If You Lived with the Hopi~ Native American Lesson Ideas with Nonfiction {Must Read Mentor Text}

Hey there!!

I'm excited to share a great nonfiction book with you today that goes with our unit about Native Americans.

One of the things I LOVE about 4th grade is our social studies curriculum!  When we taught 3rd, the social studies curriculum made no sense and did not go together at ALL.  4th grade is waaaaaaaaay better and waaaaaaaay more fun!  We start learning about the Native Americans, go through explorers, colonization, the American Revolution, Westward Expansion, and end with Women's Rights.  It's a TON to get into one year (like 400 years of history!) but it's very interesting, which excites me!

Anywho, on with my book for this week!!  My goal was to share more nonfiction, so that's what I'm gonna do today!!  ;O)

There is a series of books like this book (...If You Lived with the Hopi).  There are books like If You were at the First Thanksgiving, If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon, etc.  It's a great series that gives information in a fun way to children so they can relate.

Here is what the table of contents looks like for If You Lived with the Hopi:

Look at all of this!!  And this is a picture book!  This book is oozing with tons of great information about the Hopi!  It's so exciting!!!!

Ok, I will calm down and explain how I am going to use this book.  But just wait until you see all of the great information in here!!

When we teach about the Native Americans, we are focusing on how their environment impacts their every day life.  How did they adapt to their environment?  How does this affect their shelter, their food, and their clothing?

All of these questions can be answered right here from this book!

I am planning on reading pieces of this book during Social Studies.  Then, I am going to dig deeper in Language Arts.  I have students that leave my room for Language Arts (they go to advanced Language Arts), so that is why I will also read it during Social Studies because I still want them exposed to this excellent book!

The book starts off talking about the Hopi's shelter.

Here is the first page and it has some great information.  We also teach about the Native Americans from the Plains.  This is a great place to compare and contrast.  It also explains about their apartments and how they are built- a great place to compare and contrast apartments where we live.  It's also a great place for them to compare how the Hopi enter their home and what they use the rooms for.  (How many ways can we compare and contrast?  Oh, there's just tons!!)  ;O)

On these pages, it discusses who lived together.  Every family situation is different, so this would be a great place for students to be able to individually compare and contrast who lives in their home versus who lives in a Hopi home.

These two pages are great for showing how the Hopi adapt to changes and how they use resources from their environment in their every day lives.  I love the illustrations because they can help students visualize exactly how they use their resources around them.  This would be great for cause and effect.

Another section of the book talks about names.  At the beginning of the year we do "The Story About My Name" for our writer's notebooks and I thought this would be a great tie in to that.

They can, again, compare and contrast how they got their name and why and with the Hopi culture of clans and their names.

The book goes on with more details about their clothing and what they plant and why.  It's just a great book that explicitly explains everything they need to know about how the Hopi use their environment to their advantage.  I think it's fascinating!!  :O)

Here is a freebie that I made for this where students can compare themselves with a Native American tribe.  The second page has the right column blank.  I love to compare and contrast with an H instead of a Venn Diagram...maybe because I'm not very good at drawing ovals?  ;O)

Also, we have several graphic organizers that we use to go along with our Native American unit in our TpT store if you'd like more organizers (you know we love graphic organizers!!!).  They are perfect for interactive notebooks!

Well, I hope you find this book as exciting as I do!  I think this is a great book for all grade levels!!  I plan to do much of this whole group, but I'm also contemplating using it for some close reading in my small guided groups.  I think it also lends itself for come great text dependent questions- such as how does the Hopi's environment affect their every day lives?  I only have one of the book, though, and I can project it on the screen if we do it whole group...decisions decisions...I'll let you know how it goes!!  :O)

Have a great Sunday!
Amanda

Please Link Up!

Next week's linky- Language Arts