Review the role of totem poles in Native American culture, especially that of being storytellers. Discuss how artists would incorporate jokes into the poles and why colors have a special significance. For example, black represents strength, blue symbolizes water, green signifies the Earth, red refers to blood, white stands for the sky and yellow represents the Sun.
Distribute pieces of white paper to the children. Instruct the children to keep the pieces of paper flat on their work surface as the white paper will serve as the background for the totem pole.
Give the children construction paper of various colors. Tell them to pick symbolic colors which will best communicate the story they wish to tell. Emphasize that they can choose the story, which will give them a sense of ownership over the project.
Instruct the children to cut designs out of the construction paper or use markers, crayons or colored pencils to draw pictures. When the children finish drawing, they need to cut the pictures out of the construction paper.
Glue the construction paper pictures or designs onto the white paper. Place the designs in a vertical column on the white paper. The bottom of the column must be the first scene in the story and every picture atop that one continues to tell the tale.
Wrap the white piece of paper around a used paper towel roll. The column of pictures must be front and center, so tuck the unused edge underneath that. Tape the unused edge of the white paper to the paper towel roll. Apply tape to the outer edge of the white paper to ensure it sticks to the roll.