The people who have immigrated to Lowell from other countries have brought with them their unique experiences and cultural identities, helping to shape and define our American culture. In this activity, students explore similarities and differences between cultural groups, and themselves, as represented by objects. Students can follow the activity on this worksheet, or by answering the questions below on a separate sheet of paper.

Activity:

  1. Walk around your home and notice all of the objects – books, pictures, toys, tools, quilts, food products, etc. Think about: What are the objects used for? Where did they come from?
  2. Many different immigrant groups came to Lowell from many different countries. Here is a sample of some of the groups. Choose one:
    • Irish
    • French Canadian
    • Greek
    • Portuguese
    • Columbian
    • Cambodian
  3. Look at the list of objects associated with that cultural group. Pick a few objects from your cultural group and match them to three different categories below:
    • Tools
    • Religion
    • Music
    • Food
    • Games/sports/toys
    • Clothing
    • Important documents
    • Photographs or pictures of home or family
  4. Look at another cultural group’s objects and find three objects that fit into your three categories.
  5. Look around your home at the objects you identified in Step 1, and place at least three of those objects in the categories.
  6. Look at all of the objects in the categories.

Compare and contrast: What is similar or different about the objects in the categories? Draw a picture of one of the objects from your house and write a two-sentence description of it.

Want to learn more? Try this lesson with an important object and an adult family member: