Buffalo Bird Girl | Write one thing you notice and one thing you wonder.
A one-column chart with heading labeled Notice.
Notice
L2 | Fluency Practice
Buffalo Bird Girl
A two-column chart with headings labeled Initials and Comments.
1. Ask a friend or adult to listen to you read.
2. Read aloud the fluency passage three to five times.
3. Focus on the day’s fluency element as you read.
4. Ask the listener to initial and comment below.
Initials Comments
Day 1
Accuracy
Day 2
Phrasing
Day 3
Expression
Day 4
Rate
Fluency Elements
Accuracy: Correctly decode the words.
Phrasing: Group words into phrases, and pause for punctuation.
Expression: Use voice to show feeling.
Rate: Read at an appropriate speed.
Retelling
Buffalo Bird Girl
by S. D. Nelson
Work began early every day. I remember awaking to the comforting sound of a crackling morning fire. My grandmother and aunts would already be awake, preparing breakfast. I learned by watching and then by doing. A favorite breakfast for us children was hot corn porridge. To make it, Grandmother would pound hard kernels of corn into a fine meal in a wooden mortar. She boiled dried squash and beans in a clay pot filled with river water. Then she added the cornmeal mixed with roasted buffalo fat to the pot of vegetables. It tasted delicious!
L3 | Seasons Organizer
Buffalo Bird Girl | Draw and write what the Hidatsa did in each season.
A chart with four boxes labeled Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring.
Summer Fall Winter Spring
“Native
American Tribes”
L6 | Venn Diagram
Buffalo Bull, Grazing on the Prairie and Buffalo Hunter | Complete the Venn diagram.
A Venn diagram with two overlapping circles labeled Buffalo Bull Grazing on the Prairie and Buffalo Hunter. The area of overlap is labeled Both.
Buffalo Bull, Grazing on the Prairie
Both
Buffalo Hunter
L8 | Notice and Wonder Chart
Where the Buffalo Roam | Write two things you notice and two things you wonder.
A one-column chart with heading labeled Notice.
Notice
L8 | Fluency Practice
Where the Buffalo Roam
A two-column chart with headings labeled Initials and Comments.
1. Ask a friend or adult to listen to you read.
2. Read aloud the fluency passage three to five times.
3. Focus on the day’s fluency element as you read.
4. Ask the listener to initial and comment below.
Initials
Day 1
Accuracy
Day 2
Phrasing
Day 3
Expression
Day 4
Rate
Comments
Fluency Elements
Accuracy: Correctly decode the words.
Phrasing: Group words into phrases, and pause for punctuation.
Expression: Use voice to show feeling.
Rate: Read at an appropriate speed.
Retelling
Where the Buffalo Roam
by Kate Waters
A bison has a hump on the back of its neck. Inside is solid muscle and bone.
The hump helps the bison lift its huge head to sniff for danger.
In winter, a bison uses its head as a snowplow to uncover food.
Bison use their short tails as flyswatters when flies and ticks bite.
Bison also signal for the herd with their tails.
L10 | Vocabulary Chart
Where the Buffalo Roam | Write the meaning of unknown words from the text.
A three-column table with headings labeled Word, What I Think the Word Means, and Glossary Definition.
Word
What I Think the Word Means
Glossary Definition
L10 | Writing Model
Module 2 | Label the sentences of the paragraph.
In the past, Native American tribes in the Great Plains had many uses for buffalo. Buffalo were very important to the Hidatsa. They used buffalo bones to make tools. They used fat from the buffalo to cook. The buffalo were important to the Hidatsa in many ways.
Informative Writing Planner
Module Task 1 | Write evidence notes to tell where bison live.
A chart with four boxes labeled Introduction, Focus, Evidence, and Conclusion.
Introduction
Focus Evidence
Conclusion
Introduction
Bison live in North America.
Focus
Bison are land animals.
Evidence
Conclusion
Bison have lived on the land of North America for thousands of years.
Prompt: Complete the paragraph about bison. Write two evidence sentences about where bison live.
Bison live in North America. Bison are land animals.
Bison have lived on the land of North America for thousands of years.
by Marcia Amidon Lusted
In the spring of 1879, Jerry Shores, a former enslaved person, moved his family westward. They joined one of the first emigrant wagon trains to Nebraska. The Shores family traveled in three wagons. Shores drove one wagon. His son drove another one. And his 16-year-old daughter drove the third wagon.
The Shoreses settled on a homestead claim in Nebraska. Since Nebraska was mostly treeless prairie land, it was impossible to build any kind of wooden structure. But good,
The Shores family near Westerville, Nebraska.
cheap material was available. In fact, it was all around them. It was sod, the earth and grass beneath their feet. Some settlers referred to it as “prairie marble.” They used it to build a sod house, or soddy. For most families on the prairie, building a soddy was the first thing they did to keep the family safe and protected from the weather.
The first step was to find a flat section of land. A one-room sod house was usually 16 feet by 20 feet. Space was cleared of grass, smoothed out with a spade, and packed down to make a hard earth floor.
Sod is a section of grass-covered soil held together by matted roots.
It was important to use the right kind of grass for a sod house. Grass with dense roots held the soil together. Buffalo grass, wheat grass, and Indian grass were varieties that worked well. Builders cut the sod into strips 18 inches wide by 24 inches long and 4 to 6 inches deep. Each brick weighed about 50 pounds. The average sod house required about 3,000 bricks and weighed almost 90 tons.
Once the site was prepped and ready, the Shoreses established the perimeter of the house. They lay two side-by-side rows of bricks grassside down. Exposing the roots to the top allowed them to grow into the layers of brick placed on top. After a few layers, the builders turned the next layers to lie horizontally instead of vertically in order to make the walls stronger. They used loose dirt and mud to fill in cracks between the bricks.
As the walls grew higher, the builders positioned wooden frames where the windows and door would go. They laid sod all around the frame, leaving a gap at the top (filled with rags or grass) to allow room for the sod to settle without crushing the glass in the window. Wooden pegs held the frames in place in the sod walls.
Once the walls were the correct height, usually about 8 feet, the builders placed a wooden ridgepole across the length of the house, from one end of the sod house to the other, to support a roof. A sod house roof was sometimes made out of lumber covered with shingles or tarpaper, but more often it simply was covered with thinner sod bricks.
close-up of a sod house reveals the brickwork.
Sod houses lasted only about six or seven years and required frequent maintenance. means built a floor of split logs or acquired wide wood planks from a sawmill.
Some women complained that nothing was ever clean in a sod house. Fleas, rats, mice, and snakes were a constant problem. Those creatures liked to live in the cracks between the bricks. Women learned to cook with lids on their pots to keep mud—or worse— from falling into the food. Beds had to go in the center of the room beneath the ridgepole, where they were most likely to stay dry. After a long, soaking rain, almost everything in a sod house had to be moved outside to dry in the sunshine.
For all its hardships, life in a soddy on the prairie became a symbol, too. It represented an opportunity for people to own their own home and their own land as they built new lives in the West.
L15 | Notice and Wonder Chart
“Life in a Soddy” | Write two things you notice and two things you wonder.
A one-column chart with heading labeled Notice.
Notice
L15 | Fluency Practice
“Life in a Soddy”
A two-column chart with headings labeled Initials and Comments.
1. Ask a friend or adult to listen to you read.
2. Read aloud the fluency passage three to five times.
3. Focus on the day’s fluency element as you read.
4. Ask the listener to initial and comment below.
Initials
Day 1
Accuracy
Day 2
Phrasing
Day 3
Expression Day 4
Rate
Comments
Fluency Elements
Accuracy: Correctly decode the words.
Phrasing: Group words into phrases, and pause for punctuation.
Expression: Use voice to show feeling.
Rate: Read at an appropriate speed.
Retelling
“Life
in a Soddy”
by Marcia Amidon Lusted
Sod houses were sturdy and fireproof. They were warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Above all, they were cheap to construct. But what was it like to live in one? The roof often leaked. Nebraska sod contained sand, which made it easier for water to filter through. Sod roofs also held on to water, so even after a rainstorm was over, the soggy material would drip for days.
L16 | Question Word Cards
“Life in a Soddy” | Cut out the cards.
Who?
When?
What?
Where?
L16 | Noun Cards
Singular and Irregular Plural Nouns | Cut out the cards. bison
A two-column chart with headings labeled Singular and Irregular Plural.
Singular Irregular Plural
child
children
life lives
Singular
L16 | Language Practice
Irregular Plural Nouns | Complete each sentence with the correct irregular plural noun.
Many (person) chose to move west to make a new life.
Settlers built sod houses to live in. They built houses 16 (foot) by 20 (foot)
. Even the (child) helped build sod houses. Sometimes, rats, (mouse) , and snakes would live in the cracks of the walls. The (woman) had to clean the sod houses often. Everyone in the family helped with the house.
L16 | Gallery
“Homesteaders”
L17 | Flowchart
“Life in a Soddy” | Draw and describe the last three steps in building a sod house.
A flowchart showing how one step leads to another. Arrows point from one box to another in the direction of the flow. In order, the headings are Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4, and Step 5.
Step 1
Step 2
Find a flat piece of land.
Find grass with strong roots.
Cut sod into strips.
5
Informative Writing Planner
Module Task 2 | Fill in the planner with details for your paragraph.
A chart with four boxes labeled Introduction, Focus, Evidence, and Conclusion.
Introduction
Focus
Evidence
Conclusion
Introduction
Some settlers in the West lived in sod houses.
Focus
Evidence
needed the right grass
heavy sod bricks
fire protection
leaky roofs
snow in cracks
animals and insects in between bricks
Conclusion
L18 | Author’s Purpose Organizer
“Life in a Soddy” | Write notes about the author’s purpose in each section of text.
A chart with four boxes labeled Paragraph 1, Paragraph 2, Paragraphs 3-7, and Paragraphs 8-11.
Paragraph 1
to describe how the Shoreses traveled west to Nebraska
Paragraph 2
Paragraphs 3–7
Paragraphs 8–11
Little Dugout on the Prairie from “A
Home in the Ground”
by Ann Parr
Trees were scarce on the prairie, so settlers had to make do using sod and dirt as building materials. Many homes, churches, schools, post offices, stores, and spaces for protecting livestock began as dugouts. The dugouts were replaced with aboveground wooden structures as soon as lumber could be obtained.
Dugouts often began as caves dug into the slope of a creek or riverbank. Water was nearby, and the thick layer of dirt overhead made a good roof, providing insulation and
protection, while concealing the home from view. But floods from the rising river often destroyed both the insides and the outsides of the dugouts. Collapsing roofs plagued the dwellers when animals fell through from overhead. Snow blocked the doorway. A riverbank dugout was cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, but overall, not safe.
Module Task 2
Prompt: Complete the paragraph about life in a sod house.
Some settlers in the West
lived in sod houses.
excerpt from What About the Native Americans?
by Mikal Eckstrom
The Homestead Act of 1862 offered a wide range of people the opportunity to own land. But the land that settlers hoped to claim was not uninhabited. Native Americans had lived throughout North America for centuries.
First, early European settlers along the East Coast displaced them. Then, as the colonists increased in number and the individual colonies formed a nation, the US government grew more aggressive in its ways to make room for European settlers. The government used removal, treaties, and armed conflicts to push Native Americans off the land and restrict their movements.
L20 | Topic and Details Map
Excerpt from “What About the Native Americans?” | Write the key details and main topic of the text.
A box for the Main Topic. Boxes for the Key Details are underneath.
Main Topic
Key Detail
Key Detail
Key Detail
L22 | Notice and Wonder Chart
The Buffalo Are Back | Write two things you notice and two things you wonder.
A one-column chart with heading labeled Notice.
Notice
L22 | Fluency Practice
The Buffalo Are Back
A two-column chart with headings labeled Initials and Comments.
1. Ask a friend or adult to listen to you read.
2. Read aloud the fluency passage three to five times.
3. Focus on the day’s fluency element as you read.
4. Ask the listener to initial and comment below.
Initials Comments
Day 1
Accuracy
Day 2
Phrasing
Day 3
Expression
Day 4
Rate
Fluency Elements
Accuracy: Correctly decode the words.
Phrasing: Group words into phrases, and pause for punctuation.
Expression: Use voice to show feeling.
Rate: Read at an appropriate speed.
Retelling
The Buffalo Are Back
by Jean Craighead George
One day a young girl walked into her house in Kansas waving a six-foot blade of grass. “Where did you find that?” her father asked. “That’s buffalo grass. It’s been extinct for years—or so we thought.”
“In my schoolyard,” she said. “That is land that was never plowed,” her father told her. Like many other people living on the prairie, he longed to see the beautiful grasses again. “Let’s try to find more of these native grasses,” he said. Perhaps the tall grass could come back to the plains.
L22 | Verb Cards
Present and Past Tense Verbs | Cut out the cards.
A two-column table with headings labeled Present Tense and Past Tense.
Present Tense Past Tense
begin take
began took
Present Tense Past Tense
Present Tense Past Tense
Present Tense Past Tense
L22 | Language Practice
Irregular Past Tense Verbs | Complete each sentence with the correct irregular past tense verb. Then, in step 6, write one sentence with any irregular past tense verb.
1. Many settlers (make) their homes from sod.
3. Settlers (begin) their trip in the spring.
2. The bison (eat) grass.
4. The Hidatsa (grow) corn.
5. Women and girls (dig) in the ground to plant corn.
6. .
L23 | Story Map
The Buffalo Are Back | Write what happens in the middle and at the end of the story.
Four boxes with headings labeled Characters, Setting, Problem, and Solution.
Beginning Middle
The Native Americans and buffalo live together on the prairie. They take care of the grass and each other.
The government had soldiers and settlers kill buffalo. Native Americans could not survive on the plains without the buffalo.
Middle End
| Informative Writing Planner
Module Task 3 | Fill in the planner with details for your paragraph.
A chart with four boxes labeled Introduction, Focus, Evidence, and Conclusion.
Introduction
Focus Evidence
Conclusion
Introduction
Focus
Evidence
L24 | Relationship Cards
The Buffalo Are Back | Cut out the cards.
buffalo
Native Americans
prairie
Module Task 3
Prompt: Write a paragraph to tell how people helped save the buffalo in the West.
LeTTers
L27 | Notice and Wonder Chart
Powwow Day | Write two things you notice and two things you wonder. Notice
A one-column chart with heading labeled Notice.
L27 | Fluency Practice
“Celebrating Powwows”
A two-column chart with headings labeled Initials and Comments.
1. Ask a friend or adult to listen to you read.
2. Read aloud the fluency passage three to five times.
3. Focus on the day’s fluency element as you read.
4. Ask the listener to initial and comment below.
Initials
Day 1
Accuracy
Day 2
Phrasing
Day 3
Expression
Day 4
Rate
Comments
Fluency Elements
Accuracy: Correctly decode the words.
Phrasing: Group words into phrases, and pause for punctuation.
Expression: Use voice to show feeling.
Rate: Read at an appropriate speed.
Retelling
“Celebrating
Powwows”
by Shawn Termin
Dancers swirl. Moccasins move up and down. Beads glitter. Feathers soar with the dancers. This is a special time. My family has traveled many miles to be together. We are at a powwow.
Going to a powwow is fun. Dancing in a powwow is even more fun. Many American Indian families dance. It brings parents and children together. Parents help make their children’s dance outfits. Each feather and design is important. They have special meanings.
Informative Writing Planner
Module Task 4 | Fill in the planner with details for your paragraph.
A chart with four boxes labeled Introduction, Focus, Evidence, and Conclusion.
Introduction
Focus Evidence
Conclusion
Introduction Focus
Evidence
C elebrating P owwows
by Shawn Termin
Dancers swirl. Moccasins move up and down. Beads glitter. Feathers soar with the dancers. This is a special time. My family has traveled many miles to be together. We are at a powwow.
Going to a powwow is fun. Dancing in a powwow is even more fun. Many American Indian families dance. It brings parents and children together. Parents help make their children’s dance outfits. Each feather and design is important. They have special meanings.
Most powwows are in the summer. It is good to be outdoors. Families camp out. Tents, campers, and tipis are everywhere. A small village comes alive.
“Dancers, line up! Grand Entry in five minutes!” A voice booms over the loudspeakers.
No one wants to miss the Grand Entry. The crowd hurries to find a seat. Dancers form a line at the dance circle entrance. It is a thrilling sight. Tradition is everywhere.
The powwow begins. The drums echo in the air. An honor guard carries flags into the circle. One is the United States flag. The other is Canada’s. Leading them is the Indian flag, the staff, a curved stick covered in fur and eagle feathers. One by one, the dancers enter.
Their outfits make a rainbow of color. The rainbow becomes a circle. After everyone enters the dance arena, the dancing stops. An elder blesses the gathering. The drum plays a veteran’s honor song. Veterans are people who served in the armed services. They are like warriors of the past. Then it is time to dance. The emcee calls for an Intertribal.
This is a social dance. Everyone—adults and children—dance together. Another social dance is the Round Dance. Everyone is invited to join. You do not have to be a Native American. All dancers join hands.
This is a friendship dance.
Some powwows are traditional. They are social gatherings. Other powwows have dance contests where cash prizes are
given out. The dance contest is divided into four main areas: Traditional, Fancy, Grass, and Jingle. Dancers are judged. Their steps are watched. Every movement counts. Are their outfits proper? There are many good dancers.The best will win prize money.
Cone-shaped tin jingles cover the dress of a woman Jingle Dress Dancer. These jingles create a soft melody of tinkling sounds. This is a musical dance. Every movement is heard. This is an Ojibwe dance of dignity.
All too soon the weekend comes to an end. Tents and tipis come down. Outfits are packed away. Families return home. They remember the songs, the gifts, new friends, and the dances. They have new memories— powwow memories!
L28 | Story Map
Powwow Day | Complete the story map.
Four boxes with headings labeled Characters, Setting, Problem, and Solution.
Characters Setting
Beginning (pages 3–7)
Middle (pages 8–21)
End (pages 22–29)
L29 | Drum’s Heartbeat Chart
Powwow Day | Complete the chart. page 12 page 21 page 27
What River Says About the Drum
How River Feels
Module Task 4
Prompt: Write a paragraph to tell why powwows are important to some Native nations in the United States and Canada.
ArTs & LeTTers
Great Minds
L35 | Informative Writing Planner
End-of-Module Task | Fill in the planner with details for your paragraph.
A chart with four boxes labeled Introduction, Focus, Evidence, and Conclusion. Introduction
Introduction Focus
Evidence
End-of-Module Task
Prompt: Write a paragraph to tell why the buffalo were important to the Lakota.
Credits
Great Minds® has made every effort to obtain permission for the reprinting of all copyrighted material. If any owner of copyrighted material is not acknowledged herein, please contact Great Minds for proper acknowledgment in all future editions and reprints of this module.
Craighead George, Jean. The Buffalo Are Back. Illustrated by Wendell Minor, Dutton Children’s Books, 2010.
“Demystified: How Are Buffalo and Bison Different?” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 4 May 2020, https://app.boclips.com/ videos/61c1df584a0cb63c9f1e5d20.
Eckstrom, Mikal. “What About the Native Americans?” Cobblestone, vol. 40, no. 8, Oct. 2019, pp. 12–15, https://cricketmedia. widencollective.com/dam/assetdetails/asset:7bfa7517-4e89-48b9-b54c-25ec4ed2cd15/false?inav=false
Lusted, Marcia Amidon. “Life in a Soddy.” Cobblestone, vol. 40, no. 8, 2019, pp. 18–20, https://cricketmedia.widencollective.com/dam/ assetdetails/asset:25b581e1-a4ab-414c-8b6b-1d2f2561bcbe/false?inav=false.
Myers, Marya. The Lakota and the Buffalo. Illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight. Geodes, level 2, module 2, set 1, Great Minds PBC, 2018.
Nelson, S. D. Buffalo Bird Girl: A Hidatsa Story. Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2012.
Parr, Ann. “Little Dugout on the Prairie.” Information box. “A Home in the Ground.” Illustrated by Lori McElrath-Eslick. Cricket, vol. 44, no. 6, July 2016, pp. 34–35, https://cricketmedia.widencollective.com/dam/assetdetails/asset:daf1c9a0-0def-42a8-8302-290eb83bc54c/ false?inav=false.
Sorell, Traci. Powwow Day. Illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight, Charlesbridge, 2022.
Waters, Kate. Where the Buffalo Roam: Bison in America. Penguin Young Readers, 2017.
WIDA. WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework 2020 Edition: Kindergarten–Grade 12. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, https://wida.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/resource/WIDA-ELD-Standards-Framework-2020.pdf.
