a pictograh.

12. They will tell their partner what it means to them.

13. Students will write a paragraph telling the story of their pictograpgh.

EVALUATION OF STUDENT LEARNING:

Students will share their pictographs with the rest of the class in an oral presentation.