Best of, Elementary...

 ... and a request.

Help!

Every spring, I ask folks to share their favorite Montana history of IEFA lesson, the one they would absolutely do again. And every year, your answers are the most popular aspect of my listserv, so I know you came for your colleagues' recommendations. But since you are here, please email me if you teach fourth grade and are able and willing to test a lesson on "The 1972 Constitution," "What Governments Do," "Tribal Sovereignty," and/or "Montana's Economy" before October 15. 

And now onto the main attraction!

 

Recommendations 

Shelby third grade teacher Sara White wrote: "I use the Montana Skies Blackfeet and Crow Astronomy books/CDs to have the students during the winter listen to the Blackfeet story 'The Woman Who Married a Star.'" I ask them to "recount the story, determine the central message/lesson or moral and explain how it is conveyed through the text. Then I do the same lesson with the Crow story, "The Seven Stars: The Story of the Seven Bulls." The students love to hear the stories and we have great, enriching discussions." [OPI sent these books and CDs to every public school, but they can also be found online. The books with lesson plans are here (Crow) and here (Blackfeet). Links to the stories, which have been posted on YouTube, are here.  

Fifth/sixth-grade teacher Shannon Baukol, from Arrowhead School (Park County) wrote: " I loved teaching the Coming to Montana unit to my 5th and 6th grade class this year. I found it extremely valuable and enlightening and it gave my students so much information that they didn't already know." 

Elementary librarian Ruth Ferris (Billings) wrote that her favorite lesson was "An Artists Journey: Transform a Painting into Poetry," which asks students to examine several Russell paintings using their five senses, before choosing one painting to use as an inspiration for a poem. 

Anonymous: This year I used the "Water Protectors" book [We Are Water Protectors]. I read the story aloud to the students, then discussed the main idea and important history to go with the story. We did a watercolor art project portraying clean water. We wrote poetry describing our feelings about why clean water is important to all life. The students were engaged and learned many new things about the history and importance of the Water Protectors. I will do this every year from now on. 

Anonymous: In October I did a unit on the Native American populations in MT. The book lists were wonderful. [I think she's talking about the books listed in this post and this post.] 

Anonymous: We had a trip to the local museum to study the natural resources of our area. We are making a trip to the museum to do a search for Native American items from this area. 

P.S. We had to migrate our website to a new platform, which may have led to some broken links. We can usually fix bad links quickly if we know about them. Will you help us identify problems by emailing me any broken links you find? Pretty please?  

P.P.S. Don't forget to register for Introduction to MHS Resources, September 8, from 4:00-5:00 and earn one OPI Renewal Unit. Participants will be given time to explore the MHS website and then will be asked to share resources they plan to use in their classrooms. Register here before September 7 to receive a link to the Zoom meeting.