Students as young as third grade are capable of learning about measurement, weight and capacity to meet grade-level math TEKS while creating the traditional Native American art of sandpainting. Teachers should display historical pictures of sandpaintings and a sample project as they explain the history of sandpainting art. Discuss how much sand is needed to cover a certain area and measure the amount of each color a student will need. Weigh each color to find equivalent measurement units. Help students convert between cups, pints and quarts as well as practice multiple-step addition to determine how much total sand is used in the project.
Texas tribes enjoyed a diet rich in essential vitamins and minerals due to their high consumption rate of melons, corn, beans and squash.Teachers should present information to the class on common historical diseases, including scurvy and smallpox and provide charts that list the type and amount of each vitamin necessary to maintain a natural defense against infection and the amount of those vitamins that occur naturally in common Native American foods. Instruct students to use the charts to calculate how much of each food type the Native Americans needed to maintain optimal immune systems. The students will establish a proportional relationship between the recommended amount of daily vitamin intake and the vitamin content per ounce in melons, beans, corn and squash varieties the Native Americans in Texas consumed. Students should use these calculations to propose an ideal diet plan and create bar graphs comparing the four common food types and the vitamin concentrations present in each one to support their diet proposals.
Elementary teachers can incorporate social studies, language arts and math in a single lesson with the book, "Do You Know What Time It Is?" by Robert E. Wells. The book gives an overview of time measurement system development in early civilizations along with a brief history of clocks and calendars. Discuss common systems used to measure time by Texas Native Americans and provide a series of problems that require students to estimate time, such as how long it takes to brush teeth, walk from the gym to the classroom or move from the end of the cafeteria line to the table with lunch.
Teachers should organize a field trip for students to see examples of Texas Native American art and textile artifacts or provide color photographs of products from several tribes. Prior to the field trip, spend time presenting examples of math-based patterns that commonly occur in nature and many historic artforms, including the Fibonacchi sequence and tesselations. During the trip, discuss the patterns, symmetry and geometric structures used in weaving and jewelrymaking and ask students to identify similarities between the patterns they see and the mathematical art structures discussed previously in class. Instruct students to choose a Native American tribe indigenous to Texas and design a pattern for blankets, jewelry or clothing by using the mathematical patterns present in art examples from that tribe.