Gabi Cohen

TLS 317

Diana Hill

20 November 2017

China Cultural Story Box 2 Week Unit Plan

Rationale

For this assignment, my cultural story box was on China. Chloe and I worked together for

some parts of this assignment, for example the engagement in the WOW library but we also

worked separately, for example I planned the first week of unit plans and she planned the second

week going off my ideas. The activities in the two-week unit plan are created for a kindergarten

class in Tucson, Arizona for children who are five to six years old. Chinese culture and practices

are so different from Tucson, which is the environment that this class is familiar with, which is

why these activities are going to be so engaging and a great learning opportunity for them. For

the WOW event, Chloe and I had the idea to explore chopsticks which is an activity that uses

math as well as fine motor skills. This was an activity that children from Tucson can have

previous experience with, as most of them have probably gone to a Chinese restaurant with their

families. This engagement was the perfect opportunity for the children who came, to practice

using chopsticks with chopstick helpers, and learn how to count as they placed each chopstick or

rice roll into the bowl. This activity relates to the INTASC Standard #1 because in this activity,

the children can pick whichever treat they want to, but it also gives children room to challenge

themselves because the goal is to move either 5 fortune cookies or 5 rolls from one bowl to the
other. Our goal was also to have the children get an idea about the foods that are popular in

China. This also relates to the CREATE Principal 1, because I am valuing the funds of

knowledge within China by exposing children to different types of food. In my unit plan, I took

into consideration the fact that every child has different interests and abilities, so I incorporated

many different types of activities in my unit plan to represent each child’s different abilities

(NAEYC Standard 1). This will help me to create an inviting and warm environment for each of

my students. Each lesson plan can be modified for students who are having trouble or need extra

attention.

Annotated Bibliography and Text Resources

Alan Woo-Isabelle Malenfant. (2015). Maggie’s Chopsticks. This book is perfect for

teaching children how to use chopsticks.

China: Pandas-Travel Kids in Asia. YouTube, YouTube, 9 Apr. 2016.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZqIjppWvhU This video would be for our social

studies unit week one on Thursday to teach the class about animals in China vs. the

animals in America.

Li-Qiong Yu-Cheng-Liang Zhu. A New Year’s Resolution. 2008. This book is great

for teaching children about the Chinese New Year’s and how it differs from our New

Year’s.
Christopher Niemann-HarperCollins-2008. The Pet Dragon. This book will be read in

class proceeding the activities with the dragon that we will be doing.

Elizabeth Long(Author). Prissy Sissy Tea Party Series Book 2 The Chinese New

Year Tea Party. November 6, 2015. This book will be read prior to the class tea party.

This is a great book for teaching children about other cultures and traditions and they

can connect this to their knowledge of the Chinese New Year that we will be learning

this week.

Chinese New Year Sensory Tub. Pinterest, 16 Jan. 2013.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AUk4dGodD4YvBitvnZ1pEmg14WD7Z1qo7-

cEExhQ27vVPxLr6jBgQBg/ This activity will allow children to explore Chinese objects in

a sensory tub such as rice, chopsticks, etc.

Wu, Faye-Lynn and Kieren Dutcher. Chinese and English Nursery Rhymes: Share

and Sign in Two Languages. Tuttle Pub., 2010. This book teaches children about

china in a fun way through nursery rhymes. You can also teach the class to sign in two

languages with this book.

China: Pandas - Travel Kids in Asia. YouTube, YouTube, 9 Apr. 2016.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZqIjppWvhU. This is a China math and literacy pack with

45 pages! Using this handout, have the children count how many artifacts there are.
Chinese New Year Slime and Science Activity for Kids. Pinterest, 7 Jan. 2017.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/203436108148558117/ This is a fun science activity for

children to use fine motor skills to make fiery red and sparkling gold New Year Slime.

Easy & Cool Science Experiment for Kids. Pinterest, 6 July 2016.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/189291990568125671/ This blue-sky experiment teaches

children that the sky looks the same around the world whether you are in the US or

China.

STEM Activities for Kids: Great Wall of China Challenge. Pinterest, 26 Jan. 2017.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/159877855502504672/ This is for the lesson plan that I

will be doing. The children will have the challenge to build the Great Wall of China using

blocks under pillows to represent the idea that it was built on a mountain.

School-China. Pinterest, 31 Dec. 2016.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/294915475584254202/ This will be a worksheet for week

1 literacy where they will trace each letter day by day (C, H, I, N, A).

China: Pandas-Travel Kids in Asia. YouTube, YouTube, 9 Apr. 2016.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZqIjppWvhU/ This fun and engaging video will teach

children about pandas in Asia.

Projects to Try. Pinterest, 15 Oct. 2013.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/562035228468459617/ I will use this map to show my

class where China is on a map.

PLATETIVITY. Pinterest, 11 July 2017.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/397372367112745440/ This is the website that I found to

make panda masks.

Simple Sesame Noodles. Pinterest, 12 Aug. 2010.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AdxiHGOvUD0si6DQLbbIRsGKYKgDr8M-4kjT9dU-

Y943x9m9HzfbiOc/ This is the recipe we will use to make the sesame noodles.

Learn Chinese. Classroom Rules- Super Fun Chinese Song. YouTube, YouTube, 2

Feb. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWds97bi5Xw This is a fun song to

teach children about China with the help of Chinese Buddy!

T’s Room. Pinterest, 8 Sept. 2016,

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/16747829845116282/ A fun way to make paper origami

birds.

For Kids. Pinterest, 14 Apr. 2014, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/10485011607218088/

Children will learn to trace mandarin characters with this worksheet.

West End News, director. Synchronized FIREWORKS SHOW “Fascinating!”

Beijing, China. YouTube, YouTube, 22 Nov. 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFuK03LbuEo. This will show the children the

extraordinary fireworks that take place in China and allow them to make connections to

the fireworks they’ve seen with their families.

STANDARDS

CREATE Principles

 Principle 1: Valuing the funds of knowledge within diverse cultural communities:

Children will learn about the food, music, animals, transportation, and houses in China.
 Principle 2: Encouraging story as a meaning-making process to understand self and
world: The children will read books from the China cultural story box. Children will
always be encouraged to read these books and share any stories/connections they are
making.
 Principle 3: Celebrating the significance of family literacies in literacy learning: The
children will explore Chinese animals, food, and music through the books that they are
reading and will learn about another diverse community.

INTASC Standards

 Standard #3: Learning Environments. The teacher works with others to create
environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that
encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-
motivation: The unit plan encourages positive social interaction when the children are
playing the game “Blind Man” because they need to work together and they are actively
engaged in learning because they are doing activities that are developmentally
appropriate.
 Standard #4: Content Knowledge. The teacher understands the central concepts;
tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and creates
learning experiences that make the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners
to assure mastery of the content: The activities in the unit plan are accessible to the
 children because they are developmentally appropriate. The activities challenge the
children however they are still meaningful and the children can master the content.
 Standard #5: Application of Content. The teacher understands how to connect
concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking,
creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global
issues: The children will learn about how animals live in China and about the ocean that
separates us from China and any global issue that China is involved with.
 Standard #7: Planning for Instruction. The teacher plans instruction that supports
every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of
content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as
knowledge of learners and the community context: The activities in the unit plan
connect to activities in other categories such as art, math, science, etc. The activities can
also be extended and modified, if needed.
 Standard #8: Instructional Strategies. The teacher understands and uses a variety of
instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of
content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in
meaningful ways: The children are taught through science, math activities, reading, and
art related activities. Some of the activities build upon each other throughout the weeks.
For example, for literacy in week one, children will start by writing the letter C and by
the end of the week they will be able to spell and write out China.

NAEYC Standards

 Standard 4B: Knowing and understanding effective strategies and tools for early
education, including appropriate uses of technology: I will use tools that are engaging
and fun for the children while making sure that these activities and tools are meaningful
to the children’s learning.

 Standard 4C: Using a broad repertoire of developmentally appropriate

teaching/learning approaches: As a teacher, I will understand that not all children learn
in the same way so I will need to use a variety of teaching approaches and figure out
which teaching approaches work best for my class. I also recognize that children learn at
their own pace and I will need to make sure my activities are developmentally
appropriate for all the children.

 Standard 4D: Reflecting on own practice to promote positive outcomes for each
child: I will reflect on my practices to ensure that I am not being biased and that I am
representing a wide variety of cultures in China as well as anything else I may be
teaching in the future.
 2 Week Unit Plan

Week One MONDAY TUESDA WEDNESDA THURSDA FRIDAY

Y Y Y

Literacy Read Maggie’s Read A Read Chinese Read The Read The Chinese
Chopsticks by New Year’s and English Pet Dragon New Year Tea Party
Alan Woo Reunion by Nursery by Christoph by Elizabeth Long
Yu Li- Rhymes by Niemann
Qiong Faye-Lynn
Wu

Math Introduce WOW Using the Compare the Using a Explore letters A-E
Engagement: number amount handout of and then explore five
Use chopsticks to from picked up dragons, characters in
pick up fortune yesterday, from both have the Mandarin so they can
cookies and work to days and children see how different their
count how many pick up make a chart count how characters look from
you pick up more today to visually many of each our letters
represent the dragon there
amount are
increased on
day 2

Science Sensory table Learn Blue sky Make salt Chinese New Year
activity with about the experiment. water to sensory tub with tea
Chinese objects Chinese Teach them mimic party objects
using rice as the New Year that the sky ocean water.
main component and make looks the Have
fiery red same around children
and the world test the
sparkling difference
gold between
Chinese saltwater and
New Year fresh water.
slime Teach
children that
the ocean
separates us
from China

Writing Letter writing Letter Letter writing Letter writing Finish writing China
practice with the writing practice with practice with with the letter “A”
letter “C”. Tracing practice the letter “I” the letter “N.”
and exploring with the Goal is to get
upper and lower letter “H” to spell
case letters “China” by
the end of
the week
Social Studies Look at a map Build the Show children Watch a Learn about the
and show Great Wall a video of video of Chinese New Year
children where of China Blind Man pandas and and compare it to our
China is using which is a talk about New Year and
compared to blocks spin on tag animals in discuss how different
Arizona. Explore and have China vs. countries in the world
the Chinese flag class play it animals in celebrate similar
as well America holidays differently

Art/Drama/Music Bake Chinese Make Listen to Make paper Enjoy a Chinese tea
Sesame Noodles round Chinese plate panda party
folding fans music and masks
for Chinese have a little
New Year dance party

Week Two Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Literacy Reread Put children Look at the Introduce Make books
Maggie’s into small Chinese nursery more books from culture box
Chopsticks groups with rhymes, find about available for
and discuss a book from one to sing and dragons, children,
how the story box, teach to the and how discuss
children’s have each children they look similarities and
struggles child like. What do differences
with explain dragons do? between
chopsticks what they cultures
compare think the
with story is
Maggie’s about
based on
the
illustrations
or if we
have read it
in class, try
to
remember
what it was
about by
exploring
the pages in
their groups

Math Challenge Set out Play badminton String beads

children to different with balloons. in a pattern,
eat with sized Challenge encourage
chopsticks. origami children to children to
How many birds, have count how many continue the
things can children sort times they can pattern, or
 they eat from hit the balloon make one of
using biggest to to keep it off the their own
chopsticks? smallest ground
Provide
chopsticks
at lunch for
experiment

Science Explore the Sensory Discuss parts of Fire safety. Talk about
idea of activity. Set the body. Using Dragons fireworks, how
gravity by out bowls of panda stuffed breathe fire, the Chinese
learning to cooked rice, animal, talk but how can invented them
balance noodles, about parts of we breathe and how they
objects on and rice the body on the fire and keep are used now, in
chopsticks noodles panda. What do everyone small groups,
(the crispy we have the safe? children can
kind) and same, what are Children observe and
have different? experiment make
children with candles predictions
discuss the and fire about what
differences safety colors different
in smell and elements will
texture burn
(copper=blue,
calcium=orange,
barium=green)

Writing Chopstick Pick 3 Have children Have Create the word

push board. words from trace Mandarin children CHINA out of
Using a the books characters, write in their different media,
piece of that they discover how journals experiment with
styrofoam explored Mandarin looks about what style and color,
and some earlier and different from they have hang around
chopsticks, learn how to English learned classroom (have
children will write them about China class try and put
write their so far the letters to
names by spell out
pushing the CHINA)
chopsticks
into the
styrofoam
and then
connecting
the pieces
with string

Social Studies Look at Food Show video of Start Show a video

photographs discussion. Chinese people discussion on firework
of Chinese What have speaking on rice. Give shows in China,
landscapes, they Mandarin to children rice and firework
talk about experienced each other and to explore shows in the
the with talk about how US, compare
differences Chinese different their and contrast
of the desert food in the
 where we past? How conversations
live, and the is it different sound from ours
Chinese from ours?
environment

Art/Drama/Music Have Make Create their Make crepe Create a panda

children traditional own stuffed paper puppet show
make their Chinese pandas. Using dragons with the pandas
own clothing felt and stuffing they made;
Chinese available in with child safe integrate the
music drama sewing needles masks, tea and
center and holes music
premade

Kindergarten Lesson Plan

Lesson Title “Build the Great Wall of China” Age 5-6

Standards Correlation
Objectives (SWBAT) (students
will be able to)
Materials
Lesson Sequence
Range year
olds
Strand 1: Physical and Motor Development,
Concept 1: Gross Motor Development
 This correlates with the activity
because the children are using gross
motor skills to build a “wall”
Strand 2: Community, Concept 1:
Understands Community
 This correlates with the activity
because the children will be able to
understand how people in different
community’s work and how things are
built.
The children will be able to build a replica of
The Great Wall of China with blocks and I will
consider this lesson plan successful if they
are able to understand the idea of balancing
and building and are able to work together.
 Pillows
 Blocks
 Set-up 
 Have a few pillows set up on the floor
with blocks in a pile for them to use.

 Introduction (talking about it)

1. Read Who Built the Great Wall of

China by Baby Professor
2. Talk about the Great Wall of China
and how long it took to build
3. Tell them they will be building a wall
of their own and show materials

 Motivation (build excitement)

“Who’s excited to build the coolest and

biggest tower you have ever made?”

 practice (model) and

feedback (if necessary)

Start putting blocks on the pillows as a

base/starting point
 Do it

Extensions To extend this lesson, the children who

understand the game well can become
leaders
who help other students understand. We
could also talk about the importance of
teamwork with this and how it is easier to
build something when there is communication
and teamwork among the members.
Accommodations If there are some students who are having
trouble placing blocks on the “wall” and
balancing, I can have those students be the
“picker uppers” and they gather the blocks
and hand them to the other students.
 Cultural Story Box Reflection

The WOW engagement community event was a very successful experience for me and

Chloe. We had a table set up with the map, Chinese books from our cultural story box,

chopsticks and fortune cookies/rice rolls. Our engagement was to have the children learn how to

use chopsticks by picking up 5 fortune cookies/rice rolls. If they successfully picked them up

with the chopsticks then they could keep one to eat! We had many families and children come to

our table to do our engagement. I had a lot of fun with this engagement and learned a lot about

how to prepare for one event and how much time and effort goes into one event. One thing I

learned from this community event was the importance of practicing your engagement ahead of

time to ensure that it is developmentally appropriate, engaging, and a good balance between

challenging enough and easy enough for them to do on their own with help If needed. We had

the opportunity to share our invitation with our class before the event and this gave Chloe and I

the chance to practice our invitation with our classmates before the children and families had the

chance to. We received a lot of positive feedback from our classmates and were excited for the

event to take place. On the day of the engagement, we showed our engagement to parents and

children ranging from the ages of 3 to 10. Many of the older children were eager to try and use

the chopsticks without the chopstick helpers.

If I were to do this engagement again, I would probably add levels to make it more of a

game. Once you have mastered the first round of picking up 5 fortune cookies successfully, you

would then move on to 10, 15 and so on. And once they have mastered that level, I could have

them try and use the chopsticks without the helpers and teach them the proper way to hold

chopsticks and how it is similar to holding a pencil. Since I am working with Kindergarteners
this is the perfect engagement for 5 and 6 year olds and the modifications I would make would

work beautifully with children in K-3 grades. This engagement connects to the Arizona State

Social Studies Standard Concept 4: Human Systems PO. 1: Discuss the food, clothing, housing,

recreation, and celebrations practiced by cultural groups in the local community. I can also talk

to the children and ask them what they think chopsticks are made of and teach them about how

chopsticks were invented for eating. Overall, I really enjoyed this event and I thought the entire

process was a great learning opportunity and meaningful experience for myself going into

teaching.