top of page
Banquet

Cultural Cravings

Unit Plan

Background:

​

When designing my unit, my initial aim was to focus on my English Language learners (EL) and how integrating their home languages would improve their literacy skills. However, I wanted to extend my proposal in a way that would benefit my entire class because this is the first year (for most) that they will be learning English Language Arts in an academic setting. I considered a way to provide all students with opportunities to showcase their funds of knowledge to not only improve their literacy skills but participate in a way that would help them gain an understanding of their identity. Essentially coming to the conclusion that my aim for this unit is for students to learn about the importance of culture, honor what their culture is, and appreciate the culture of others. This will then, hopefully, strengthen their interests and efforts across all curriculum areas.

 

To authenticate the objective of this unit, it will be implementing Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices (CRTP) based on the framework from James A. Banks’s Transforming Multicultural Education Policy & Practice, Chapter 6 Culturally Responsive Pedagogy by Tyrone C. Howard, 2021. The framework displays five standards as listed:

 

  1. Teacher and students producing together through joint activity

  2. Develop language and literacy competence across the curriculum

  3. Connecting school to students’ lives by linking teaching and curriculum to students’ experiences at home and in their communities

  4. Teaching complex thinking

  5. Teaching through conversation, in particular engaging students in instructional conversations

 

Students will be actively gathering information from their own families, acquiring information from our community partner, and compiling all that was learned to create a class produced cultural cookbook.The community partner in this unit is Foodland Farms in Pearl City. This location is familiar to the Waipahu community and is a place where families in the class frequently visit. 

Essential Question

Enduring Understandings

Why is respecting my culture and the culture of others important?

  • Knowing our culture can help us respect others.

  • Asking questions can help us learn.

  • Communicating helps us understand each other.

  • Using our senses helps inform us.

Unit Overview:

​

In this unit, students will be exploring their own culture by asking relevant questions to those who are significant in their lives and share their findings as a class. They will be creating a cultural cookbook to gain an understanding and appreciation of their culture and the culture of others around them. The unit contains seven lessons that are spread across all content areas; English Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, Social Emotional Learning, and Sense of Place. 

eyes.jpeg

01 | Cultural Exploration

IMG_1178.jpg

  • Explore different ways other countries celebrate the holidays through an existing thematic unit plan. This will be an introduction to the idea of what culture is.

  • What is culture?

    • Define: a group of people with the same…

      • Traditions and customs

      • Interests and beliefs

    • Exploring different types - with ethnicity as the focus of this unit

      • Community - classroom culture

      • Location - Hawai'i has its own local culture

      • Ethnicity - people with the same race/nationality

    • Touch up on what aspects of a culture is significant

      • Traditions and customs

        • Review Winter holidays

        • Chinese New Year 

        • Girl’s Day

        • St. Patrick’s Day

      • Language

        • Ilocano

        • Hawaiian

      • Food

  • Conduct read alouds

    • Present multiple children’s literature of different cultures

    • Have students choose which story to read

    • Note: teacher would need to know information about culture present in the book prior to read aloud to give students a brief background 

      • Books used in this unit:

        • A BIG Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin

        • Drawn Together by Minh Lê

        • Eyes that Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho

        • Ordinary ʻOhana by Lee Cataluna

        • Emmanuel’s Dream by Laurie Ann Thompson

        • Grandpa’s Mixed Up Lūʻau by Tammy Paikai

        • We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstorm

        • ʻOhana Means Family by Ilima Loomis

        • Half Pint Readers: Level A Set 2 Books 1-6 “Around The World” by LuAnn Santillo

grandpa.jpeg

Standards

  • Nā Hopena Aʻo:

    • 1a. Know who I am and where I am from

    • 1c. Build relationships with many diverse people

    • 1d. Care about my relationships with others

    • 1f. Communicate with clarity and confidence

    • 6h. Call Hawai‘i home

  • English Language Arts:

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.4. Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail.

  • Social Studies:​

    • C3.D1.1.K-2. Explain why the compelling question is important to the student.

    • C3.D2.Civ.10.K-2. Compare their own point of view with others’ perspectives.

    • C3.D2.Geo.5.K-2. Describe how human activities affect the cultural and environmental characteristics of places or regions. 

    • C3.D2.Geo.6.K-2. Identify some cultural and environmental characteristics of specific places.

    • HCPS.SS.K.6.1. Explain how and why people from different cultures observe different holidays/celebrations​

  • Science:​

    • ​HCPS.SC.K.2. Ask questions about the world around them

​

02 | Questioning

  • Provide students with opportunities to interview their parents about their culture

    • Where does our family come from?

    • What culture do we identify with?

    • How do we celebrate holidays?

    • What types of food do we eat?

    • What traditions do we practice that are important to our family?

  • Creating and asking relevant questions

  • Reviewing sentence stems:

    • Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

  • Asking an expert (Foodland Farms)

IMG_1418.HEIC

Standards

  • Nā Hopena Aʻo:

    • ​1f. Communicate with clarity and confidence

  • English Language Arts:​

    • CCSS.ELA.K.W.5. With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.3. Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.6. Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

  • Social Studies:​

    • ​C3.D1.1.K-2. Explain why the compelling question is important to the student.

  • Science:​

    • ​HCPS.SC.K.2. Ask questions about the world around them

IMG_1168_edited.jpg

03 | Informative Writing

  • Practice producing step by step directions pieces with “How to” prompts

    • Examples: How to wash a dog, how to build a snowman, how to make a sandwich

  • Using transition words such as

    • First, ...

    • Next, ...

    • Then, ...

    • Last, ... 

  • Creating a recipe for a significant cultural dish

    • Children’s Literature:

      • Everybody Cooks Rice by Norah Dooley

      • Bee Bim Bop by Linda Sue Park

      • Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore

      • Salsa by Lilian Colón-Vilá

Standards​

  • English Language Arts:​

    • CCSS.ELA.K.W.2. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.W.8. With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.5. Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.

    Mathemarics:​

    • CCSS.Math.K.MD.1. Describe measurable attributes of objects, such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object.

    Science:​

    • ​HCPS.SC.K.2. Ask questions about the world around them

04 | Senses

  • What are our senses?

  • Why are our senses important?

  • How can we use our senses to pick out what we want to eat?

  • Activities for each sense:

    • Nature Walk Activity:

      • Materials: Notebook, pencil

      • Procedures

        1. Select a place to walk around 

        2. Explain rules - walk around quietly, set boundaries

        3. Students draw what they see for 15 minutes

        4. Pair up students, share what they drew

        5. Back in the classroom, write a sentence with the stem: “I can see…”

    • “What’s that Smell?” Activity:

      • Materials: 6 different items to smell, sauce containers with holes on the lid to store them, label with a number, worksheet (pg. 7)

      • Procedures:

        1. Students smell containers and guess what’s in each container

        2. Draw/write what they think it is

        3. Reveal what each item is

    • “What's in the bag?” Activity:

      • Materials: sand paper, teddy bear, playdough, wet sponge, rock; paper bag to put them in; worksheet (pg. 2)

      • Procedures:

        1. Have students put hand in the paper bag and guess what’s in each bag

        2. Draw/write what they think it is

        3. Reveal what each item is

    • “What’s that Sound?” Activity

      • Materials: youtube video with sounds, worksheet (pg. 1)

      • Procedures:

        1. Play sounds on video

        2. Pause after each sound to have students guess what it is

        3. Draw/write what they think it is

        4. Reveal what each item is

    • “Taste Buds” Activity 

      • Materials: lemon, milk chocolate, baker’s chocolate, pretzel, parent letter, worksheet (pg. 13)

      • Procedures:

        1. Show and tell students what they’re going to eat

        2. Sour: lemon

        3. Sweet: milk chocolate

        4. Bitter: baker’s chocolate

        5. Salty: pretzel

        6. Have them rate 🙂 or 🙁 if they think they’re going to like it or not

        7. Students taste each item

        8. They rate 🙂 or 🙁 if they actually liked it

        9. Write a sentence on which one they like the most

IMG_8327_edited.jpg
Screen Shot 2024-04-03 at 12.47.32 PM.png
Screen Shot 2024-04-03 at 12.47.23 PM.png

Standards​

  • Nā Hopena Aʻo:

    • 5g. Engage in positive, social interactions and has supportive relationships

  • English Language Arts:​

    • CCSS.ELA.K.W.1. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is . . .).

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.3. Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.4. Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.5. Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.6. Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

  • Mathematics:​

    • ​CCSS.Math.K.MD.1. Describe measurable attributes of objects, such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object.

  • Social Studies:​

    • ​C3.D2.Civ.10.K-2. Compare their own point of view with others’ perspectives.

  • Science:

    • HCPS.SC.K.1. Use the senses to make observations

    • HCPS.SC.K.2. Ask questions about the world around them

IMG_1068.jpg
WhatsApp Image 2024-04-15 at 09.51.04 (2).jpeg
WhatsApp Image 2024-04-15 at 09.51_edite

05 | Community Partner Visit

  • Review questioning

    • ​​Think of questions to ask cook/chef at the visit 

      • About their occupation

      • Advice about cookbook

  • Community Helpers

    • Go over occupations at the grocery store that they might see

    • Talk about how these occupations are some they may acquire in the future

  • Tour the store

    • Go through each department and occupations in each

      • Food prep/sale - cook

      • Kitchen - chef

      • Produce - produce clerk

      • Bakery - baker

      • Deli - deli clerk

      • Fish - fishmonger

      • Groceries - grocery clerk

      • Registers - cashier

      • Floral section - florist

    • Taste some samples

      • Chicken strips

      • Grapes

      • Cupcakes

      • Poke

    • Ask cook/chef questions

Standards​

  • Nā Hopena Aʻo:

    • 1c. Build relationships with many diverse people

    • 1d. Care about my relationships with others

    • 5g. Engage in positive, social interactions and has supportive relationships

    English Language Arts:​

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.3. Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.6. Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

  • Social Studies:​

    • C3.D2.Eco.2.K-2. Identify the benefits and costs of making various personal decisions.

    • C3.D2.Eco.4.K-2. Describe the goods and services that people in the local community produce and those that are produced in other communities.

    Science:

    • HCPS.SC.K.1. Use the senses to make observations

    • HCPS.SC.K.2. Ask questions about the world around them

06 | Food Preparation

  • Read aloud: Musubi Man: Hawaii's Gingerbread Man by Sandi Takayama

  • Sanitary practices

    • Washing hands with soap and water

    • Wearing gloves when preparing food

  • How can we be safe when making food?

    • Asking an adult for help

    • ​Making sure it is cooked thoroughly

    • Using senses to make sure it is not spoiled​

  • Musubi making activity​

    • Materials: spam (sliced), rice (cooked), nori, electric griddle, tongs, musubi maker mold, plates

    • Procedures: to be done with the help of students (teacher discretion)

      1. Wash hands​

      2. Cook spam on griddle

      3. Pass out plates

      4. Pass out nori

      5. Put rice into the mold

      6. Pass out spam

      7. Press mold down

      8. Wrap the rest of the nori around the musubi

Standards​

  • Nā Hopena Aʻo:

    • 1a. Know who I am and where I am from

    • 5g. Engage in positive, social interactions and has supportive relationships

    • 6h. Call Hawai‘i home

  • English Language Arts:​​

    • CCSS.ELA.K.W.5. With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.4. Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.6. Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

  • Mathematics:​

    • ​CCSS.Math.K.MD.1. Describe measurable attributes of objects, such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object.

  • Social Studies​​:​

    • C3.D2.Civ.11.K-2. Explain how people can work together to make decisions in the classroom.

    • C3.D2.Geo.5.K-2. Describe how human activities affect the cultural and environmental characteristics of places or regions.

    • C3.D2.Geo.6.K-2. Identify some cultural and environmental characteristics of specific places.

  • Science:​

    • HCPS.SC.K.1. Use the senses to make observations

WhatsApp Image 2024-04-21 at 23.01_edited.jpg

07 | Cultural Cookbook

  • Find publishing company to use - studentreasures.com 

  • Ask parents to help students pick a dish that is important to their culture

    • Doesn’t need to be anything hard or elaborate

    • Parents help students write out recipes as a homework assignment

  • Students share recipes with the class

  • Decide which one they want to taste test

  • Design pages of the cookbook

    • Recipe pages

    • Taste test reflection/review pages

    • Thank you pages

    • Send book to publisher

Standards​

  • Nā Hopena Aʻo:

    • 1a. Know who I am and where I am from

    • 1c. Build relationships with many diverse people

    • 1d. Care about my relationships with others

    • 1f. Communicate with clarity and confidence

    • 2h. Honor and make family, school and communities proud

    • 6h. Call Hawai‘i home

  • English Language Arts:​​

    • CCSS.ELA.K.W.1. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is . . .).

    • CCSS.ELA.K.W.6. With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.W.2. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.W.8. With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.5. Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.

    • CCSS.ELA.K.SL.6. Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

  • Mathematics​

    • ​CCSS.Math.K.MD.1. Describe measurable attributes of objects, such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object.

  • Social Studies​​:​

    • C3.D2.Geo.6.K-2. Identify some cultural and environmental characteristics of specific places.

    • C3.D1.1.K-2. Explain why the compelling question is important to the student.

  • Science:​

    • HCPS.SC.K.1. Use the senses to make observations

bottom of page