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Chinese New Year - Grades 5 to 8

Gear up for the Year of the ox with this informational site about the Chinese New Year. Learn about the animals in the Chinese zodiac, the significance of dragons in Chinese mythology, several "special" facts about various years, and how the date of the New Year is determined. Get some great ideas from this site for activities in your classroom.
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In the Classroom:
Share the "what's special about..." section with your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Have students judge which year was the most special and write journal entries or blogs about WHY.

In the Footsteps of Marco Polo - Metropolitan Museum of Art Grades 4 to 8

Join Marco Polo on a 24,000-mile journey along the Silk Road to the lands of Khubilai Khan! The Metropolitan Museum of Art tells his amazing story through historical sources, exquisite paintings, sculpture, calligraphy, artifacts, and a clickable map of the journey. The map includes audio recordings of Marco Polo’s memoirs and images accompanied by information about the history of each location. Images can be explored in minute detail using the online Image Explorer.

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In the Classroom:
Extend the journey into your classroom with the cross-curricular activities and reading suggestions in the “Continue the Adventure” section. Play the audio recordings once to put them into the computer memory for a smoother narration during class time. External computer speakers will help make the recordings more audible. Show the images to the whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use the museum images and research to discuss major religions in the 13th century. Have students create their own Silk Road maps with journal entries from writing prompts about travel in that era, geography of the area, and famous cities along the route. Do a math activity to measure the distances over land and sea. Build a science unit around the minerals and metals that astounded Marco Polo. Use online sources to show pictures of the minerals and metals in their natural geological state.

China - BBC Grades 0 to 8

This website (created by BBC), provides a wealth of information on China. It was updated in 2007, so is slightly out of date. But the information still provides solid research and information about the country. Visitors to the website will find information about saving the pandas, China's one-child policy, famous Chinese landmarks and authentic accounts of visits to China (through the eyes and words of other students).
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In the Classroom:
Use an interactive whiteboard or projector to take your students on a virtual field trip to China! The students are sure to enjoy the pictures and "student guides" of China. As a comparison across cultures, have your students create a "student guide" that compares their own culture with another. Middle school students could use issues such as the "one child policy" and some social policies as writing prompts for persuasive essays or debate topics in their world cultures class.

Searching for China - Knowledge Network Explorer Grades 6 to 12

Designed to integrate use of technology in the classroom, this site uses China as a focus for the activities. There are four general resource sites and two WebQuests (which are listed separately on TeachersFirst). "Hotlist" takes you to a comprehensive set of resources on China, grouped into categories (e.g. Background, Geography, Culture, Religion, Human Rights, the Environment). This section would be ideal for students to use in tracking down resources for a project. "Exploring China" is designed to be a multimedia activity in which students can find images of China and compile them into a presentation. "The Treasures of China" section begins with 10 questions covering a breadth of information about China, and points students toward resources to find the answers to the questions. Finally, "My China" suggests general topics which might be good sources of inspiration for students looking to plan a project on China. The strength of this site is that students are urged to see China from multiple viewpoints, and to confront, head on, some of the contradictions of China today. There are more than simply the usual "glory of China" type resources; students are given information about the envirnomental crisis that is caused by China's rapid growth, about the impact of China's population explosion and attempts to curb its birthrate, and about human rights issues under China's government. The text accompanying the resources suggests students ask hard questions about what they are reading, and arrive at what the site refers to as statements of "truth" about China today. In these respects, this site is head and shoulders above most resource-heavy sites.
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In the Classroom:
Choose one of the many different approaches to China offered on this site, or use them all. There is enough here to form the backbone of your students' exploration. Have them choose aspects to investigate and question in a student-directed activity designed to meet a contract. Maybe have the class create a China wiki to share what they discover?

Red Scarf Girl Webquest - Sofie Maurice Grades 8 to 12

This webquest is an excellent introduction to the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution through the eyes of a teenage girl. It is fairly compact yet packed with information not typically covered in depth in American classrooms. The quest activities vary from mapping to timeline making to writing from a different perspective, and all are grounded in reading the original novel, A Red Scarf Girl.
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In the Classroom:
Suggest this fairly simple quest to students who select The Red Scarf Girl as outside reading or use it as part of a multicultural literature unit.

Mysterious Mummmies of China - PBS Nova Grades 6 to 12

In the late 1980s, perfectly preserved 3,000 year old mummies began appearing in a remote desert in China. Surprisingly, they possessed the physical characteristics of Europeans and did not appear to be ancestors of the modern-day Chinese. Where did they come from? How were they preserved? What can linguistics reveal about such ancient people? The site explores these unsolved mysteries and makes connections to similar finds throughout the world.
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Great Wall Photoessay - Grades 6 to 12

Created by a photographer, this site offers an interactive tour of one section of China’s Great Wall. The opening image montage leads to a series of 360-degree views taken at various points along the wall. There’s no other text or information, but the images are great.
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In the Classroom:
Try this as part of a world cultures introduction.

Panda Central - San Diego Zoo Grades 2 to 12

The San Diego Zoo’s panda pages offer a plethora of photos and other information about China’s most reclusive citizens. Besides being undeniably cute, pandas make a great preservation study with some interesting international overtones. It now includes a live webcam stream of the pandas 24 hours a day
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In the Classroom:
Both elementary and secondary teachers will find this one useful.

China - Country Studies - Library of Congress Grades 8 to 12

This site is part of a set of detailed cultural, political, and historical summaries created by the Library's Federal Research Service. The emphasis is on less commonly studied nations, and the material will be challenging for some students.
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In the Classroom:
Teachers will find these summaries useful for their comprehensive scope, which frequently includes historical and cultural background information. Much of the content is 5 or more years old, so these pages are best used for historical or background information.

Chinese Garden Markets - Grades 4 to 12

This site is a photojournal of a tour through the Chinese countryside, noting the ways in which local "farmers' markets" contribute to the vitality of an otherwise centralized Chinese economy. Interesting for its purely local and village focus, as well as for the photos showing what life in small Chinese villages really looks like.
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Searching for China - Pacific Bell Grades 6 to 12

This is actually a set of several web activities dealing with China from the PacBell site. All are designed as instructional tools to be used on-line by students. They approach China in an interdisciplinary format. The site contains a lot of information. It is complete with vocabulary words, dictionary and news articles. It involves students working as teams to research and discuss using high level thinking skills. It also encourages free exploration.
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In the Classroom:
The site has an evaluation rubric for both individual and team evaluations. It is applicable for both student and teacher assessment.

Touring China - Chinese National Tourist Office Grades 4 to 12

This site from the Chinese National Tourism Office provides very general information on the features of China's various regions, paying particular note to places interesting to tourists. Despite the lack of detail, there's more than enough here to get a sense of the variations in China's geography, cultures, and history.
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Visions of China - CNN Grades 6 to 12

This site from CNN offers a look at internal and international issues affecting China, considering everything from the rise of a new middle class to the ecological impact of a new dam to the future of relations with the United States. While there's plenty of history here, the focus is clearly on how China fits into the current world order. Beautiful design and artwork!
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Time Line for China and East Asia - Grades 6 to 12

This time line from the Web Chron series offers a succinct, events-only chronology of Chinese and east Asian development. Many entries have links which lead to additional information. The site can be useful in providing context for studying China.
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The BBC's Special Report - BBC Grades 6 to 12

BBC's report on the 50th anniversary of Communism in China
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Who Invented it? When? Chinese Inventions: An Introductory Activity - Ask Asia Grades 5 to 12

Learn about Chinese inventors and deflate erroneous stereotypes about Chinese technology. From the Ask Asia series.
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In the Classroom:
Use this free lesson plan in class during a unit on Chinese inventions and innovations. Make sure to mention the years inventions were made while performing the activity, students will be amazed just how many inventions we use today were made almost 3 thousand years ago!

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