This lesson was inspired by a Utah core Social Studies standard for 3rd grade:      

Standard 2: Students will understand cultural factors that shape a community.

Objective 2: Explain how selected indigenous cultures of the Americas have changed over time.

Pottery (5 minutes)

Teacher: show several pictures of pueblo pottery on the smart board, overhead, or printed copies.

The Pueblo Indians made pottery to use for bowls and containers and to trade with other people.  First they searched for good clay from the ground.  Search through the room.  Search high and low.  They thanked the earth for the clay that they took.  Then the clay was ground, mixed with water, and rolled.  Now, roll on the ground.  Find a new way to roll.  Can you roll just one body part?  A head? Arm? Leg?  Roll your whole body.  Then they shaped the clay into a piece of pottery.  Quickly and silently stand back to back with a partner.  Without saying one word, decide who will go first.  Partner number one, shape your partner into a work of art.  Partner number two, let you partner mold your arms, legs, back, and head into their own piece of pottery.  Switch roles.  After the pottery pieces were molded, they were fired in a kiln.  This sealed them into their shapes and made them hard.  If the pottery was not made perfectly it would crack and shatter.  On the count of three, shatter or explode!

Designs on Pottery (3 minutes)

After the pottery pieces were fired, they were painted with many designs.  Pick a shape from the pictures you see.  Make that shape with your body and freeze.  Repeat.

Hunting (12 minutes)

Pueblo hunters used bows and arrows.  They hunted American pronghorn and rabbits.  American pronghorn is the second fastest land animal—second only to cheetahs.  Move as quickly as you can.  Can you move quickly down low? Backwards?  Etc.

Rabbits have good hearing and escape predators by hopping in a zig-zag motion.  You are the rabbits and I am the hunter.  Pueblo hunters had to sneak up on animals to use their bow and arrows because the animals they hunted were so fast.  Crouch in a low shape with your eyes closed.  Use your good hearing to listen for me coming.  If you think I am getting close, jump in a zig-zag motion to get away from me.  If I tap you on your shoulder, make a shape lying on the ground and do not move until we start over.

Irrigation (5 minutes)

Pueblo Indians lived in a desert where water was scarce, or hard to find.  They had to strategically use their resources to have enough water to grow their corn, squash, and beans.  One of the ways they used their resources wisely was through irrigation of water.  They built pipeline systems to bring water from a stream or lake to their fields.

Create a shape chain — like terraces to funnel water from one place to another.  Start behind a starting line.  One at a time, cross the starting line and freeze in a shape.  Once the first person is frozen, the next person may cross the starting line and freeze in a shape.  The second person’s shape must be connected to the first person’s shape.  Continue one person at a time adding to the chain as it grows longer and longer, farther away from the starting line.Make a chain from high to low where each students’ shape must be slightly lower than the shape before them, then low to high.

Building a Pueblo (7 minutes)

Move through the process of building a pueblo.  First, Dig the foundation (explore movements that take a lot of effort – pushing, pulling, straining).  Next, search for clay (move like you are searching and looking).  Make bricks out of clay (Sharp, cutting movements).   Add poles for structural foundation (Freeze in a straight shape).  Fill the walls with bricks (Gathering movements).  Add a new coat of clay to the walls every year (Repetitive spreading movements).  At active pueblos, every year a new coat of adobe mixture/clay is added to the wall to keep them firm.

Once your pueblo is completed, it does not have a door or windows to climb through.  Instead, there is a hole in the ceiling that you must climb down through.  First, climb up the ladder to get to the roof.  Next, climb down the ladder into your house.  If enemies were coming, you’d pull the ladder inside so that no one could get into your pueblo.

Review (5 minutes)

Go through all the movements you have experienced today and identify what each movement symbolized.  Review the facts about pueblos, hunting, farming, and pottery.

This class was inspired by this standard from the Utah Common Core (4th grade Literacy):

Language Standard 4 
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 4 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.

1. Use common, grade-appropriate Greek and Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., telegraph, photograph, autograph).

First, grab this printable and print out word cards for all the affixes and roots you’ll be learning today.  Make sure to print double sided!  Arrange all word cards so that the side with the root word is visible, Jeopardy board style.  Allow students to pick words from the board and do the associated activity.  Quiz students throughout the class period on the English meaning of each root word.

dynam=power (In small groups, create an interesting group shape.  Figure out a way to explode out of your shape in the largest, most powerful explosion you can create.   Everyone make your shape, vibrate and gather all the energy you can; now, explode as big as you can!)

micro=small (Teach students a short, eight-count sequence using average amounts of space.  For example: step, step, kick, punch, pivot turn, and balance.  They have thirty seconds to figure out how they can perform the sequence as small as possible.  Can they use different body parts?  Levels? )

macro=large (Do in conjunction with micro, and allow students to choose changing the sequence to large or small movements).

cycl=circular (Magic Circle: Quickly spread out in the room, find a spot, and freeze.  Take a look around the gym.  You know where everything in this room is, right?  I will count to twenty.  By the time I count to twenty, you need to be inside of this circle on the floor.  You may move any way you want as long as you do not run.  Raise your hand if you think you can do that.  Now, everyone close your eyes.  Do not open them again until I ask you to.  Be frozen in a round shape inside of the circle by the time I reach twenty.  If I see you open your eyes, you will have to sit down right where you are.  Do not move quickly so that you do not hurt anyone else.  Ready?  Go.)

tri=three (Create 3 shapes.  Shape #1 will have three body parts touching the ground, #2 has three sharp angles, #3 has three straight body parts.  Quiz students on memory of shapes by calling out shapes and requiring them to freeze quickly.)

re=again (Divide into four lines.  Demonstrate a short movement sequence for the first person in line to see, while all others face the back.  When I say go, the first person will tap the next person on the shoulder.  They will turn around and watch the movement sequence once.  Then the second person will tap the third person on the shoulder.  The third person will watch as the second person does the movement sequence.  Continue down the line to the end.  The last people in line will simultaneously show what they think the sequence is.  Repeat with the line in a different order.)

sub=under (Make a partner shape with one person under the other.  Switch roles.)

sum=highest (Everyone line up on the black line.  When I say go, run and leap as high as you can over this black line, then line up on the far black line.  I am looking to see who can jump the highest.  Repeat with: turning while jumping, having bent legs while in the air, etc.)

homo=same (Mirroring: Everyone mirror my movements.  Gradually split the class into smaller groups each mirroring a student leader.)

hetero=different (Level boogie: Everyone in the class will be constantly moving while the music plays.  When the music stops, do not let me catch you with your head on the same level as one of your classmates.  If I catch you, you will sit down on the black line.  Play until you have a handful of students who are the “Level Boogie Champions”.)

phone=sound (Rhythm clapping exercise: Everyone stand on the medium yellow circle.  I clap a rhythm, you clap it back.  Repeat with several rhythmic variations.  Now, I clap a rhythm, you make that rhythm with your body without clapping your hands together.  Use stomps, slaps, snaps, etc.  Repeat several times.  Now, you make your own four count rhythm using your body doing something other than clapping.)

scope=see (#1’s either walk, run, jump, skip, or roll through the space.  #2’s find someone in the room to watch.  Do the movements they are doing, but do not follow them around the room; find your own pathway.  Don’t let the #1 know that you are copying them.  You can switch who you are following at any time.)

tele=distance (Partner mirroring: Quickly find a partner and stand back to back.  Now face your partner. Decide who will be the leader and who will be the follower.  Mirror with your partner standing as close together as possible.  Now go to opposite sides of the gym from each other.  Switch leaders and mirror from a far distance.)

Create and Perform:

Each partnership receives one root word sign.  Think of a word that has the assigned root inside of it.  Create a sentence using that word.  Now, create a short composition that has one movement for each word in your sentence.  For example, if I got the root sum and chose the word summit, my sentence might be: We climbed to the top of the summit.  My sentence has eight words, so I need eight movements in my dance.  My dance could be: Partner shape, jump, run, turn, freeze up high, step, step, leap.  Try doing your dance while saying the word that goes with each movement.