NOTE FOR TEACHERS
This lesson was designed for 5th grade teachers to incorporate the study of Native Americans into language arts activities. The objective of the lesson is to grasp the literary device (onomatopoeia) that the Native American authors used to storytell and be able to use the device in their own writing. In order to successfully teach the lesson, teachers must have information about the different tribes and be able to illustrate the use of onomatopoeia.

Materials
A copy of The Frogs and the Crane for each student.

Anticipatory Set
Ask students for a description of the Disney movie, Pocahontas

• What was America like when the English arrived here?
• How did the Indians live?
• Tell them that not every tribe was like Pochahontas's (each had different traditions, found in different parts of the U.S.)

Why are the Native Americans called Indians?
Tell them to listen for hints as to what region of the country the tale could have originated from.

Teaching and Learning Sequence
Have volunteers read the fable
Review the story writing a character map on the board
Ask if the students can guess what section of the country the tale comes from (by the animals and scenery)
Read certain sections of the tale over again.

• "Kerrump!" (3rd paragraph)
• "Splash!" (6th paragraph)

Give the defintion of onomatopoeia (using words to imitate sounds)
Can anyone think of any other words that would fit that defintion? (Crack!...)
Break off into groups to think of some examples

Lesson Closure
Come back to the whole group and write favorite examples of onomatopoeia on the board.
Assign a creative paragraph for homework using (2) favorite examples of onomatopoeia.

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