OCR Text |
Show Section B Wednesday, December 30, 1931 p, A, Tara Haddock and Becky Callor par- ticipate in special Indian ceremony as they study aboriginal arts, crafts and j - , "y $f , 4AfcS&Lk T'' 7 Os'.. yf &X.kL . U Jared and Jeremy Gray show buckskin their class tanned "from scratch" in special Indian arts and crafts studies at Sally Mauro Elementary School in lifestyles in the classroom. Three elementary school classes joined in the social studies unit. is - t..'xvAj &&$ WM.jSflbK-V- ' W '.4- iwf v Helper. Students treated, processed and tanned the skins themselves to learn how the Indians did it. Jared and Jeremy are identical twins. Modern 'aboriginies'... Sally Mauiro students Deem Indian crafts By KRISTEN D. TAYLOR While New Years is generally a time to reflect on life in the coming year, second and third graders at Sally Mauro School turned the clock back 200 years to recreate a lost part of American life. As the final project for a social studies unit on American Indians, the second and third grade students of Mrs. Edna Romano, Miss Trudy Butler, and Mrs. Sherry Liconte created an Indian village complete with tepee, totem poles and a pueblo dwelling. Students themselves went out and cut more than thirty pinon pine trees to complete the pageant decorations. The program included dances, rituals, and songs representative of American Indians all over the United States. The costumes were also made by the students themselves, and were decorated with various Indian motifs. Mrs. Romano said because the costumes were fashioned out of burlap sacks (some with a little wheat still in them), there was a lot of scratching going on! Other projects and skills were also learned as part of the unit. Each student wove a basket, Children in Sally Mauro School light candles as part of Indian lore ceremony in their social studies. Left to right are Tara Haddock, Jeremy and Jared v fashioned an Indian drum out of a and gallon can and inter-tubdecorated a totem pole and Indian shield. Students in Mrs. Romanos class also made their own loom and wove a rug and made Indian beadwork on a smaller loom. Actually, the highlight of Mrs. Romanos classroom work was the actual tanning of a deer hide. Tanning the hide actually had three basic steps, the teacher said. First, we soaked the skin in lime to remove the hair. The odor was so bad our principal wouldnt let us keep it in the building. Then, the skin is soaked in a e, solution of mostly The hide was then students softened it by rubbing it back and forth on the back of a chair. Another highlight of the unit was an Indian meal. Each student was allowed to bring a food that was actually available to the Indians to add to a stew. This years meal included venison, antelope, corn, beans, peas, cornbread and pumpkin pie. If only for a time, thoughts of pollution, crime, and other modern problems were lost to the wails of the chanters and the beat of the Indian drum. Gray, and Laura Haddock. Students made their own costumes and headress. f salt chemicals. staked and the Kristy Hatch and Richard Gutierrez operate a loom at Sally Mauro Elementary School as part of special class project to learn about about Indian arts and crafts. The students actually donned Indian dress and performed Indian tasks during their studies, including the weaving of a floor size rug on this primitive loom. Genene Ellington, Col line Simns and Nicole Paluso work on Indian baskets and weavings as part of social studies unit at Sally Mauro School in Helper. Children learn Indian crafts and lifestyles by assuming aboriginal roles in the classroom. Burlap dress, however, substituted for buckskin. 4 |