"The Life of Crazy Horse" Board game
Lori Keller -- Maysville - 5th grade American History
July 2005

Lesson Overview: The students will use key events in the life of 
Crazy Horse to make a board game. The students will use the 
internet to answer questions about Crazy Horse, then use those 
answers on their game board spaces. The students will also be 
required to a 4 sentence paragraph explaining what they learned 
about Crazy Horse (could be an English/Writing assignment). I would 
precede this lesson with the "Time for Kids: Crazy Horse Mountain" 
story from my Reading series to give the kids some background 
knowledge of Crazy Horse.


Objectives: After completing this lesson the student will be able 
to:
* recount major events in the life of Crazy Horse by writing a 4 
sentence paragraph.
GLE: 2. Knowledge of continuity & change in the history of Missouri 
& the U.S.
A1 Native American Cultures & E5 Westward Expansion & settlement of 
the U.S.
GLE: Writing 2 Compose well developed text using standard English 
conventions (B/C/D/E/F)

* correctly define 10 new Indian vocabulary words used in the game.

Materials: (for each student)
* large tan construction paper for board game (placemat size)
* posterboard to glue game board onto
* markers &/or colored pencils
* 5 index cards (cut in half for 10 vocab playing cards)
*scissors

Class Time: 2 - 50 minute class periods. One for research of life 
events and game design discussion. Assign the game board design for 
homework. (possibly give then 2 nights or weekend) Second class 
period to play games with partner/groups, complete vocab quiz, and 
write their paragraph.

Teacher Input:
I would open the lesson by reading some biographical info about 
Crazy Horse (on the 2 websites)
"There were some major events in Crazy Horse's life which made him a 
great Lakota leader." "As you know in any board game there are 
positive and negative things that make the game interesting and 
fun." "We're going to use these events of Crazy Horse's life to make 
a board game."

10 Research Questions about Crazy Horse's Life:
1. About what year do researchers believe Curly was born?
2. What was the battle called in which Conquering Bear was killed?
3. When was the Great Council of the Teton Lakotas?
4. Why was Curly given the name Crazy Horse?
5. What was Crazy Horse's role in the Fetterman massacre on Dec. 21, 
1866?
6. When was the Wagon Box Fight?
7. Why did He Dog and 2 Moons bring their people to Crazy Horse's 
camp on March 17, 1876?
8. What major battle took place on June 25, 1876?
9. What was Crazy Horse's daughter's name? What happened to her?
10. How and where did Crazy Horse die?
websites:
jbtank.com/indians/crazyhorse.html
emayzine.com/lectures/CRAZYHOR.html

Activities: "Making the Game Board" discussion
Have the students brainstorm:
* ideas to use as game player markers (corn, beads, arrow heads, 
etc.)
* 5 positive events in Crazy Horse's life that would move a player 
forward
* 5 negative events in Crazy Horse's life that would move a player 
backward
(These events would be in addition to the 10 events that were 
researched. These would be more general like winning raids on Crows, 
or U.S. soldiers coming near camp. These would be 'scattered' across 
the board along with the 10 life events.)
* 10 Indian vocabulary terms to use as "card" spaces on board
(if they land on those spaces they must define the vocab word on the 
card they chose from the deck. If correct they move ahead a space, 
if incorrect they move back a space.) These words could be from 
Social Studies Textbook or classroom research books.
*game playing directions and game objectives. (could discuss other 
popular board games)

Questions for review:
After the students had a chance to play their games with 
partners/groups we would discuss:
* differences among the games
* problems that arose during play (directions, objectives, spaces, 
etc.)

Students would be quizzed over the 10 Crazy Horse questions and the 
10 new vocabulary terms.

Assessment:
Game Board Scoring Guide (25 points):
Style and neatness (0-5 points)
Clear directions (0-5)
Crazy Horse Information (0-5)
Game Board design (0-5)
Game player tokens (0-2)
Game Objective (0-3)

Paragraph Scoring Guide: (20 points) Rubistar rubric #1153246
Sentence structure (1-4)
Focus on topic (1-4)
Capitalization & punctuation (1-4)
Grammar & punctuation (1-4)
Penmanship (1-4)

Extension: This would be just one lesson in an Indian Unit, in which 
the students would learn about the events between 1850 & 1880 which 
led to the Indians being moved to Reservations. (such as The Morman 
Cow incident, Fort Laramie Treaty, Fetterman massacre, Wounded Knee, 
Battle of Little Big Horn, etc.)

References:
* Mari Sandoz "Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas"
websites:
jbtank.com/indians/crazyhorse.html
emayzine.com/lectures/CRAZYHOR.html


“A People without history are like the wind on the buffalo grass…”
Lakota