Welcome to the TravelPod forums

[cheer4lvw]

I am a new teacher this coming year for 1st and 2nd grade. I don't have a social studies curriculum, so I was thinking that I would do travel units. Go "visit" different countries and learn about its geography, people, literature, food, and the like.

I was wondering if there is anyone out there who has done this.
OR
If there is anything you guys think I should teach. What countries? What about the countries?

I hope that the more I travel, the more authentic I can make this for my students, but for right now I need to use others who have been there....mainly you guys.

Thanks!

[Paul]

Hi - good luck with what you are doing.

One thing I remember from school is that you learn the names of lots of different countries on a map and if you look at the colours on the map you think that describes all the different people, cultures, foods, ways of life in the world. Neatly divided up by borders and different names.

When you travel. WOW!!! That is so wrong. There is so much more.

Borders are reasonably new inventions and they really don't describe what is in the world. There is such an incredibly rich number of peoples and cultures in some places. Here in Thailand there are ???perhaps 100 different ethnic groups. And the T'ai race actually extends from Eastern India thru Southern China, across to Vietnam, into Cambodia and Malaysia and of course Laos, Burma and Thailand.

In Northern Vietnam you can walk from one village to the next (same sort of distance as walking to your local shops) and you will be in a totally different culture and ethnic group. Different language, different dress, different customs.

Papua New Guinea is another great example - due to the amazing terrain and vegetation, there are hundreds of different languages within a small area.


So, I haven't answered your question. But if you can fit some of that sort of stuff in your classes maybe the kids would be interested and learn more than they expect.

[thellie]

only one school in the many that i went to, taught a lesson called moral studies. it was akin to religious education, but with a much broader subject line. not just the various religions around the world (of course, all inferior to church of england our teachers preached), but it also showed you different philosophies, atheism, communism, fascism and a myriad of things in between. it was, apart from history, my most favourite lesson in all my schooldays, and almost certainly the one which has given me a more open and broadminded view of life...

[Paul]

Sounds good.

You could link that in with geography showing how the different philosophies and religions have travelled, where they overlap, where they are in conflict, etc.

There is a problem with the UN, World Bank, etc in that often its over-riding principles are from Western countries - whose philosophies and religions have arisen mainly in the middle east. Often Westerners seem to fail to realize that some of their basic assumptions on what is moral and 'right' are not necessarily the same as people whose cultures and religions have developed in the India, Asia or in Northern Australia or ......

[kacampau]

Pictures! Lots of pictures! And if you could bring someone who has been to some of these places to show their pictures!

And stories of kids coming from these places.

[Paul]

Can you get your kids to write letters to some of the people in far off places?

[thellie]

perfect timing, paul!
my friend annie, was wondering if she could get her classes to make posters (in english and korean) describing their country and life, and then send them to our schools. then, reciprocally, our students send posters in thai and english of their life etc...

waddya think?

[cheer4lvw]

I love the idea of writing to other people. It would probably have to be later in the year, especially for the younger ones to get more comfortable writing. My only concern would be, how would I get names and addresses of people to send to?

[Paul]

Thellie - I like the idea and would expect that the schools in Chiang Rai would be interested.

Cheer4l... perhaps you could join in with these Thai and Korean schools?

[thellie]

My only concern would be, how would I get names and addresses of people to send to?

i would suggest just sending them to the school... maybe each class could have a 'post office' or 'post box'. either students could be paired off by the staff, or they can make their own choices after reading initial letters not designed for specific individuals...?

cheer4lvw - where are you based?

[cheer4lvw]

I'm in Wisconsin, in the United States. It's in the Midwest, not a very well-known part of the States.

[thellie]

america has a history of immigration, pioneering and settlement, especially in the mid-west - perhaps you could ask your children what their ancestry is, and get them to incorporate that into the project... i.e. as well as using english, maybe there are children with german, native american, swedish, french etc ancestors...?

what do you think?

[teachertraveler]

Hello,
As a teacher who had to survive my first year teaching without curriculum, I feel your pain!

Just a word of advice: before you sit down and plan all the content you want to teach (i.e. countries to visit) I highly recommend figuring out what skills you are going to teach your students first. If you start with content before assessment, you'll end up with students who know a lot about one or two countries, but have no skills to apply when researching other countries. I wouldn't want you to make any "newbie" mistakes that I did.

Are you teaching geography or history? Will you be teaching map skills as a separate unit or integrated into your countries unit? A helpful guide would be to check the Wisconsin Department of Education web page and see what standards the students are required to know by 4th grade. Pick out the most important and most developmentally appropriate ones for your grade level. From there you can start fitting content with skills. Also realize that at this age, students sometimes have trouble grasping even basic geography ideas about their own town. A great way to start out the year would be to map or explore your own town and state and build the basic skills within the context of their own community before moving on to unfamiliar territory.

Also I really liked the idea of having students research their own cultural heritage. Depending on what part of Wisconsin you're in, you could have a wide variety of backgrounds. Have students interview parents, grandparents or community members who could give them some insight on their own personal cultural background. They could do short presentations on their cultural history with visuals.

I hope that helps and good luck with your first year!

[cheer4lvw]

I'm loving the ideas! Thanks so much for all your help. We'll see how this goes, but I may have to start a blog about my student's "travels". :-)

[cheer4lvw]

Just an update on my teaching....I'm using a program called epals through my school. Through it I can contact teachers and classrooms from all over the world to become pen pals. Right now I'm trying to start postcard exchanges between my classroom and some from countries we are studying. I have gotten a pretty good response so far. I am so excited to start getting the postcards and share them with my students.

[exploreamerica]

Hi. I teach 4th grade. I am an avid traveler and try to incorporate that into my class. In addition to "normal" centers like math and reading, I have a fantastic world center. My students love it!! I have hundreds of coins from around the world for them to view. I have blown up some of my favorite pictures for them to see in a binder. I have viewmasters for them to see pictures from around the world. One of the class's favorites is a display case with almost 100 different baby jars filled with sand and soil from all around the world. To incorporate in academics I have reading worksheets that are about different cultures and countries. I have tons of map skills activities. I also have about 50 different worksheets I have made up with flags from around the world for the kids to color and then write a report on the back.

All in all it is a great center that I am constantly adding to. I enjoy that I am sharing my passion for travel and hopefully that will rub off on my students to want to get out and explore too!!