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Snapshots from China

Focus concepts: Culture Similarities and differences Cultural diversity

Effective teaching: Facilitating shared learning

Years 0–6

Students will:

• use photographs to compare and contrast their daily lives with the life of one child in Beijing
• closely analyse a range of photographs to gain a deeper understanding of Chinese culture and daily life in Beijing
• form questions and interview a person of Chinese descent or someone who has lived in China to gain further information about Chinese culture, customs, traditions, and daily life.

View the images in Appendix 4.

As a class, view the display and use the key questions below.

Key questions

• Which photographs did you find interesting? Why?
• What seems to be important to these students in China?
• Can you see anything in the photographs that is the same as our own lives?
• What can you see in the photographs that is different from our own lives?
• Were you surprised by anything you saw in the photographs? Describe.
• Can you answer any of your questions from the wall display you created in lesson 1 – It's in the bag!?
• Do you have any further questions to add to this display?

Ask the students to select their favourite photograph and justify their selection.

OPTIONS to choose from:

Activity 1 – Make a 'compare and contrast' storybook

Make a double-paged spread like the one below:

Print out the photos of the Chinese students. Have your students write captions to describe the pictures. These form one side of the book. The students then try and find an equivalent picture of their daily lives to put on the other side with a caption. A school camera could be used or an illustration. Parent helpers may be able to help organise some of the photos. You could use the storybook for class reading etc.

OR:

There is the option of making an equivalent PowerPoint presentation about daily life for a student in New Zealand. You could even share it with a school in China.

Activity 2 – Looking closer

Choose four or five of the photos from the PowerPoint presentation (Appendix 4) to develop some deeper analysis. Set up a 'round robin' activity by pasting each photo onto a sheet of A2 paper. Divide students into the same number of groups as there are photographs. Have each group complete the boxes for their photograph.

OR:

Activity 3 – Cloze exercise

Have the students complete sentences like the ones below.

In China, __x__ goes to school on a bus. I go to school ……………………………………………..

__x__ eats ___x__ for lunch. For lunch I eat ………………………………………………

For exercise, __x__ does __x__ For exercise I …………………………………………....

One thing I’d like about living in China is ………………….………… because …………………..

One thing I wouldn’t like about living in China is ………….………………because ………………..

(and so on).

OR:

Activity 4 – Interview

Interview a person living in New Zealand who has been to China or who has lived there.
Focus on customs, traditions, and daily life.

Language focus

Refer to language lesson 3 – Numbers and writing.

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