THE RED RIVER
BORDER

Grade Level:
4^th-8^th

Standards Integration:
Minnesota:
Grades 4-5: Arts and Literature: Artistic Creativity, Performance, and Expression
B. In visual arts, demonstrate the ability to communicate ideas effectively through at least three different media and techniques, use elements and principles of art to effectively communicate ideas, associate artwork with various cultures or historical periods, and describe selected works of art in terms of the elements and principles of visual or media art.
Grades 6-8: Arts and Literature: Artistic Creativity and Performance
3d. Performing or presenting in each form by creating original works in a variety of contexts-visual arts.

North Dakota:
Grades K-4: Visual Art: Structure and Function
4.2.3 Use visual art structures and functions of works of art to communicate ideas. Visual Art: Connections
4.6.2 Know connections between the visual arts and the other disciplines in the curriculum.
Grades 5-8: Visual Art: Visual Art Media, Techniques, and Processes
8.4.2 Understand how different techniques are used to create visual art.
Visual Art: Connections
8.6.2 Understand the relationship between the visual arts and other disciplines in the curriculum.

Materials:
Found objects such as branches, leaves, etc., construction paper or sides of boxes, art supplies such as markers, colored pencils.

Objectives:

Through careful study, the students will gain a deeper understanding of the landscape of the Red River Valley.

Background:
The Red River has served many purposes since its creation over 10,000 years ago. It has served as a natural divide between the Dakota Sioux and the Anishinaabe peoples, among other native tribes. It has been used as a trade route for voyageurs; fur trading companies, oxcart trains, and steamboat merchants. Most recently is has been used to form an artificially designated border between North Dakota and Minnesota. But most significantly, it divides two bioregions: the woodlands of the Great Lakes area and the prairies of the Great Plains.

Pre-Visit Activity:
Take the students on a nature walk, asking them to pay particular attention to the geographical features of the landscape. Depending on where you live in the Valley, perceptions will be different. Allow the students to collect materials, which best express, the landscape of the Valley in their opinions.

Post-Visit Activity:
Invite the students to create an art piece that represents the area where they live. Encourage them to use materials gathered on the nature walk to create their artwork. If the student lives along the river or has memories of the landscape, allow the student to incorporate this into the art piece. Discuss how the Red River Valley exists within or between two very different landscapes, the wooded lakes of Minnesota and the prairies of North Dakota. Ask the students to consider why the landscape separates the bioregions.