Curated OER
Exploring Cultural Rituals
Students analyze images and music of common rituals in America with those of other countries. They use worksheets to compare and contrast the events.
Smithsonian Institution
Dia de los Muertos: Honoring our Ancestors Through Community Celebration
Oral storytelling has been an important part of every culture. The time-honored practice uses stories as a conduit for a culture's values and customs from one generation to the next. Keep the tradition going with a family interview...
Curated OER
Rice Is All Around Us!
Learners grasp the complexity and similarities of traditional foods in various countries and cultures. Then they compare and contrast family food traditions with their classmates. Students also create a decorated box to store recipes...
Curated OER
Key Ingredients: America By Food
In this set of five lessons, students analyze the important of food traditions, identity, and history. Students analyze how food traditions contribute to family identity, investigate family food traditions through interviews, and compare...
Penguin Books
Folklore and Fairytales: A Guide to Using Traditional Tales and Reimagined Classics
Every culture has its own stories to tell. An interesting educator's guide shares a large collection of fairytales and folktales, some from different cultures and some re-creations of classics. A summary and brief teaching ideas...
Curated OER
Traditional African Society
Engaging your class in African culture and traditions, this presentation provides photographs, historical contexts, and societal structures from different African tribes. It poses discussion topics about the benefits and disadvantages of...
Missouri Department of Elementary
A Stranger Among Us
The final lesson in the R.E.S.PE.C.T series asks eighth graders to expand their vision beyond the walls of the classroom and to consider how they can promote acceptance and respect of others within in the global community. "A Stranger...
Curated OER
A Cultural Palette
Students examine pieces of music and art that represent who they are. They study Haitian culture and traditions by performing the musical production "Once on the Island." They watch and discuss the film "The Nature of Music."
Curated OER
Learning about a Culture from a Story
Students identify environmental influences on a traditional culture, animals and plants important to a traditional culture, and interpret the identity of a traditional culture from objects and a creation story.
Curated OER
Learning about a Culture from Objects
Students identify materials used in several traditional cultural objects, then interpret possible functions of several traditional cultural objects.
Curated OER
International Festival - Cultures of the World Research Projects
Seventh graders identify common elements of cultures from around the world. They create a group research project, which illustrates the elements of culture from a specific country of the Eastern World. Finally, they compare these...
Curated OER
Discovering What Makes Up Culture
Third graders examine images of other cultures and express what they see that identifies those cultures. They discuss the components of the Jewish culture before listening to Miriam Nerlove Albert's, Shabbat. They write questions about...
Curated OER
Mongolia: Land, History and Culture
Students examine the land, culture and history of Mongolia. In groups, they use the internet to determine what groups held power and during what time periods. They also identify the most important parts of their culture and why they...
Curated OER
European Capital of Culture 2008
Students explore the meaning of culture. They read and discuss news stories concerning cultural cities. Students design and create a campaign poster and text that demonstrates why a particular city should be known as a place of culture.
Curated OER
Cultural Values Messages in the Giant Kites of Guatemala
Students describes ways in which the arts serve as expressions of culture. They explain how some forms of cultural communication contributes to societal cohesion and/or division. Students detect and analyze explicit and implicit messages...
Curated OER
Cultures around the World
Students explore Canadian culture. In this Canadian Culture lesson, students participate in a general discussion about Canada, then create a symbol for Canada as part of a class collage.
Curated OER
Chopsticks and Chinese Food Culture
Sixth graders discover why food is an important part of a culture. As a class, they practice the table manners used in China and identify the underlying values. They develop the skills to properly use chopsticks to end the lesson.
Curated OER
Native American Cultures
Students investigate the Native American Heritage and explore their customs cultures. They discover characteristics of the Native Americans through the study of their art, artifacts, stories and symbols.
Curated OER
Harvest Food Garland
Students explore the celebration and traditions of various harvest celebrations such as Thanksgiving, Sukkot, and Kwanzaa. They design paper harvest decorations such as fruits, vegetables and wildflowers. Using these drawings, students...
Curated OER
Chinese New Year: Year of the Pig
What happens during Chinese New Year? Use this presentation to provide a brief glimpse of the 15 day celebration. It covers basic traditions, but fails to provide deeper reasons why each tradition exists. However, it may be useful for...
Curated OER
Visual Art: Independence Days Around the World
Students research patriotic holidays from around the world. After reading about their own country's independence day, they choose another country and examine the traditions and symbols associated with it. Using cardboard, ribbon, and...
Curated OER
Shintoism
Take a trip to Japan in this bright and vivid presentation that displays the philosophies and traditions of Shintoism. Pictures of temples, shrines, and theater productions will enthrall your class and bring their study of world...
Curated OER
Kwanzaa: Invitations and Menus
It's time to celebrate Kwanzaa in the classroom! After studying the traditions of the holiday, learners design a menu decorated in the colors and symbols associated with Kwanzaa.
Curated OER
Canvas Folding Screen
Elementary, middle, and high schoolers design canvas folding screens; much like the ones that are so prevalent in Asian homes. Be warned that this art lesson requires a lot of materials, so it will be expensive to implement. However, the...