Cultures: Celebrating Our Differences Essay, Research Paper

Celebrating Our Differences Around the World

Overview

Students will learn about similarities and differences between their own culture and the culture of other countries. Students will “celebrate our difference around the world” by participating in a vicarious voyage program with Semester at Sea. Students will write letters to their pen-pals and learn about different countries from the letters they receive and through various activities.

Activities

Reading

? Read stories about other countries

? Read letters to pen-pals

? Read letters received from pen-pals

Math

? Keep a record of nautical miles traveled by S.S. Universe Explorer

Science

? Discover properties of sinking and floating

Social Studies

? Cultures of countries visited by pen-pals (focus on food, clothes, music, etc.)

- Bahamas, Cuba, Brazil, S. Africa, Kenya, India, Malaysia, Vietnam,

China, Japan

Art

? Create artwork from countries studied (kufi, ostrich mask, twirling palm puppet, paper uchiwa, Chinese egg panting, Vietnamese dragon, etc.)

Music

? Learn songs from different countries

Writing

? Write to pen-pal