Unit: Native American Life and European Exploration

Lesson: Native American and European Explorer Interaction Storybook

Subject: Integrated 5th Grade U.S. History

Teacher: Ashley Fisher

Thematic Statement
Importance
In this lesson, derived from the Native American Life and European Exploration Unit,
students will create a storybook in which they demonstrate the interaction that occurred between
the Native Americans and European Explorers upon first contact. They are to do this by drawing
at least four images for their storybook that portray interactions between these two groups.
Within this storybook, students will not only convey this interaction amongst the two cultures,
but they will also incorporate the lifestyle of Native Americans during this time and the
consequences of European exploration. Both of these aspects will be portrayed through the ways
in which they interacted amongst each other. Through the demonstrating of this material, the
main goal of this lesson will also be obtained: relate knowledge learned about Native American
and European contact to students own personal life. Every day we come into contact with
someone who may differ from us for a variety of reasons which can cause us to alter the way in
which we live our lives. In relation to the students, for example, each classroom is likely to be
diverse. The question then becomes how does each student handle the differences among the
people they will be in contact with and how does the way in which they handle this situation
reflect whether or not they are a good citizen? These are questions that will be explored in doing
this lesson through the study of the interactions between Native Americans and Europeans in the
creation of each students storybook. This goal provides a connection to the students everyday
lives, which is an essential link to make if I want my students to retain the material being taught.
This lesson also incorporates other subjects through the context of history: geography,
economics, civics, and writing. Geography and Economics will be included within the stories
and interactions that the students tell through their storybooks. By displaying the relationship

between Native Americans and Europeans, students will include in their pictures the land
conditions and daily economic activities of each. Writing will be done when the students write
two to three sentences under each of their pictures that describe that interaction that is occurring.
Civics goes hand in hand with the main goal that is to be learned through this lesson by
analyzing how the decisions made in regards to interactions amongst people define whether or
not they are a good citizen. Being able to create a storybook that incorporates these subjects also
allows for the visual/hands on learning style to be catered to.
Unit Plan and Michigan Standards
Unit Plan Goals:

Describe the relationship between Native Americans and European Explorers, and how
contact with each other altered their daily lives.
Incorporate the lifestyle of Native Americans prior to and during European Exploration.
Incorporate the consequences of European Exploration and colonization.
Analyze Primary Sources.
Relate the knowledge of Native American and European contact to own personal lives.
Incorporate the concept of citizenship into interacting with people who differ from ones
own self.

Michigan Standards:

U1.4.1: Describe the convergence of Europeans, American Indians, and Africans in North
America after 1492 from the perspective of these three groups.
U1.4.2: Use primary and secondary sources to compare Europeans and American Indians
who converged in the western hemisphere after 1492 with respect to governmental
structure and views on property ownership and land use.

Lesson Objective
The lesson objective for this storybook activity were highlighted in the Thematic
Statement above, but will be outlined once again. By the end of this lesson, students will be able
to:

Analyze primary sources.

Describe the relationship between Native Americans and European Explorers, and how
contact with each other altered their daily lives.

Reinforce the previously learned material pertaining to lifestyles of Native Americans

beginning in 1492.
Reinforce the previously learned material pertaining to the consequences of European
exploration and colonization.
Relate the knowledge of Native American and European contact to own personal lives.
Incorporate the concept of citizenship into interacting with people who differ from ones
own self.

Content and Procedures

The below steps are to be followed in order to complete this lesson:
1. Daily Thinker: To begin class there will be a primary source (attached to the lesson plan)
on the overhead in which students are to respond to the following questions in their
History Journal:
a. What type of a reaction did the Winnebago have upon arrival of the French explorers?
b. Was the first encounter positive or negative and how do you know this?
c. Can we assume that all encounters between these two groups went as well as this
account?
d. How did the interactions amongst these two groups shape how they lived their lives?
2. Small Group Discussion: In their small groups where they already sit, students will be
given a few minutes to go over their answers and collaborate with their peers. This
discussion will be a springboard of ideas for the storybook activity they will then be
assigned.
3. Provide Storybook Assignment: At this time the teacher is to go over the assignment with
the students. In creating this assignment, students have one of two options for the way
they would like to format their storybook. No matter which option is chosen, there must
be at least four pictures/pages completed for each storybook. They are to choose one of
the following two options:
a. Students are to draw four different pictures on four different pages that each
displays an interaction taking place between the Native Americans and
Europeans. Under each picture the student is to write two to three sentences
describing the interactive relationship that is taking occurring. These four
pictures can be four different interactive events among the two groups that do
not follow a certain pattern or create a certain story. For example, students can
draw
OR
b. Students are to create a story of at least four different pages/pictures which
describes an interactive event between the Native Americans and Europeans.
This story can centralize around one specific event (ex. Native Americans and
Europeans trading), but there needs to be at least four pages/pictures created
for the storybook. The story will be written below the pictures on each page.

4. Create the Storybook: Students will be given in class time to create their storybook. Any
work not completed will be homework for that night, due the next day.
5. Homework: complete the storybook if not completed in class.

Assessment
There are two ways in which this lesson will be assessed. At the end of the week, students
will turn in their Daily Thinker response to the primary source that they were to respond to. In
further assessment, students will be given a blank white sheet of computer paper at the start of
the next class period. Each student is to draw on one side of the paper a situation in which they
interacted with someone who was different than themselves for some reason or another. On the
back of their picture they are to write a brief paragraph that describes the way in which this
interaction altered the way they did something, or the way it changed their life. They are then to
add whether or not the way in which they handled this situation affects whether or not they are a
good citizen. This assessment will provide students with the opportunity to connect the historical
material to their everyday lives.

Materials

History Journal
Primary Source
Small Group Discussion Questions
Storybook template paper
White computer paper for assessment
Crayons/Colored Pencils

Primary Source
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/contact/text6/hochunk.pdf (first page only)

HO-CHUNK
NATION
and the
FRENCH*
Account of the first contact of the Ho-Chunk
(Winnebago) with explorer Jean Nicolet in
Green Bay in 1634, and the later marriage
of a French soldier to the daughter of a
Ho-Chunk chief, as related in the early
twentieth century to ethnologist Paul Radin.
How the Winnebago First Came into Contact with the French and the Origin of the Decora
Family
. . . Now this is what the old men have said and handed down to us.
Once something appeared in the middle of the lake (Green Bay). They were the French; they
were the
first to come to the Winnebago. The ship came nearer and the Winnebago went to the edge of the
lake with
offerings of tobacco and white deerskins. There they stood. When the French were about to come
ashore they
fired their guns off in the air as a salute to the Indians. The Indians said, They are thunderbirds.
They had
never heard the report of a gun before that time and that is why they thought they were
thunderbirds.
Then the French landed their boats and came ashore and extended their hands to the Winnebago,
and
the Indians put tobacco in their hands. The French, of course, wanted to shake hands with the
Indians. They
did not know what tobacco was, and therefore did not know what to do with it. Some of the
Winnebago

poured tobacco on their heads, asking them for victory in war. The French tried to speak to them,
but they
could not, of course, make themselves understood. After a while they discovered that they were
without
tools, so they taught the Indians how to use an ax and chop a tree down. The Indians, however,
were afraid of
it, because they thought that the ax was holy. Then the French taught the Indians how to use
guns, but they
held aloof for a long time through fear, thinking that all these things were holy.
Suddenly a Frenchman saw an old man smoking and poured water on him. They knew nothing
about
smoking or tobacco. After a while they got more accustomed to one another. The Indians learned
how to
shoot the guns and began trading objects for axes. They would give furs and things of that nature
for the
guns, knives, and axes of the whites. They still considered them holy, however. Finally they
learned how to
handle guns quite well and they liked them very much. They would even build fires at night so
that they
might try their guns, for they could not wait for the day, they were so impatient. When they were
out of
ammunition they would go to the traders and tell their people that they would soon return. By
this time they
had learned to make themselves understood by various signs.
The second time they went to visit the French they took with them all the various articles that
they
possessed. There the French taught them how to sew, how to use an ax, and how to use a knife.

Small Group Discussion Questions

a. What type of a reaction did the Winnebago have upon arrival of the French
explorers?
b. Was the first encounter positive or negative and how do you know this?
c. Can we assume that all encounters between these two groups went as well as this
account?
d. How did the interactions amongst these two groups shape how they lived their
lives?

Storybook Template