Geographic Alliance of Iowa

Creating an Indian License Plate
By: Tami Huegel, Forest City High School

Grade Level: Elementary/Middle School

Timeline: 2-3 class periods (1-2 for artwork, 1 for speeches)

Cross-Curricular Links: Art, English

Goal: To creatively assess what the students have learned about Indian transportation, religion, and culture.

Objectives: TSW create an Indian license plate, incorporating cultural items.

TSW give a short speech to the class, explaining their design and why they chose them.

Materials: Drawing paper, markers, crayons, scissors, glue, small letter stencils

Geography Standards: 4 - Indian Places. 5 - Indian Regions, 6 - Perceptions of Places & Regions, 10 - Cultural Mosaics

Activities: Students will all draw a license plate on their paper. This license plate should include: a 1-3 word phrase (not more than 10 letters, unless you want/need to practice correct spelling), and 3-4 drawings of artwork that represent something from Indian culture. One example could be "Holy Cow" with drawings of the cow god, cow dung, farming, etc. Tell students they will have to explain their drawing to the class, and why they chose that phrase and drawings. They should also explain why those drawings are important to the phrase, and what meaning they have in Indian culture. For neatness purposes, you might want to have students use letter stencils when writing the phrases on the paper. You might also want to check for duplicate license plates among students...the more variety, the better.

Assessment: This lesson is designed to be the assessment for younger children at the end of your teaching about Indian culture. The assessment for the drawing is the short speech each child will have to give about the license plate they drew. Some guidelines you might want to use for the speech include talking time, eye contact, number of drawings, and how well they know their information. The criteria for speeches will vary according to the age

of students. Overall, keep them short, preferably a minute or less.

Other Notes: I got the idea for this lesson plan before I left for India. While driving on Interstate 35 one day, I saw a PT Cruiser with a license plate that read. "Holy Cow." I thought this would make an interesting lesson for younger students, since it lets them be creative, and also gets them started speaking in front of their peers, which is something they will do more and more as they get older. It's never too early to start!