Classroom Guide for
Vanishing Cultures Series

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1. What are some of the things you and your family absolutely need to live?
2. How do you get food and clothing? In what kind of housing do you live?
3. What are some other things you have that you enjoy? What would it be like if you didn’t have them?
4. What types of activities do you and your family do together?
5. How do you think geography affects the way people live? What might it be like to live in a cold, far northern region? A desert? A rain forest? Very high mountains?
6. What does the word “vanishing” mean? Why might some cultures, or ways of life, be vanishing?
7. What do you like about the part of the world in which you live? Why do you think people might live in remote parts of the world, far away from many of the things you are used to?

1. Ask students where they think the photographs were taken. What are the people doing? How are they dressed? What else in the photographs can be identified?
2. Talk about the title of the series: Vanishing Cultures. Explain that these books are all about cultures in different parts of the world that are in danger of disappearing. Invite students to speculate on why this might be so.
3. Review the parts of a nonfiction book with students, including the title page, introduction, about the book section at the back, and map.
4. Read aloud the introduction and discuss the author’s statement that “we are all part of the same human family.”
5. Share and discuss the map in each book. In what countries or region of the world does each culture live?

• find out where and how the people in each culture live.
• identify challenges these people face.

1. Pair ELL or ESL students with strong English speakers are readers who can help explain meanings.
2. Model how to use the photographs to enhance the meaning of the text. As you read aloud, comment on how a photograph provides clues to the words.
3. Provide simple sentence frames to help students use new words. For example: This is a ______. The child helps by __________. The children are eating _______.
   
   Literature Circles
   If you use literature circles during reading time, students might find the following suggestions helpful in focusing on the different roles of the group members.
   
   
   • The Questioner might use questions similar to those in the the After Reading section for each book.
   • The Passage Locator might look for passages in each book that show how children of that culture play and have fun.
   • The Illustrator might draw scenes from the story that are not illustrated by the photographs.
   • The Connector might find other books about the culture.
   • The Summarizer might provide a brief summary of the group’s reading and discussion points for each meeting.
   • The Investigator might find more information about the traditional way of life depicted in each book.
   
   
   There are many resource books available with more information about organizing and implementing literature circles. Three such books you may wish to refer to are: Getting Started with Literature Circles by Katherine L. Schlick Noe and Nancy J. Johnson (Christopher-Gordon, 1999), Literature Circles: Voice And Choice in Book Clubs and Reading Groups by Harvey Daniels (Stenhouse, 2002), and Literature Circles Resource Guide by Bonnie Campbell Hill, Katherine L. Schlick Noe, and Nancy J. Johnson (Christopher-Gordon, 2000).
   
   Using the Books:
   Amazon Basin
   Down Under
   Far North
   Frozen Land
   Himalaya
   Mongolia
   Sahara
   
   Comparing the Books
   If you are using more than one of the Vanishing Cultures books, you may wish to have students create charts to compare different aspects of life across cultures. Write the name of each cultural group being compared along the top of the chart, and list the topics for points of comparison down the left side. Here are some possible topics: Food, Clothing, Climate, Homes, How Children Help, Roles of Men and Women, Family Life, Geography, How People Have Fun, Beliefs, Means of Transportation, Challenges Faced Today.
   Have students record appropriate information where the cultures and topics intersect.
   
   About the Author/Photographer
   Jan Reynolds is an award-winning author and photographer. Her first book for Lee & Low, Celebrate!: Connections Among Cultures, was honored for Outstanding Merit on the Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year list. Reynolds’s work has also appeared in numerous other publications, including National Geographic, The New York Times, and Outside magazine. She is an avid mountain climber, skier, and adventurer; holds the world record for women’s high altitude skiing; and was part of the first expedition to circumnavigate Mount Everest. Reynolds lives with her husband and their two sons in Stowe, Vermont.
   
   All seven books in the Vanishing Cultures series were recognized by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) as Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. Several of the books were also chosen as American Bookseller Pick of the Lists selections.
   
   Learn more about
   Amazon Basin
   Down Under
   Far North
   Frozen Land
   Himalaya
   Mongolia
   Sahara
   
   Download this guide in PDF
   
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