Clans and Tartans

1. Students find out about Scottish and Irish clans and their historic Tartans. They can search for one with their family name. Or invent one! Will you use your plaid to make a wallhanging, nameplate, or door hanger? Choose the size of paper that works best. Fold it if necessary to make a card or report cover. Then decorate it in a colorful plaid! Here’s how.
2. Using two or more Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils, draw stripes at an angle across your paper until it is completely covered. Use the eraser to remove lines in the opposite direction of the stripes. This forms a check pattern similar to Scottish plaid.
3. To embellish the design, erase a shield in the center and color it. Use your imagination to add symbols to your shield. Write and outline the title of the report or other words after erasing space for them.

LA: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

LA: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

LA: Participate in shared research and writing projects.

LA: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade level topics with peers and adults in small and large groups.

LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

SS: Describe ways in which language, stories, folktales, music, and artistic creations serve as expressions of culture and influence behavior of people living in a particular culture.

SS: Use appropriate resources, data sources, and geographic tools to generate, manipulate, and interpret information.

VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

Prior to investigating specific Tartan plaids, display several in the classroom and allow students time to view and discuss the designs. Students may want to include a discussion of whether or not they have ever seen this type of design before and, if so, where.

Students research other fabric designs such as hound's-tooth, lattice, trellis, Kente cloth, etc. from around the world. In their investigation, students identify where these fabric designs are found, how they were designed, etc. The world map used for this exercise should be hand-drawn by students.