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Richard Rosales.
AnonymousI picked up the book Teacher Talk: Multicultural Lessons Plans for the Elementary Classroom by Deborah Eldridge at a used bookstore about three years ago. The book has compiled teacher-created multicultural units and published the lesson plans and resources used by the teahcers. One of the units is called, "Domo Arigato: A study of Japan, its people and culture." It's a series of 15 lessons, that are simple enough, but entirely engaging, especially for younger elementary students.
Lesson 1- Intro- including maps and activating prior knowledge
Lesson 2- Sakura- Cherry Blossom song and ribbon dance
Lesson 3- What a Country!- flag, islands, bodies of water
Lesson 4- Population facts- discussion and game about population
Lesson 5- Art Forms- brush painting and origami
Lesson 6- Celebrate!- holidays, w/ flying carp project
Lesson 7- Haiku-
Lesson 8- Home Sweet Home- items in the home and make a "shoji"
Lesson 9- I'm hungry- food and using chopsticks
Lesson 10- Speaking and Writing- learning words and symbols
Lesson 11- "Itchy Knee?"- counting in Japanese
Lesson 12- Literature- folk tale study
Lesson 13- History- ancient and modern
Lesson 14- Biographies- Japanese Americans
Lesson 15- Pack it Together- create suitcase to hold their work and a passport to document travels.
It's a great book. For 6th grade teacher's, there's a MesoAmerican unit, there's a weather unit, one called, "knots, quilts, and journeys", another unit is about celebrations and holidays around the world. It's a grea collection that makes me feel a little better about not having to recreate the wheel to introduce new cultures in my class.
Here's the book on amazon:
AnonymousThe above link to ERIC has a full-text.pdf file of one teacher's sequence of lesson plans to introduce his 3rd grade students to what a day in a Korean elementary school would be like.
The first lesson is an overview lesson of a general day at school- how kids gets to school, how the grades work, what children do at school, as well as a classroom bell schedule for a class. Students are given those resource sheets and prompted to do various actitivties with the information
The second lesson is what school lunch in Korea is like. It has students comparing American lunches with Korean lunches. There is a visual representation of an aluminum tray and how all the Korean lunch foods are separate. There is a written explanation of the lunch foods and lunch procedures and customs.
The third lesson is a typical day in 3rd grade. Students compare and contrast their classroom set ups, rules, procedures, and activities with information provided about a Korean third grade, with a map of the room and description of the class.
The final lesson gives students a map and description of an elementary school in Korea. Students compare their school and available activities with the school in Korea.
The lessons are simple and the information and resource sheets are provided to help students gain some insight into schooling in other countries. I like that it includes a lesson on school lunches. Food is one topic that engages all learners!
AnonymousFor the upcoming New Year's celebration, I have utilized the help from some of my parents to help me make some fortune for some hand-made fortune cookies. Writing is a huge component in the California Standards and I want my students to understand the importance of knowing good sentence structure. The parents will help me make the cookies, while the students will be responsible for coming up with some completed sentences and idioms they've learned in class. They will transfer what they know into small strips of paper that you will see in fortune cookies -- it teaches them editing skills as well as have fun at the same time. Some of the students have noticed that fortune cookies often have lucky numbers and/or Chinese lessons on the back of each fortune. They suggested math problems in place of lucky numbers and Korean/Japanese writing lessons in place of the Chinese ones since that is what they've covered in class. Students stay active and take ownership in their learning.
AnonymousI'm interested in this book. I think I can use the lessons for my 6, 7 and 8 graders. I have actually tried to teach a lesson about Japanese food, and my students asked me why Japanese like sashimi and sushi so much. If my special ed students can react excitedly to this kind of topic, I think that's a good sign that I'm connecting with them on matters East Asian. I want to try this one. Thanks for the info.
AnonymousSince I teach third grade, I was thinking that an appropriate introduction to China would be Asian art. I picked up a pamphlet on symbolism in Chinese art at the Phoenix Art Museum and believe the symbolism and stories in artwork can teach volumes to children. What do you think?
AnonymousI think in the spirit of the New Lunar Year, I think it would be great for students to make gifts (cards, paper flowers, etc) and take it to a convalescent home. There are some in Chinatown and I believe that many elderly are neglected--what a way to bring social justice from the classroom to real life. I had a chance to visit with students (in the past) soup kitchens and organization that packaged food for the needy and both parents and students came away, revived and changed from the experience. I think it is important to plant ideas of service --that it is a gift that keeps giving.
AnonymousThats a great idea of you Sarah. I hope things go well and Happy New Years!
AnonymousIf you go on to google and simply type in Panda Pod Cast - it will come back with reference sites for zoos with Panda Camera's. The students enjoy watching the animals and it is a great way to elicit interest in endangered species. Most of these sites are quite manageable and easy for students to access with the Palos Verdes On-line Network system. It worked in getting my students to begin to talk about China.
AnonymousI just read the thread about saving the giant pandas. Just wanted to add that the kids could raise money doing chores at home to donate to WWF. They can adopt a "symbolic" panda in which WWF will send the adoption paper, a stuffed replica, and a fact sheet on the panda. This is so motivating for the kids, and they become very interested in global conservation when you "put faces to problems". My kids do this every year with different animals and I see such a change in their priorities and what a great way to teach about other countries!
AnonymousWhat grade do you teach? I think it would be interesting to hear kids' solutions at different grade levels. Teaching third, I sometimes get impossible ideas from the kids, but at other times they come up with very practical solutions. Maybe teachers could tell them about the reserve after they come up with their own conservation ideas and then discuss the feasibility of creating more reserves. We could tie this in to the situations right here at home with animals in areas that are coming in to new developments and being killed. It would be a heartfelt and interesting debate!
AnonymousI found a "virtual China" website http://www.kiku.com/electric_samurai/virtual_china/index.html
It breaks the country into 6 regions.
I am going to break my class into cooperative groups assigning each to a region.
They will create a poster with pictures and facts learned from the website.
The group will present the poster to the class.
AnonymousThis sounds like a great way to introduce the topic of China to very young students. I am a first grade teacher and am having a hard time trying to figure out how to relate the study of China to my actual curriculum. We have a unit coming up on the needs of living things. This might be a good direction for me to take.
AnonymousThere is an article at http://www.gazette.net/stories/030608/largnew174328_32389.shtml describing how a physical education teacher visited schools in China and observed the incorporation of exercise and nutrition throughout the school day. It appears that there is a much greater influence of both in the educational systems she observed.
AnonymousI have found that my 3rd grade class is extremely interested in the Bejing Olympics. The website is http://en.beijing2008.cn/. I have been having my students go on the website and present a news report to the rest of the class. This keeps everyone up to date on the happenings of the olympics.
AnonymousI just viewed the Olympic website, and it's loaded with great stuff. I'm going to have my students track the progress of the torch http://torchrelay.beijing2008.cn/en/journey/journeymap/
until the end of the school year and do research on each location. The interactive torch relay map on the website makes the research easier. Thanks for the tip on this great website.