HGA | ASGI00

Culture Collage
June 2000

PURPOSE:
We are touched by many different parts of this world whether it be through food,celebrations or the everyday items that we use. Many children in Hawai’i come from many rich and diverse cultures. Thus, their cultural heritage is an important source of strength and guidance in their daily lifestyle.
Through this lesson, children will be able to investigate their cultural heritage and make observations on how much influence their past has on their current values and lifestyles.

Focus Question:
Why does cultures play an important part of people’s lives?

Hawaii Content Standards:
HUMAN SYSTEMS: Students analyze how people organize their activities on earth through their analysis of human populations, cultural mosaic, economic interdependence, settlement, and conflict and cooperation.
Benchmark: Examine and explain the factors that influence where people migrate and settle.

Geographic Standards and Benchmarks:
HUMAN SYSTEMS: The student knows and understands the characteristics, distribution, and complexity of earth’s cultural mosaics.

Geographic Theme: Location, Region, and Place

Objective: By the end of this lesson, children will be able to:
1. Identify similarities and differences among cultures
2. Show ways that language and arts are essential parts of a culture
3. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of their ethnic background and understand the uniqueness of other ethnic groups and how their diversity lends to making up a healthy neighborhood.
Geographic Skills/ Thinking Skills:
Asking/ Answering Geographic Questions:
What is culture and how do they develop?
Which culture has the most influence on my life today?

Acquire Geographic Information:
Students will gather information about their cultural heritage through a variety of sources such as maps, atlases, magazines and encyclopedias.

Organizing Geographic Information:
Obtain information about particular cultures and determine what influences it has on their family life today

Analyzing Geographic Information:
Create a mural representing each culture.

Larger Units:
Lesson can be used with a unit featuring countries from around the world.

Materials Needed:
Part 1: Where Does it Come From? sheets

1. Distribute copies of the handout From which Culture? 2. Have students read the story, underline each artifact or custom.
3. Instruct students to find and mark each location mentioned in the story on their world desk maps.
4. Discuss any patterns of cultural diffusion--sharing ideas and/or products.
PART 3: Discovering your cultural heritage
1. Discuss the meaning of culture. What makes makes up a culture?
2. Ask students to list items they think are central to defining culture.
3. With the land map on the projector, discuss the role of the physical landscape as a “stage” upon which culture develops.
4. Build the concept of culture by building a picture: place each of the 4 overlays on the physical base, one at a time. Have students identify the cultural characteristics contained on each overlay, discussing each item before proceeding to the next layer.
5. Put one overlay on the projector alone. Discuss why each layer is meaningless without the others.
6. Read aloud People and facilitate brief discussion.
7. For homework, have children ask parents what ethnicities make up their personal cultural heritage. The children will soon discover that their cultural heritage is made up of what their mom and dad are.
8. Have children locate their ethnicities on a large map. E.g. If student is Polish, his cultural heritage came from Poland.
9. Allow children to explore atlases to find out where their country is located and information about the place and people there.
10. Have children label the continents and oceans on their blank map. Instruct children to color in map locating the countries specifically related to their heritage. Then color in oceans blue.
11. Discuss any similarities among children. After some discussion, children will be able to make distinct generalizations about students with a particular heritage. E.g. Afro-American children are usually dark skinned, children from European countries usually have blond hair. Be careful here not to use stereotypes.
12. Read aloud Faces and facilitate brief discussion.

PART 4: Identifying with your cultural heritage
1. Have students brainstorm a list of things that represent a certain country or cultural heritage. Be sure that children recognize things such as landmarks, land forms, language, food, music, flag, etc.
2. Have students divide their paper according to the amount of heritages they have leaving the a square (5x6) blank in the middle.
3. Allow students to draw in each box the different things that represent that particular country. Use the chart for more ideas if children get stuck for ideas.
4. Children can be allowed to bring in pictures or magazine cut outs that represent their culture to put on their collage.
5. In the middle block, glue an outline of O’ahu map and have children draw things that represent the culture they live in today. This highlights the collage explicitly showing that Hawai’i is a melting pot for many cultures.
6. Have students color their drawings.
7. Have students write an essay analyzing which culture has the most influence on their life today. They may write about traditions, beliefs and customs that their family continues to practice.

Assessment strategies:
1. Observations- Are children able to identify things that relate to a particular culture? Can children utilize the resources to get accurate information on various cultures?
2. Rubrics