Belonging, understanding and appreciating differences; learning to get along in families and with others. 

CONNECTIONS TO MANDATE/MISSION:

Students develop a sense of personal identity as they explore family likenesses and differences from their own home and other parts of the world, and learn how to get along with each other.

CORE CONCEPTS:

• Change:  how traditions and people change over time.
• Conflict:  how people all over the world abide by rules of conduct and resolve their conflicts.
• Culture:  study of customs and values of families from other cultural groups.
• Interdependence:  relationships between family members.
• Perspective:  how people see themselves and others.
• Responsibility:  how rules affect the way people live.
• Scarcity:  system of living and working that is created by limited resources.

During this unit, lesson, or activity, students work individually or in groups:

• read or listen (from books, films, videos, etc.) to stories about family life in other places; role-play family members.
• read Everyone Cooks Rice and discuss.
• establish pen pals with students from another school, state, or country.
• make a collage of pictures of friends and family focusing on "things we do together" or "being a friend."
• work together as a class to solve a conflict or problem.
• cook and taste different foods from other parts of the world.
• take an imaginary journey through another country.
• compare games, toys, sports, work, and schools from other places.
• write experience stories about each activity.
• ecreate celebrations from other cultures.

As visitors enter the classroom, the students are preparing to cook rice as a culminating activity for a unit on how human beings meet their needs.  The teacher has read the books Everyone Cooks Rice and How My Parents Learned to Eat.   The class has a discussion about the different ways the rice was prepared and the ingredients added.  With parent volunteers, the children are divided into three cooking centers, and they are following recipes they had chosen to prepare the rice, measuring ingredients, and making observations on changes in the rice.

On a bulletin board are pictures that students drew or cut from magazines that show ethnic and cultural groups working and playing together.  In a guided writing lesson, small groups of students wrote sentences about how adults helped them learn to get along with others.  Students had listened to The Mitten and Rechenka's Eggs and discussed how people and animals stay warm and care for each other.  Students write and dictate sentences in their journals about how people have helped them or how they have been helpful.  In the art center, students are drawing pictures of these situations.

In the hallway, students have written a language experience story entitled "How I Learned to Get Along with Others".  They had interviewed their parents to find out how they had learned to share and play with others.

LEARNING ASSESSMENTS:

At the conclusion of units, lessons, or activities students might

• use pictures or photographs to compare likenesses and differences in food, clothing, etc. 
• retell a story about people getting along together. 
• create a "big book" about the importance of taking care of each other. 
• draw a picture of one responsibility you have at home and one you have at school. 
• create a play in which the players solve a conflict.