steppin' up to first grade: Away We Go…A Peek into Our Travels Around the World!

We just recently started a new unit that is near and dear to my heart- Traveling Around the World.
I love to travel, see new places, try new foods and meet new friends. The promise of an adventure always sparks excitement and wonder in me and it is something I would love to impart to my students.

This is the third time I have taught this unit, and boy oh boy does it get better (and easier) each time I tackle it!

This time around, I decided to create some handouts/worksheets that would help the unit go smoothly and also teach my students to synthesize information and pull out the important facts from what we learn.

One of the key elements to making this unit engaging is to have guest speakers from different countries come into our class and share. I encourage families to share with us about their heritage and countries of origin. We are very fortunate to have such a diverse student population, so there are usually quite a few families who have relatives that live in other countries. Each time we travel, our focus countries change depending on where the students and their families come from.

This year I created a handout for all our guest speakers to help them organize the information they would share. It also offered ideas of things they could bring in which include: food, games, pictures, money and books. Here is what it looks like:

The other elements I created to help the students feel like they were really "traveling" were suitcases and tickets.

The students get to decorate and glue a "stamp" on their suitcase for every continent we travel to, and they love it!

I found this Delta ticket template online. I printed them out and laminated them so we could use them for each plane ride we take.

The biggest and best part of the unit is the in-class airplane.

I arranged the students chairs in rows "inside" the airplane. When its time for our plane trip, I have the class line up outside the classroom and I disperse the tickets. Then I lead them in and escort them to their seats on the plane.

When its time for our flight, we always kick things off with a little fun and informative video about safety :)

The first time I played this, my kids were completely mesmerized and totally engrossed! I have to admit I was a little swept up by the music as well! : )

After our safety video, I usually show a short presentation about the country we are studying by using a combination of web resources.

Some of my favorite places to find information are:

National Geographic Kids

Time For Kids-Around The World

After our "trip", we take time to review and record the information we just learned. Here are some samples of my students work summarizing what we have learned so far...

We started our trip by exploring the continent of North America. We kicked off our unit by having one of my student's parents come into our class and talk about Mexico (one of my student's dad is from Mexico). His mom made Mayan hot chocolate and sweet bread that she shared with our class. The students were fascinated by all the interesting facts. They especially liked learning about the snake pyramid.

We spent a little time learning about our own country and reviewing our national symbols and historic landmarks.

This student drew a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, since it is something well known you will find in America.

Next we traveled to the continent of South America. We only had time to visit one country so we focused on the biggest one-Brazil. We had a blast learning all about Brazilian culture and traditions.

It just so happened my kids were super students last week and filled the marble jar so we got to celebrate by watching the movie Rio. It was a great way to wrap up our trip to Brazil.

This week we traveled to Europe. One of my students parents are from England. His mom came into our class and shared all about her country. She even made some tea and homemade scones for us to sample. The students thoroughly enjoyed having "tea time" at the end of the day.