Native Corn
Goal: Students will learn about the corn being a way of life for Navajos through legends and
ceremonies that were passed down through many generations.
Objectives: Students will1. describe and compare similarities of the history of peoples in North American through
literature(e.g., storytellers, fables, folktales, fairytales)
2. observe similarities and differences in corn- cornmeal and kernels for grinding
3. observe, classify, and compare structures of corn seeds
4. discover that corn plants provide resources for clothing, food, and oxygen
5. Identify by-products made from corn
6. learn and understand different traditional use of corn- Kinaalda
Materials: Corn(several examples), grinding stones-, stirring sticks,
Grade: K-6th grade
Time: One or two 45- minute periods; longer if done as an outdoor activity
Background: Corn has eventually become valuable to all people on Earth. To the Navajos, corn
is a very sacred plant. It has roots in the Emergence stories as a staple of life, as a religious
significance using all the varieties of corn, and as an offering of its pollen, Tadidiin, to the
Deities. Corn also symbolizes human life for the Navajos- from conception through birth with
the first breath of air on Mother Earth, cleansed and nurtured with water, and blessed with
the Fire of Life and finally nurtured by Tadidiin, as a staple of life. The cornstalk’s process of
life is a metaphor, like a ladder, as humans develop and grow into old age.
Vocabulary Words- kernel, husk, tassel, stalk, leaf, hull, harvesting, pollination, cob, maize
Procedure:
1. Reading/LA activity- Read Ziiniyah using PowerPoint
Read Oneida Nation Legend The Three Sisters
http://www.flusterbuster.com/2013/03/gardens-3-sisters.html
-Compare plants from both legends
-Sequencing activity- list and label animals using same patterning in illustrations
-Identify geological features throughout story- mesa, hoodoo, butte, arroyo, dunes
2. Reading/LA activity- Read book Corn
-One minute(timed) category activity- foods made from corn
-Compare and share list
-Share from the story, The Life and Times of Corn, the menu of maize- food products.
-Students can add to their list and discuss other by-products
3. Science activity-Divide students into groups for 4 types of corn- sweet, popcorn, flint corn, dent corn. Do
corn cutouts for different varieties, color and label(worksheet attached)
4. Reading/LA activity-Read through PowerPoint Kinaalda
-Hands-on activity using grinding stones to grind corn kernels, show how to use stirring
sticks
Extensions:
Science1. Illustrate and label corn cycle
2. Classify corn
3. Grow a “Three Sisters” garden(information within flusterbuster site)
Math1. Probability
2. Estimation
3. Patterning(directions page attached)
Reading1. Sequencing steps to Kinaalda ceremony
2. Vocabulary definitions w/illustrations
3. Read fable Coyote and Horned Toad(to be done during winter season for Navajo
students)
4. Read Native American Lore How Corn Came to the Earth
http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore73.html
LA1. Sensory Writing Activity
2. Compare and Contrast- Navajo cake and bakery cake processes
Art1. Indian Corn Necklaces (directions page attached)
Evaluations:
1. Life Cycle
2. Sequence Activities
3. Participation by observations
Sources: Roessel, Monty. Kinaalda, A Navajo Girl Grows Up. Minneapolis, MN: Learner
Publications Company, 1993
Gibbons, Gail. Corn. New York, NY: Holiday House, 2008
Browne, Vee F. The Stone Cutter & The Navajo Maiden. Flagstaff, AZ: Salina Bookshelf, Inc.,
2008
Powell, Patricia. Ziiniyah: How The Corn Was Saved.
Legah, Lorene B. Kinaalda. Window Rock, AZ: Navajo Division of Education, 1989
Content Standards:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Social Studies- K-4 Benchmark I-C, K-4 Benchmark II-E
Math- 3.MD.5, 3.G.2, 3.OA.9
Reading- R11.,RL2-2, RL3-1, RL10, RL3.1, RL3.3
Science- LS1.C, 2.A, LS2.B, LS1.B
Coyote and Horned Toad
Horned Toad was very busy in her cornfield, where the corn was just
ripening. Coyote came to her and said, “Please give me some of your delicious
corn.”
“No,” said Horned Toad.
Coyote asked her four times. Then she picked some corn for him.
“Corn is very hard to raise,” Horned Toad told him. “We have to hoe the
weeds around it and pick off the bugs and worms that want to eat it. We even
have to water it during dry weather. I can’t afford to give all my corn away.”
Coyote kept begging. Horned Toad said he couldn’t have any more.
Then coyote ran out into the field and pulled off a big ear of corn, stripped
the husks away and began eating the kernels.
Horned Toad grabbed one end of the ear. When Coyote gulped it down, he
also gulped Horned Toad down inside him.
Since she wasn’t there to scold him, he ate all the corn he could hold. Then
he lay down in the shade. He felt very lazy, but when he heard birds flying down
to eat the corn, he raised his head and shouted at them.
“Go away! Don’t bother my corn,” he shouted, “Don’t you know it takes work
to raise corn? I have to hoe it and water it, and all that.”
Down inside him, Horned Toad made some sort of noise.
Horned Toad was very angry with Coyote and wanted to do something to get
even with him. As she lay inside Coyote’s stomach, she called, “Hey, Cousin!”
Coyote jumped up and looked around to see who was calling. He saw nobody,
and he lay down again. The second time he heard someone calling; he jumped up
again and ran around the edge of the cornfield, looking for the person whose voice
he had heard.
This happened four times. The fourth time that Horned Toad called, Coyote
realized where the sound was coming from. He looked down at his stomach and
asked, “Is that you making noises inside me?”
“Yes,” replied Horned Toad. “I’m going to take a little walk down here and
see what I can find.”
Soon Coyote began to feel strange, and he told Horned Toad to lie down and
be still. Instead Horned Toad continued to walk around, and she tugged at
different parts of Coyote’s insides.
“What is this?” she asked. “And what is that?”
Each time she gave a little pull at an organ, she hurt Coyote. Once she
touched Coyote’s heart and asked, “What is this?”
She pulled at the heart, and Coyote shrieked in pain and yelled, “That’s my
heart.”
Horned Toad climbed upward, and when she reached his throat she called,
“Now I’m going to cut your throat, Coyote.”
“What are you going to cut it with?” Coyote inquired. “I’m not very smart,
but I know that you don’t have a knife.”
Just then Coyote felt something sharp hacking at the inside of his throat,
and he began begging Horned Toad not to kill him. The toad was using her sharp
horns for cutting.
“Just come out of me,” he promised, “and I’ll help you raise your corn. I’ll hoe the
weeds in your garden and water the corn. I’ll even bring you some firewood.”
Horned Toad replied, “No,” and she kept on hacking his throat. Coyote got
worried and tried to think something else that might change the Horned Toad’s
mind.
I’m going to run very fast and make you fall out of my throat,” he said. But
just as he started to run, Horned Toad finished cutting his throat.
When he fell dead, Horned Toad crawled out of Coyote’s mouth. She stood
there looking at poor Coyote, lying dead. “I warned you not to bother my corn,”
she said. And she went about caring for her cornfield.
Moral: “Never take advantage of weak ones.”
PATTERNING ACTIVITIES
Indian Corn NecklacesCreate colorful corn necklaces using Indian corn kernels and popped corn.
You will need heavy-duty sewing needles, dental floss or button-hole twist thread,
popped corn, and Indian corn kernels that have been softened by soaking them in
water. Prepare the needles and thread beforehand, threading the needles and
knotting a kernel at the end of the thread. Make a simple necklace to display at
the center as a sample. Add a sign, “Make a harvest necklace that has a pattern!”
Indian Corn PatternsEncourage kids to create some interesting and unusual patterns for Indian
corn. Give kids a corncob reproducible and ask them to use the many beautiful fall
colors to make a pattern for each row of corn.