South Gate of Seoul, Korea

1. Challenge students to study the history, culture, and terrain of Korea. Find out why it is a divided nation, and explore the differences and similarities between North and South Korea. Look for information about and pictures of the South Gate, a gigantic landmark that is part of an ancient wall around Seoul.
2. Ask students to work in collaborative groups to create a replica of Seoul's South Gate. After covering their work areas with recycled newspaper, students turn over a recycled box lid and paint it beigs to form the base using Crayola® Tempera Paint and Paint Brushes. Paint a large tissue box and two milk cartons light brown. Paint a piece of paper green to use for trees and shrubs. Allow time for paint to dry.
3. With Crayola School Glue, attach the three boxes together lying sideways, with the largest on the bottom. Glue the largest box to the base. Paint a tunnel opening in the front of the box and add a path leading up to it. Air dry.
4. Students peel away the top layer of paper on corrugated cardboard to show the ripples inside. With Crayola Scissors, cut the corrugated board so the lines run vertically and form the two roofs of equal length, but make one wider than the other. Paint each roof brown. Air dry.
5. Glue the bottom edge of the narrower roof to the top edge of the largest box. Glue the wider roof to the two milk cartons so that some of the bottom carton shows.
6. Using colored Crayola Model Magic, students form bushes on both sides of the path and make a gate for the entrance. Glue them in place.
7. After removing wrappers from green Crayola Crayons, students make a texture rubbing on paper. Cut out trees and bushes from this paper and the green painted paper. Glue them to either side of the path.

LA: Read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grade level text complexity band independently and proficiently.

LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

SS: Explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies, and cultures address similar human needs and concerns.

SS: Describe ways in which language, stories, folktales, music, and artistic creations serve as expressions of culture and influence behavior of people living in a particular culture.

SS: Use appropriate resources, data sources, and geographic tools to generate, manipulate, and interpret information.

SS: Demonstrate an ability to use correctly vocabulary associated with time such as past, present, future, and long ago; read and construct simple timelines; identify examples of change; and recognize examples of cause and effect relationships.

VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

VA: Select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning.

VA: Identify specific works of art as belonging to particular cultures, times, and places.

Possible classroom resources include: Korean Children's Favorite Stories by Kim So-un; The Green Frogs: A Korean Folktale by Yumi Heo; All About Korea: Stories, Songs, Crafts and More by Ann Martin Bowler; K is for Korea by Hyechong Cheung

Invite a community member who has lived in Korea to visit with the class and share his experiences in the country, with its people, and language. Prior to the meeting, students compose questions for the guest. After the meeting, students post learning to a class blog.

Students collaborate in small groups to sketch a map of North and South Korea. Identify the capitals cities of each country, draw and label all significant landforms. Identify major manufacturing in the countries and include information about the climate in each Korean country.

Encourage students to investigate similarities and differences between North and South Korea. Consider their landforms, governments, economy, and culture. How do the flags of each country reflect its people?

What language is spoken in North Korea? South Korea? Use resources such as the Internet to learn significant sight words in Korean. On 5" x 8" note cards, students write an English term, the same work in Korean, and create an illustration to assist classmates with remembering the word. Use Crayola Colored Pencils for these illustrations. Post these terms on a classroom bulletin board.