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Isaac Ross (left) and David Coppage paddle their paper canoe yesterday during the second-grade classes' American Indian pageant at Ferry Farm Elementary. Students at the Stafford school learned about native peoples' cultures, and had fun, too. mwm View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

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Peewee Powwow

Stafford school's classes celebrate American Indian culture for Thanksgiving

By KELLY HANNON

Date published: 11/26/2003

By KELLY HANNON

Indians did more than bring maize to America's first Thanksgiving.

Second-graders at Ferry Farm Elementary in Stafford County know this. They've spent the past month studying American Indian history, a unit which culminated yesterday in a powwow.

Wearing paper bags fashioned into fringe vests, and crowns of construction-paper feathers, about 100 students filed into the cafeteria to show parents what they'd learned about American Indian poetry, art, culture and dance.

"He's so excited," said Suzanna Stewart of her son, who finally got to demonstrate the powwow step with his class after weeks of practicing at home. "My son's very interested in it. I've been learning a lot about the Indians I didn't know."

Physical education teachers Peggy Scott and Ike Eldridge started the powwow seven years ago, mainly to teach rhythm and eye-hand coordination through traditional American Indian dance.

After the Standards of Learning were introduced, with an accompanying history exam, classroom teachers fleshed out the project with academic lessons.

Second-grade teacher Georgia Arrington said the SOL tests require students to make fairly sophisticated comparisons between three regions of American Indians: Eastern Woodland (Powhatan), Great Plains (Sioux), and Southwestern (Pueblo).

For instance, the students need to know how each region of American Indians lived. The Great Plains tribes didn't have access to trees, so they made homes out of buffalo hide. The Eastern Woodland tribes used bent wood to make longhouses, while Southwestern tribes used mud.

During November, Arrington wedged information about American Indians into every lesson she could, including math.

Using art and multiple mediums to teach a subject, including gym class, helps the information stick, Arrington said.

"What one child can learn from listening and studying, another child can learn from a project," she said.

At the powwow, Arrington's class sang "Colors of the Wind" from the Disney movie "Pocahontas."

The class sang:

"You think you own whatever land you land on/The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim/But I know every rock and tree and creature/Has a life, has a spirit, has a name."

Arrington hopes the American Indian unit has subconsciously taught students to respect one another and the environment, practices most English settlers ignored, she said.

Yesterday, most students were happy just to celebrate culture. They touch-stepped in circles around the cafeteria, reciting songs and clicking sticks on the floor.

If asked to travel back in time, one student knew which tribe he'd belong to.

"Pueblo," said Hunter Keiser, 7, a self-proclaimed future vegetarian. "They eat plants, not meat."

To reach KELLY HANNON: 540/374-5436 khannon@freelancestar.com

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Date published: 11/26/2003