Dear Educator,
Step into the Portland Japanese Garden and discover a world of new ideas and experiences that will bring your classroom to life! We invite you to explore this world with your students on a class visit to the Garden and through the teaching materials available here.
With the Portland Japanese Garden as a living vehicle for exploration, you and your students are invited to discover new ways of thinking, not only about Japanese culture, but about life science, language arts, social studies, and the visual arts.
The teaching of each of these subjects can be enhanced significantly through the various elements and aspects of the Portland Japanese Garden. Each of the three lesson plans in this packet is designed to enhance a field trip to the Garden, but can also be used independently, taking advantage of the natural spaces around your school, in a park or on a trail nearby. All of the lessons serve Oregon State Common Curriculum goals. Each lesson designates the grade-level for which it has been written (K–2, 3–5, and 6–8). However, each also includes easy-to-use methods of adapting the plans to fit whichever grade level you teach.
Our teachers' packet includes:
Lesson One
Garden Sense: Exploring the Five Senses
Grades K–2
PDF format, 804k download
Lesson Two
Grades 3–5
PDF format, 1 meg download
Lesson Three
Grades 6–8
PDF format, 890k download
Each lesson plan includes: Objectives, Common Curriculum Goals, Materials List, Classroom Activities with step-by-step instructions, Discussion Questions, and Suggested Resources. Worksheets and Rubrics included in some lessons.
The Garden also offers a CD of beautiful images of the Portland Japanese Garden in a PowerPoint presentation, which can be used to create OHP transparencies or hard copies for classroom use. Please contact us to request your CD at any time.
We hope these materials will help you to incorporate the topic of Japanese culture into your busy curriculum. We would also very much appreciate your feedback, as these materials are a work in progress!
Special thanks to Kim Aziz, Patty Collins, and Gail Vander Heide for their assistance in the development of the Garden's teacher materials.
For more information about the Portland Japanese Garden or to schedule a school tour online please visit our website at www.japanesegarden.com/tours or email us at tours@japanesegarden.com.
Sincerely,
Diane Durston
Curator of Culture, Art, and Education
