Inspire first grade artists to learn about abstract and realistic art while reading Eric Carle's Where are you Going? To See My Friend. Young artists design and make a mural collage by tearing shapes of paper while comparing English and...

How does background and experience influence one's point of view? Dwight Okita's famous poem about the Japanese internment is the text used to explore this essential question. Class members study primary documents to gain the necessary...

As part of the study of Japanese cultural history, introduce your class members to Chanoyu, the Way of Tea. After a discussion of the history and key elements of Chanoyu, class groups perform the ceremony.

Japanese architecture is rich in symbolism and culture. Critical thinkers engage in three activities intended to expose them to the beauty of Japan. They read through the book, Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki and watch the...

Middle schoolers have a bushel of fun as they engage in activities and research core facts about apples. Packed with suggestions for in-class activities and out-of-class research, the colorful 6-page packet is sure to satisfy hungry...

Check those sources carefully. Scholars learn to analyze and critique primary sources with the work they completed in the previous activity. Learners compare and contrast sources that agree and disagree about Japanese-American internment...

Class members investigate the Jim Crow Laws, Executive Order 9066, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the Indian Removal Act to gather information about not only the challenges encountered by diverse groups of Americans, but their...

Have you used the directed reading thinking activity in your classroom? Doubling as either a prereading strategy, or a during reading strategy, it helps readers connect the historical background of the text to the text itself. As the...

What would your class like to learn about Japanese culture? Prepare them for a novel unit about Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter with a KWL chart. After listing what they already know about Japanese culture, they write questions...

Examine the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. After reading an article from the New York Times and exploring the author's word choice, young readers find the central idea in the text and work on researching...

Eleventh graders examine the political demands put on one of four groups living in America during WWII. Each class member is asked to research and write a paper describing the homefront experience for women, Hispanics, African-Americans,...

Dazai Osamu’s short story, “A Sound of Hammering” is the focus of a three-day investigation of modern Japanese literature and life in post-World War II Japan. The events in Osamu’s story mirror those in his own life, and give a...

Language learners use the debate format to practice formulating, expressing, and defending their ideas. Working in teams, class members develop resolutions, use opinion indicators to express their opinions and reasons, and prepare...

Origami is an excellent way to combine Japanese culture, art, and geometric shapes into one engaging instructional activity! Scholars begin by listening to the story Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and learn the origin of...

Imagine being forced against your will behind barbed wire for doing nothing but being yourself. Scholars investigate the impact Japanese-American internment camps had during World War II. Through video and archival evidence, they create...

For any teacher who is planning a field trip to Missouri's Botanical Garden, this instructional activity packet is a must-have! In it, young learners engage in pre-visit activities so they will be prepared to get the most out of their...

Help young readers align character relationships in an activity for Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter. After kids discuss the characters and how they relate to each other, they use index cards and a graphic organizer to outline the...

Japan's Taisho Period was a time when authors like Akutagawa and other Japanese modernists began to experiment with point of view and literary form, making the literature produced during this time period a natural choice for teaching...

Young theatre artists engage in a scavenger hunt to acquaint themselves with set design. The challenge is to search the site and match a separate maquette with each of the 24 clues.

Japanese Internment and World war II are the focus of a KWHL strategy used to scaffold for a reading of Journey to Topaz,  Yoshiko Uchida's story of 11-year-old Yuki Sakane and her family. Complete directions for the activity...

Here's a great way to make vocabulary words drawn from Edward Bloor's novel Tangerine memorable. Kids create a word square, and in one quadrant write the word. A picture goes in a second quadrant, the definition in a third, and a...

Not all technology is digital. Teach learners about the low-tech maker movement with a photo essay about six artisans from California and two articles about the local creator movement. After tackling the photo essay in small...