One+Year+in+Poems+Reinforcing+Activity 

__**Materials:**__ -//My Chinatown: One Year In Poems// book -Graphic Organizers for each student

__**Objective:**__ Students will be able to define culture and identify elements of culture from theirs and other's cultural heritage.

// Before Reading: // 1. Do a word splash with the word “culture.” Ask students what does culture mean? Where do you see culture? Who has culture? Write down their answers so students can see all of the different parts their classmates associate with the word "culture." 2. Give students a definition of culture According to the Michigan Department of Education, culture is defined as “the values, beliefs and perceptions of the world that are learned and are shared by members of a community or society, and which they use to interpret experience and to generate behavior, and that are reflected in their own behavior.”
 * Procedures: **

Culture includes art, language, religion, and food. In the United States there are many different cultures that have all contributed to the Western Hemisphere including American Indians, European, Asian, and African descents. Today we will be learning specifically about culture from Hong Kong.

// Read the book: // 1. Read the book aloud to the students.

// After Reading: // 1. Re-read the book either with the students or have students work in small groups. Stop at places where the author explains traditional culture and write the details on a graphic organizer under artistic expression, language, religion or food.

Example of what the graphic organizer can look like: -Dragons -Bamboo Snakes || -Fortune Telling -Dragon Boat Race -Moon Festival || -Curried Squid -Crispy Cakes -Tofu in syrup -Fried Noodles -Sweet Buns with Coconut or Bean Paste -Fish Balls ||
 * ** Cultural Expression ** || ** Example in //My Chinatown// ** ||
 * ** Artistic Expression ** || -Animal Chess Game
 * ** Language ** || -Chinese and English ||
 * ** Religion ** || -Chinese New Year
 * ** Food ** || -Kumquats

2. Have students then fill out a similar chart with their own culture. They may need to take this home to have their parents help fill out parts of their culture.*

3. Have students share their culture charts and create a class chart with the different artistic expressions, language, religion, and food aspects to show diversity in the classroom as well as in the Western Hemisphere. Ask students if there are any similarities between the each other, whether they are from the same or different cultures, what form of cultural expression are there vast differences between students' charts, if every student has a form of art, language, religion, and food in the culture. Once students visualize the differences and similarities among their classmates, help spark a discussion. What are they most/least surprised about one another? Is there a word(s) on a classmate's chart that a student has never heard of before? Use this time to encourage students to get to know each other beyond the external shell. End the discussion by explaining how everyone has an incredible amount to offer and we can all learn about various cultures and ways of life by simply sharing our stories.

The charts completed about the story as well as the charts completed about the students' lives illustrate to students the evidence of cultural diversity in their classroom as well as in the United States as a whole. This diversity exists in the United States because of the many different ethnicities interacting with one another.

*Extension Activity-Have students write a poem in the same format as in //My Chinatown// and have them relate aspect(s) of their culture to a particular season.

__** Other Ohio Academic Standards You Could Use with this book: **__ First Grade: Geography, Human Systems, 7.Diverse cultural practices address basic human needs in various ways and may change over time.

Fourth Grade: Geography, Human Systems 13. The population of the United States has changed over time, becoming more diverse (e.g., racial, ethnic, linguistic, religious). Ohio's population has become increasingly reflective of the cultural diversity of the United States.

Definition of Social Studies Terms: [] where the definition of culture (above) can be located.
 * Resources: **