Message from aronan
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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: