Classroom Activities Relating to Different Countries
The world is a very big place with many different countries spanning all the continents. Exciting your children to learn about any of them may be a difficult task. Students may not like to look at a map and be told information. Let them get out there and do research and find out about countries they may not already know. There are many activities and resources that will allow them to do just that.
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Travel Brochures
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Separate your classroom into small groups with three or four children per group. Have one of the members of the group select a piece of paper with the name of a country on it. The group is then to make a travel brochure for that country. Make each student responsible for one aspect such as location and capital, cuisine, holidays and traditions, and historic or sightseeing places to go within the country. Make sure that you have resources such as magazines and online sites available for the children to access as they begin to design their brochure.
Discover a New Country
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Provide students with a list of countries around the world. Have them select a country they have never heard of before. Direct the students to research this country to find out about its history, location and other facts. Have them create a one-page report with a map showing the country and its relative location in the world. These are great bulletin board material for "Discovering Our World."
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Discover Food
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Children all know about Chinese food and Italian food, but are they familiar with the food Brazilians or South Americans eat? Do a little research on your own to find interesting food items other countries eat. Use this as an example for the students. Have the students work in groups to find what kinds of traditional foods other countries eat. Have each provide a few recipes for these traditional dishes. Consider using shows such as "Bizarre Foods" on Travel Channel in the classroom during these lessons.
Holidays and Celebrations
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Children love holidays and celebrations. Provide a few examples from around the world of different holidays other countries take part in but the United States does not. Read books to the students about these different traditions, such as "Celebrations of Light: A Year of Holidays Around the World" by Nancy Luenn and "Kids Around the World Celebrate: The Best Feast and Festivals from Many Lands" by Lynda Jones. Have the students create journal entries or write a paragraph on which celebration interested them most and what they think they would do during those celebrations.
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References
- Photo Credit map of the world image by Cristina Cazan from Fotolia.com
