Language and Literacy Mini-unit: How my Students Learned to Eat in Japan

Objectives:

After the lesson on Japanese etiquette and learning to use chopsticks, students will make a class book of their experiences. Students will model the book after the story How My Parents Learned to Eat, by Ina R. Friedman. Each student will make a page for the book, describing how they learned to eat 'Japanese-style'. Students will draw a picture for their pages, and write something about their pictures. Students will be able to explain how one eats in Japan, and explain how they learned to use chopsticks, and sit down for a Japanese meal.

Materials:

This activity requires the book How My Parents Learned to Eat, paper, pencils, crayons and/or markers, and bookmaking supplies (a hole punch, binders, etc.). Bookmaking supplies will depend upon availability/accessibility at one's school.

Procedures:

  1. Begin the lesson by reading How My Parents Learned to Eat aloud to the class during group meeting.
  2. Discuss the story with children, and the previous lesson about eating in Japan. Include questions about how they learned to eat with chopsticks (was it easy? hard?), and the etiquette that they used when they learned how to eat a Japanese meal.
  3. Explain to students how they will make their pages for the class book. Be sure to let students know where they should put their pages when they finish.
  4. Begin center work with small groups of four to five students.
  5. Allow students to read and/or look at How My Parents Learned to Eat to become more familiar with the format of the book.
  6. Pass out paper and other writing/drawing supplies (crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc.).
  7. Have students begin making their pages for the class book, emphasizing the information from the lesson on Japanese eating/etiquette.
  8. Allow students time to work on their writing/drawings (about twenty minutes).
  9. Ask students to explain their writing and illustration.
  10. Collect students' pages.
  11. Have students clean up for the next center group.
  12. Once all of the small groups have gone to the center, make a class book, with one page for each student.

Evaluation of Student Learning:

After completing this activity, the instructor should be able to answer the following questions:
  1. Are students able to remember how they learned to eat 'the Japanese way'? What do they remember?
  2. Are the students able to discuss their pages with each other, and with the instructor?
  3. Did each student complete a page for the book that includes an illustration as well as a written explanation of the illustration?

Follow-up/Extension Activities

  1. Have students interview parents/caretakers/siblings about how they (the students) learned to eat as babies. Compile these into a book about how students learned to eat in the U.S., or combine this information with the information about eating in Japan for a book about how students learned to eat in both countries.
  2. Explore/study the foods that are eaten in other countries, as well as the utensils used to eat these different foods. Make a book about learning to eat in other countries besides Japan, or the United States.
Return to the 'Eating in Japan' Overview