Totem Pole: Drawing

What We Did 

We first learned about totem poles and what they represent to Indigenous people. We also talked about the history and importance of totem poles. We then had to think of the three most important things in our life. I chose family and friends as my most important, travel and new experiences as my second, and the outdoors as my third. We had to have one section be all cool colors, which I chose the top one. One had to be complimentary colors, so I chose violet and yellow. The last one had to be warm colors. We were then shown how to fold and cut the paper to make a totem pole. I really liked this activity and will definitely be using the totem pole folding technique in future classes.

Extension Activity

I would read the story "Totem Tale" which is written about the animals on the totem pole coming to life in Alaska. I would read the story before talking about the importance of totem poles and what they symbolize. The story does a good job at explaining the order in which the animals on the totem pole go. We would then have a class discussion about the story and what they think the main idea was. Then I would start teaching the lesson on totem poles and let the students make the connection between the book and the history lesson.