For Educators

Bring Pacific Islander culture into the classroom.

Grades 6 - 8

Lesson plans for grades 6-8


The Land Has Eyes Lesson Plan

How Are Cultures (Particularly Those of Native People Who Are Colonized) Impacted Positively and Negatively by New Dominant Cultures?
Grade Levels: 6-8

The experiences of the Rotuman people, as seen through The Land Has Eyes, offers a native perspective of Western influence. The focus of this lesson plan for middle school students is on identifying how cultures (positively and negatively) influence each other and how society adapts and integrates cultural practices. It also emphasizes the need for people to retain their cultural (and in the case of the people in the film, native) ways of thinking.


The Meaning of Food Lesson Plan

Grade Levels: 6-8

The Meaning of Food travels across America, visiting home kitchens, restaurants, lunch trucks, burger joints, an Italian wedding, a Bengali fertility feast, and more; it explores the profound role that food plays in our lives. This lesson plan uses the film to guide students to gain an understanding of the many roles that food plays in people's lives, to learn about different cultures and groups through food, and to use a range of research and presentation skills. 


The Meaning of Food Worksheet

Grade Levels: 6-8

An assignment for students that is part of The Meaning of Food lesson plan. Students will conduct their own research on a certain food to answer the questions about the history, culture, and customs associated with it.


Then There Were None Lesson Plan

How Can Hawaiians Prevent the Extinction of Their Race and Their Culture?
Grade Levels: 6-12

Then There Were None recounts the history of the decline of the Native Hawaiian culture and population. Designed for middle school students, this lesson plan will use the film as a starting point to study: colonization, extinction and how/if it applies to people, foreign arrivals to Hawai'i and their effect on Native Hawaiian culture and people, and Native Hawaiian health pre-  and post-contact.


 

Then There Were None Lesson Plan

 

Will Sovereignty Prevent the Extinction of the Hawaiian Race and Their Culture?
Grade Levels: 6-12

 

Using the film as a starting point, this lesson plan will explore this essential question: Will sovereignty prevent the extinction of the Hawaiian race and their culture? Some of the issues students will seek to understand are: the causes of the overthrow and the Native Hawaiian perspective, the influence of foreigners and foreign governments on the Hawaiian monarchy and the move toward the overthrow, and sovereignty initiatives and the most popular models of sovereignty.


Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey Website

Centuries before European explorers ventured beyond their shorelines, the ancestors of today's Polynesians had sailed to every habitable island in the far corners of the Pacific. This ancient Polynesian sea voyaging tradition comes to life again in Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey. This website features extensive articles about Polynesian history and origins and the studies and theories about Pacific migration. It also features interviews with experts, a Sharing Stories section, and more articles about wayfinding and the expedition featured in the program.