Culture Graphic Organizer – Blank Sheets for Any Culture

How it works

There is more to a culture than its food and holidays. This culture graphic organizer gives seven parts of a way of life a box each, so a research project or a country study also covers what people believe and how they are governed.

Read the full guide

Practice on a group everyone knows

Fill the sheet in together for your own school before students research a culture far away. Any group that shares a way of life has a culture, and a class can name its school's language, celebrations and rules without opening a book.

Comparing two cultures

Bring out the two-column chart once both cultures have been researched, so each likeness and difference sits on one line. Ask students to describe and not to rank: neither column holds the right answer.

On the family sheet, let students choose which boxes to fill. Nobody should have to share more about home than they want to.
For a country with many peoples, write the group or region the sheet describes on the Culture line.

Questions and answers

What is culture?

The way of life a group of people shares. One encyclopedia definition lists a society's social behavior, institutions and norms, and the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs and habits of its people. People learn their culture from those around them.

What are the elements of culture?

No single list is agreed. These sheets use seven: language, food, clothing, celebrations, beliefs and values, arts and government. UNESCO describes culture as taking in art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs.

What is the difference between material and non-material culture?

Material culture is the physical objects and buildings of a society, such as its tools and its art. Non-material culture cannot be touched: symbols, beliefs and shared ideas. Some scholars draw the line in other places.

All 10 organizers

One culture 4

Culture graphic organizer: seven parts of one culture A line for the culture, then a box each for its language, food, clothing, celebrations, beliefs and values, arts and government.
Draw and write: food, clothing, a celebration, the arts Four boxes with room to draw over lines for a caption. For younger grades, or as the cover of a culture project.
One celebration up close A line for the celebration and four boxes: who takes part, when and where, what people do, and the food, clothing and music. The box at the foot asks why it matters.
Research notes with sources The seven parts down the side, with a box for what you found and a box for where you found it.

Two cultures 2

Material and non-material culture T chart Two open columns: things people make and use on one side, and ideas, beliefs and ways of doing things on the other.
Two cultures side by side A column for each culture and a row for each of the seven parts, so likenesses and differences sit on the same line.

A student's own 3

Exit slips, two to a page Half sheets with a cut line between them, each with three short boxes: something like my own life, something different, and a question I still have.
How a tradition is passed on Four boxes joined by arrows: a tradition I keep, who taught it to me, who taught them, and how I might pass it on.
My family's culture: six boxes For a student's own family: languages at home, foods, days we celebrate, songs and stories, something passed down, and a space to draw. Students fill in only what they want to share.

Filled-in sample 1

Sample culture organizer, filled in The opening sheet written in for a made-up school, to show the kind of answer each box takes.