Third Grade Digging into the Past
Lesson 6
Title: Historical Narrative-Let’s Write
Grade Level: 3rd
Unit of Study: Social Studies – Digging into the Past
Abstract: The students will create a short book with information from primary and secondary
resources about early settlements in Michigan. From their book, the students will choose one
settlement as the subject for a paragraph about.
GLCE:
H3.0.7 Use a variety of primary and secondary sources to construct a historical narrative
about daily life in the early settlements of Michigan.
H3.0.1 Identify questions historians ask examining the past in Michigan.
Vocabulary: settlements, shelter, primary/secondary sources, quadrant, tribe, narrative
Sequence of Activities:
1. The teacher will provide the students with a variety of resources about the Ojibwa,
Potawatomi, Huron and Ottawa Indians.
2. The students will investigate these early settlements.
3. The class will work together to record information about each of the four settlements.
4. Each student will create a book about the four settlements with a picture in the center of
each page and one to two sentences about the settlements food, shelter, clothing, and
jobs. This book may be set up so each page is in story map form with the picture in the
center and the information separated into each quadrant.
5. After completion of the book, the teacher will demonstrate how to turn this information
into a paragraph.
6. Each student will choose one settlement and write a paragraph about it from the
information gathered.
Connections:
English Language Arts
Paragraph writing, story mapping, sentence writing
Mathematics
Instructional Resources:
Equipment/Manipulative
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project
Third Grade Digging into the Past
Student Resources
Teacher Resources
*Nishnawbe: A Story of Indians in Michigan by Lynne Deur
*The Ojibwa by Anne M. Todd
*Sea to Shining Sea: Michigan by Dennis Brindell Fradin
*Michigan Native Americans: A Kid’s Look at Our States Chiefs, Tribes, Reservations,
Powwows, Lore and More, from Past to Present by Carole Marsh
*Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan 1870-1909 by Raymond C. Lantz
*The Legend of Michigan by Trinka Hakes Noble
*American Indian Reference and Resource Books for Children and Young Adults by
Barbara J. Kuipers
*The Ojibwa Indians (Native People) by Bill Lund
*Detroit – Huron Tribe by Vernon Kienietz
*Michigan Studies Weekly (weekly newspaper) www.northmountainpublishing.com
*GREATSTATE (for your state, Michigan) – monthly newspaper
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project