Breathe Life into the Storyline Lesson 2

 

Overview: This episode breathes life into the story with the creation of people. Students create a character for themselves. They will "experience" the storyline in the first person.

The Himalayas, the tallest mountains on Earth are home to the Sherpa. The Sherpa carved their Nepali domain from the uninhabited region around Sagarmentha, known to us in the west as Mt. Everest, about 450 years ago. As refugees from a troubled Tibet, the Sherpa climbed over the high passes and made their homes, raised their families and carved a niche for themselves in the Southeast Asian economy as traders of salt. The Sherpa world is unique on the Earth. But all people everywhere face the same problems of shelter, food, space and water. The ecosystem they live in determines much of what they do.

Teaching Level

Connection to Oregon Content Standards

Connection to National Geography Standards

Materials

Objectives

Procedure:

Day one-Who lives in villages?

  1. Opening the Lesson: "Who lives in this house?" Demonstrate how to make a portrait.
  2. Making people directions: Ask first. "What shape is the face?" An oval. Demonstrate cutting a large oval from a 9" x 12" piece of multicultural construction paper. Mount this on a background.
  3. "Where do the eyes appear on the head?" About ½ way top to bottom. Cut white ovals and glue them on. "What is the white of the eye called?" sclera. Place a black circle in sclera for pupil. Color for iris should be a natural color. Adding a "flesh" colored lid will create a life like aspect to the face. Add eyebrows.
  4. "Where does bottom of the nose end?" Half of the way from eyes to chin. Make a triangle, glue on.
  5. "Where should we put the mouth?" 1/3 below the bottom of the nose. Cut a mouth from darker color than face. Glue on.
  6. "Where do the top of the ears start?" About eye level. Cut and glue them on.
  7. "How wide is the neck?" Cut a neck skinnier than the oval at jaw level and tapered out top and bottom. Cut and glue under chin.
  8. "Dress" the shoulders with fabric.
  9. Students will need at least one hour to do a good job on this project.

Day two

  1. Students will give their person a name, age, gender, place in the family, interests, talents…by writing a biography. Give students criteria that will require investigation into Sherpa culture.
  2. At this point students could be asking for information about Sherpa people. See resources for descriptions, stories and pictures.
  3. Remember to make word banks during slide presentations and after reading stories. Students will need these for their biographies and stories to come.

 

Concluding the Lesson: Hang portraits in a prominent place. Have each student introduce himself or herself in the first person relaying on biographical information.

Extending the Lesson- Plan a day in the life of your character. Write this as a diary entry or date-book entry. This could be mounted and kept for the "topic book".

Assessing Students Learning-Keep students’ biography and home tour information for inclusion in their topic books.