|
Summary and Objective
Students will understand that bowls have been used, and can last, for hundreds of years. They will see and touch bowls made from many different materials. These examples will come from the American Centuries Digital Collection, our classroom and our homes.
Teaching Plan
Step 1.
Lead a discussion about bowls. What are bowls used for? What can they be made out of? Does your family have any old bowls? How long do you think a bowl can last? Complete a KWL(I Know-I Wonder-I Learned) chart following this discussion.
Step 2.
Find the bowls in use in the classroom. Discuss the following: What are they made of? What sizes are they? What are they used for? Why do we have them? How many do we have? Where did they come from? How were they made?
Step 3.
Look at the images from the American Centuries Digital Collection selected for this activity. When available, explore the additional views of the selected images.
Step 4.
Using charts, record the dimensions of the bowls and containers from the digital collection. Measure and record the dimensions of the bowls collected from home and the classroom.
Step 5.
Discuss the similarities and differences between the old and new bowls. Use a Venn Diagram for recording. Guide discussion to use the vocabulary for describing shape, size, purpose, appearance, age, value, materials and the ways the bowls were made.
Step 6.
To follow up, children could go on a nature walk with an eye to finding "bowls" in trees! Can you imagine making a bowl that would last for hundreds of years from any of the trees you see?
Step 7.
To further expand this activity, the class could create bowls. Children could use clay, papiermache, air dry modeling compounds, paper bags, soap, newspaper, origami paper, pipe cleaners, felt, or natural materials.
Step 8.
The Wikipedia website contains information about how Native Americans and Colonists made bowls from tree burls as well as how and why burls form on trees.
The Hampton Library website references (in the Food and Drink section) how average Colonial families used wooden bowls and utensils. Often an entire meal for an entire family was served in one bowl.
|
