This week the 4th grade classes visited the Museum of Native American History (MONAH) in Bentonville. November is National Native American Heritage month and the students have been learning about American indigenous customs and technology in their science class with Mrs. Debbie Benton. Because MONAH is one of AAA's partnering museums, the 4th grade teachers took advantage of visiting the collection as an extension of the classroom.
Students were welcomed and greeted by the director of the Museum, Jazlyn Sanderson and Museum staff. The Museum offers vistors a 14000-year journey through America's past housing over 10,000 artifacts from various First Nation communities. Exhibits are laid out in chronological order starting with the first people to inhabit the Americas through early European contact.
To experience the various galleries, objects and grounds of the museum, the tudents were divided into three groups and visited three different stations:
Excavating Arrowheads- Students were invited to search for arrowheads on the outside lawn of the museum. When an arrowhead was discovered, the student was allowed to keep it.
Tour Wands- This station allowed students to visit the galleries in pairs and use the museum’s tour wands; a device that contains historical information of over 100 objects that are on display in the galleries.
Lone Dog Winter Count- AAA Director of Arts Integration, Aaron Jones, hosted this station and revealed why this artifact is considered one of the museum’s most prized objects. A winter count records tribal history using a system that is similar to that of a calendar. Each year a keeper of the count added one symbol, called a pictograph, that represented a significant event from that year. This winter count was created by Lone Dog, a member of the Nakota Sioux tribe and keeper of the winter count. He painted on bison hide and records the years 1800 to 1871, beginning in the center and spiraling out counter-clockwise.
Concluding the visit to the museum, students engaged in an arts integration project where they reviewed each year of their lives and created a pictographs to represent significant events that took place each year.
Thank you to the staff of the Museum of Native American History for allowing us to visit your collection. If you would like to know more about MONAH visit https://www.monah.org/