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San Juan Skyway
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Lesson Plan: Mesa Verde Living Under the Ledge
Standards-Based Themes: History, Geography and Cross-curricular Integration
By Amy Swartz, Gust Elementary School, Denver Public Schools
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Overview
This lesson focuses on the preservation of Mesa Verde. The students will view a segment of the video to learn about Virginia McClurg and her persistence in making Mesa Verde a national park. Students will identify artifacts from this site of the Ancestral Puebloans and learn about their home. The lesson will blend physical geography with historical aspects of Mesa Verde. |
Video
America’s Byways, San
Juan Skyway
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
1. State where Mesa Verde is on both physical and political maps
2. Explain why Mesa Verde is a national park.
3. Describe how landforms impacted the Anasazi society
4. Define artifact and evaluate the value of preserving them
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Colorado Model Content Standards Addressed
History Standard 2
Students know how to use the process and resources of historical inquiry.
History Standard 3
Students understand how societies are diverse and have changed over time.
Geography Standard 5
Students understand the effects of interactions between human and physical systems and the changes in meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources.
Geography Standard 6
Students apply knowledge of people, places and environments to understand the past and present and to plan for the future.
Cross-curricular Integration:
Literature, Writing, Art |
Note
- Prior to beginning this lesson, the teacher needs to have written to the National Park Service to obtain general information about this agency. These materials will be used in the Post-viewing Activity. Request free information, enough for small groups to have their own set of materials. The address for the National Park Service serving the Mesa Verde region is:
National Park Service
P.O. Box 25287
Denver, CO 80225
- For the purposes of this lesson, the Native Americans are referred to as “Anasazi.” It should be noted that in November 1997, the name was changed to "Ancestral Puebloans," and all material from the National Park Service now reflects that name change.
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Materials for Class
- San Juan Skyway video
- National Park Service maps of Mesa Verde (one for every four students)
- Political maps of Colorado (one for every four students)
- Dry-erase markers and eraser
- Spanish/English dictionary
- Chart paper and markers
- Clay
- General information books about the Ancestral Puebloans
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| Pre-Viewing Focus
Get maps of Colorado. Teacher discusses where
national parks are in Colorado (primarily in forested areas or
where there are historic sites). Look in the southwest area of
the state for national parks. List these parks and, using maps,
see if students can determine why Mesa Verde may be different
from the others (forestation, elevation). “Let’s look
and see why it is significant as a national park.”
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| Viewing Activities
BEGIN video as narrator says, “Mountains give way to canyons which hold secrets of an ancient civilization.” This is about 20 minutes into the video.
PAUSE at “cliffs conceal a 1,000-year-old treasure hidden in the walls of Mesa Verde.” Discuss with the class what Mesa Verde (Spanish) translates to in English. Why might the site be called that? REWIND the video to the starting point of the Mesa Verde segment and, RESUME and MUTE video in order to review with the class features that indicate why the area is named Mesa Verde. (In Spanish Mesa Verde means “green table.”)
PAUSE video when the picture of Anasazi pots is on the TV screen. Invite students to come up and write on the screen with a dry erase marker, tracing the designs they see in the pots. Notice any patterns? What could these different pots have been used for? Teacher asks students to think about their own thoughts on the preservation of artifacts. “Now listen to see what the Wetherill brothers did.”
RESUME video.
PAUSE video at “she sees a different kind of treasure.” Discuss with the students their thoughts about selling ancient artifacts. What could Virginia McClurg’s treasure have been? Record student’s answers on a piece of chart paper. “Now listen to see if we predicted correctly.”
RESUME video.
PAUSE after Ramona Hutchinson speaks. Immediately after this, there is a picture of the cliff dwellings with kivas on the screen. Discuss with students whether or not they were able to guess what Virginia McClurg’s treasure might be. Students and Teacher can discuss various parts of the cliff dwellings. Have students circle the different parts of dwellings on the screen. Label the parts [teacher can go into more depth later about this]. Quickly the teacher can ask students to predict the following: “What was a kiva used for? How did people get up to the second story? How did they get from the top of the mesa to the dwellings?” The teacher asks the students, “Why value saving this site? What could happen if it is not saved?” Listen for the answers.
RESUME video.
PAUSE at “McClurg makes it her life's mission to save Mesa Verde.” Teacher leads the students in a discussion about other monuments that may have been pillaged (pyramids in Egypt, tombs of China). “How can they be protected? Listen to learn what the process was in the early 1900s.”
RESUME video.
STOP video at “Congress passes a law that creates Mesa Verde as a national park.”
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Post-Viewing Activities
- Learn about the four time periods
during which the Anasazi made and used their pottery and how
each of these periods differs from one another. Students can
research and then make their own clay pots, replicating the
Anasazi designs. The main time periods of the Anasazi when pottery
was used are the following:
- Basketmakers 200-700 AD, gray, coiled pots
- Pueblo I 700-900 AD, gray corrugated, some design (black on white)
- Pueblo II 900-1100 AD, designs more intricate (painted with yucca fiber), black on white, handles on pots
- Pueblo III 1100-1300 AD, corrugated grayware, black on white designs
- Examine information from the National Park Service to learn more about national parks. Focus on what constitutes a national park. Have the students think of some national parks they may have visited and analyze the differences and similarities between them.
- Have books available about other people in our history who took on a “mission.” Learn about the obstacles that they overcame and how their “mission” impacted history: (example, Johnny Appleseed).
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| Websites
Anasazi Heritage Center
Mesa Verde National Park
National Park Service
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