O’odham Art Forms – Part 3 STEAM

The O’odham Art Forms STEAM resources offer hands-on activities designed to connect students to the O’odham culture using art. Students can coil a pot, weave a basket, create a petroglyph, or connect art and weather using literature. In addition, they’ll be challenged to engineer, design, and build rain gauges from household materials. Once they collect their data, they will present their findings using an art form studied during this unit.

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Course Information

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Course Instructor

Brenda Kilmurray Author

Brenda Kilmurray is a National Board Certified Teacher, currently certified in Arizona with 17 years’ experience in the classroom working with 3rd – 5th grade students.  Brenda was awarded Cochise County’s Arizona Rural Teacher of the Year (2017), The Air Force Association’s Cochise County STEM Teacher of the Year (2017), Sierra Vista Unified School District’s Elementary Teacher of the Year (2017), and The Arizona Educational Foundation’s Arizona Teacher of the Year Semi-Finalist (2018). Brenda brings her passion for the classroom and understanding of the Arizona Department of Education State Standards together to create engaging and developmentally appropriate lessons. These lessons incorporate differentiated reading, writing, and STEAM activities. The lessons featured here were reviewed and critiqued by content experts, including historians, archaeologists, other educators, many of whom are members of Indigenous communities. For a full list the advisors visit Our Contributor’s Page.

Special Thanks to Our Contributors

Amerind would like to thank Angelica Salcido, Angelina Saraficio, and Amy Spotted Wolf for reviewing this lesson. Their comments, advice, and guidance improved these educational materials significantly. We are truly grateful for Angelica Salcido, Angelina Saraficio, and Amy Spotted Wolf’s help. Any errors or oversights in these materials are solely the responsibility of Amerind.

Course Structure

This course is delivered in 4 parts.

  1. History – Includes all links and activities in the Orange column below.
  2. ELA Reading and Writing – Includes all links and activities in the Yellow and Green columns with the title ELA.
  3. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) – Includes all links and activities in the blue column with the title S.T.E.A.M.
  4. Resources – This is a simple page with links for extended learning and study. These are found in the purple column labeled Resources.

The image below gives a quick view of the lessons and links that are found in each of the lessons. You can access this document here.

O’odham Art Forms – Curriculum Chart

History /Social Science Standard

Learning Objectives:

H1.1 We will utilize a variety of sources to construct a historical narrative exploring Arizona’s cultures, civilizations, and innovations.

Reading RL.2 We will recount and paraphrase stories and poetry from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in text.

W.4 We will produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. 

History ActivitiesELA 
Crosswalk		ELA
Activities		S.T.E.A.M.Digital
Resources
Lessons
1) O’odham Art Forms Digital Notebook
2) O’odham Art Forms Presentation
3) O’odham Artform CLOZE Notes		Reading Passages
1) Tohono O’odham Pottery
2) Tohono O’odham Legends (storytelling) 
3) O’odham Art Forms Poetry
4) Tohono O’odham Painter Michael Chiago

Writing Assignment
When it Rains Poetry Assignment
Activities
1) Native American Art Forms Library
2) Tohono O’odham Art Forms Word Search
3) Mentor Nature Poems for Kids
4) O’odham Legends and Lore		S.T.E.A.M.
1) Coiling a small pot
2) Woven Basket Craft
3)  STEM Activity  Petroglyph
4) Nature Walk Art Activity
5) Symbol Drawings
6) Weather Art Lesson Plan		Resources
1)T-A:ga (Our Story)
2) Baskets made with Desert Images
3) O’odham  Sequin and Butterfly Legend
4) A Weaving Tradition
5) Basket Dancers
5) O’odham Clay Stories
6) Shaped by Her Hands: Potter Maria Martinez
7)  O’odham Basket Dance
8) O’odham Music
9) O’odham Chicken Scratch (Waila)

Accessing the Course Content

This course is designed and presented with the goal that the material can be easily used by anyone. As a result, each lesson will present content in multiple ways to accommodate many different teaching styles and technology needs. For each lesson you will have the following options:

  • Website Content – The lessons/worksheets/videos will be available to view inside of the website. You can read and use the lesson from this site.
  • External Link – You will also have a link that directly links you to the resource (ie. Google Doc, Google Slide, YouTube Video)
  • PDF Download Link – If the content is a handout or document, you will have access to a link to download the .pdf.

* IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR GOOGLE DOCS AND SLIDES

If you go directly to a link to save a google document or slide, you must make a copy of the document and save it to your own account.