My middle school students spent one semester creating their own culture. They chose a geographic region of the world and studied the natural habitat of that region. Using the resources native to their chosen area, they built housing, named their peoples, chose a govenmental system, created a system for bartering, decided upon a family structure, and all of the otehr details that a culture would have. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures of the individual groups cultures, but each group of 3 created a plaster wrap person and dressed it accordingly, created pottery with clay in their culture's style, made medallions or coins with tooling foil, and created posters showing the architectural style of their housing. Next year we will focus on masks, jewelry, and pottery for their cultures. The students and I both learned together on this intriguing project. The students enjoyed being able to use their creativity on their projects.
I recently did this project again, incorporating writing in the form of students creating a fable that explained a custom in their culture. I also had students find a landscape picture that reflected their culture and had them paint them.
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