We're Special: Encourage your students to share the culture of your area by creating "cultural trees" to exchange with BICpals . They can be set up in the same format as a family tree, but with different headings.

• Students might begin by looking at names, both their own and the names of buildings or businesses, to determine the heritage of their town/city.
• What special things do they do as part of this heritage: customs, festivals, special observances, foods? Add these headings to the "cultural tree" and fill in the blanks.
• Individual students can share their special stories as interviews, dialogues, plays, or art projects to expand the "cultural tree."

• Create a picture dictionary of some fun things that are often called by different names in different parts of the country (grinder, sub, hero, hoagie), (soda, pop) (lunch box, bucket, pail), (jimmies,sprinkles).
• What are common expressions used in your area and what do they mean? For example, people in Maine use the expression "down east" which means down the coast. People in Boston use the expression "yar it is" which means yes it is in other parts of the country. In Seattle, the expression "the lake" refers to Lake Washington.
• You can also exchange simple words in different languages such as Spanish or Chinese. Words might include common expressions such as hello, thank you, or how are you?