People and Places Amy Hoffman and Gretchen Wells EDE 300

Ethnicity and Diversity Grade level: K-3, depends on child’s academic level. This lesson was made to expose children to the many different types of ethnicities and cultures around the world.

Objectives To expose K-3rd grade by visually showing them different ethnicities. To teach the children to respect others from different cultures. To let the children examine the similarities and differences among the ethnicities that will be presented.

Materials Needed General materials: A wide range of books, construction paper, crayons, markers, pencils, glue sticks, tape, scissors. Specific materials: Depends on each individual lesson. Video “Children’s Stories from Africa”, string, lyrics to songs, “Where is the Rain”, and “Song of Kites”, sheet of Chinese vocabulary words, and origami paper. Resources: Computers, television, and VCR.

Web Sites for Teachers

Web Sites for Students

Student Activities The next slides are lessons and activities dealing with the African-Americans and Asian-Americans This is only a brief overview of two cultures in the world. There are many other cultures that the children can learn about.

African-Americans Activity 1: First the students should visit the web site: Activity 2: Show the video “Africa’s Gift to America”. Activity 3: Learn and sing the African song, “Where is the rain”. Talk about the dry season and the animals that are in the song

Activity 1: Visiting a web site Learn about Africa, the people, the land, and the culture. Explore the website, and take the learning quizzes throughout the site. When finished visiting the site, write a sentence or two and draw a picture about something new you learned from the website.

Activity 2: Video First the class will watch the video “Children’s Stories from Africa Vol.1”. This video has six stories. The stories are about age-old tales of African wildlife, and they teach simple morals. After watching the video, have children make animal masks, and then have them act out scenes from the video.

Activity 3: Song The teacher will first sing the song to the class. Then an echo style of teaching. Finally the class will sing it together. Following this the class will discuss the song and how they are unique to Africa. Also, discuss the importance of food, water, and shelter to the animals.

Where Is The Rain The giraffe and the elephant went for a walk. They stopped in some shade and started to talk; “I wish it would rain,” said the giraffe with a sigh. “I’m tired of watching the clouds pass us by!” “Yes,” said the elephant, “Where is the rain? I wish I could eat fresh green leaves again. The sun is so hot and the land is so dry; When will the rain fall from the sky?” Later in the day the sky turned grey, The flying ants flew out to say, “The rain is coming! We smell it in the air! And in the distance, thunder we hear!” The giraffe and the elephant looked up at the sky And heard the black eagle give forth his cry, “The rain has come, The rivers will flow; The dry season is over; now the green grass will grow!”

Assessment Did the information that the children wrote from the web site show that something new was learned? Was the video an effective tool for teaching the culture of Africa? Did the song help the children relate to the lifestyle of the people of Africa? Did the mask’s give the children an opportunity to express their creativity and new knowledge?

Asian-Americans Activity 1: Visit the web site Activity 2: Sing the song: “Song of kites”, a Japanese song. Activity 3: Make kites out of construction paper to hang on the bulletin board.

Activity 1: Visiting the web site Learn about Asia, the people, the land, and the culture. Explore the student part of the website, and the activities. When finished visiting the site, practice writing five vocabulary words in Chinese. Then the student may practice the art of origami.

Activity 2: Song First the teacher will sing the song, “Song of Kites” to the class. Then they will sing it in echo style. Last they will sing it together. The teacher will point out to the class that even though children in Japan are on the other side of the world they still enjoy flying kites just as much as American children.

Song Of Kites Kites are rising in the sky, Catching fair winds far up high, Rise and rise to the clouds that float, Fly high up in the sky! Kites are neat in the sky, Dancing, leaping way up high, Rising to the white clouds, Fly high up in the sky! Falling, falling is the kite, Run and run to keep it high, Oh, the kite is rising now, Hold, hold your string tight!

Activity 3: Making kites First the students will receive materials for making kites, including a sheet of Japanese symbols. They will decorate their kites using creativity. They will share their kite with the class and the teacher will display them on the bulletin board.

Assessment Did the children write in Chinese successfully? Was this developmentally appropriate? Did the song, “Song of Kites” help the children come to the realization that they are similar to children from all over the world? Was this a good opportunity for the children to express their creativity?

People and Places The purpose of this unit is to inform the students that although they are all unique in their own ways and that we may look different on the outside, we are all the same on the inside.