Arts Learning

Each of the three groups of learners had unique experiences from one another. The first grade learners created poetry books using images and words describing the water and animals that inhabit the area. The third grade learners wrote, directed plays that told stories of the animals of the river valley. The characters in these plays were the puppets they created. The fourth grade learners created poems about the river valley and the inhabitants. The poems involved the emotions of the human river observers and how it feels to have that environment at risk of being destroyed. Each of the upper level groups (third and fourth graders) went to the river to listen to naturalists talking about the area; including the history and the animals that are found there. The second session for the third graders discussed animals that stayed during the winter. They created footprints in the snow of the various animals and tried to identify them. 2: The arts learners were exposed to the history of the river valley and a description of the early settlers and inhabitants. The American Indian presence was strongly emphasized and was evident in the poems of the fourth graders which had them as central characters in their work. The river's location was discussed and described along with the convergence of the two rivers in Montevideo (Chippewa and Minnesota) and how that affected settlement in the area. Fur trading, in a small scale, was evident in the history of the area and was an interesting discussion with the older students.