7 Ways to Teach Kids about the World

The most common questions I get from teachers are, “How can I incorporate global learning or multicultural lessons into my existing curriculum?” or, “How can I teach kids about the world while still meeting the standards I need to cover?”

Here are some great ways you can feature different countries and cultures in your classroom and open your students’ eyes to the world around them.

1. Read Quality Multicultural Literature to Teach Kids About the World

As teachers, we read to our kids all the time. By carefully choosing the books, we can:

  • Join the Global Read Aloud. This worldwide book club uses various tools to make connections and discuss the book. Kids in kindergarten through college can participate!
  • Map the settings of the books you read and make sure you are covering all continents.
  • Incorporate multicultural folktales and fiction while also exploring culture in nonfiction books that feature kids’ real lives.
  • Read books that defy stereotypes by showing more than one side of the story. For example, include books from other countries and read about kids in urban, suburban, and rural South Africa.
  • Compare literature and learn about cultural values from “Cinderella around the World,” “Gingerbread Stories around the World,” or the “Trickster Tale” around the World.

In an ever-growing global society, it has become increasingly important to teach kids about the world. This guest post shares six ideas for global education that you can incorporate into your classroom.

2. Celebrate!

Learn about traditions and customs for festivals, celebrations, holidays, and birthdays, and select some favorites to celebrate. There are countless holidays around the world to choose from, but here are three of my favorites:

  • Día de los Muertos (Mexico and a handful of other Latin American countries)
  • Diwali (India)
  • Chinese New Year (China and many other countries in Asia)

Start small: Research the holidays and find out the background of the celebration. There are great multicultural calendars available to help identify the world festivals. If you can’t invite visitors, then re-create a piece of the celebration in your class by watching clips on YouTube, talking to friends of the same culture, or reading books to learn more.

3. Teach Kids About the World Through Vocabulary

Language is such an important part of any culture. If your elementary school is like ours, there are no foreign language classes. First, choose a language to focus on for the year. Try to learn some conversational phrases like “Hello,” “How are you?” “What’s your name?” and “Thank you, friend.”

  • Pick a time to spend five minutes on the word of the day.
  • Incorporate music and little songs throughout the week. Use CDs from the library or YouTube videos that introduce vocabulary in other languages for kids.
  • Practice reading and writing the words you are learning to incorporate emerging language skills.
  • Find some bilingual books at the library to share with your students that use language in context.
Teach Kids About the World through vocabulary

4. Connect with Classes Around the World

Use your computer to connect with classes around the world! If you’re on Twitter, try asking for participants with #globaled, #globalclassroom, #commentsforkids, or your grade level chat (#kinderchat, #1stchat, #2ndchat, #3rdchat, #4thchat, #5thchat, etc). Once you make the match, you could Skype, tweet pictures, share what you’re learning via a blog post, or send letters to each other.

You could also connect with a class using regular pen-and-paper pen pals. There are many places to look for pen pals for your class, but the safest and most popular site is ePals.

Teach kids about the world

5. Add a Global Twist to Existing Lessons

Take a lesson you’ve always done and expand it to include a wider perspective. For example:

  • Five Senses: Learn more about a country by using your five senses.
  • Water Cycle: Follow the route of snow melting in the mountains to the tributaries of major rivers, such as the Amazon, Yangtze, and Nile, and back to the sea.
  • Families/Communities: Look at differences and similarities in families and communities around the world.
  • Famous People: Include inspiring people from around the world when you study biographies.
  • Healthy Eating: Learn about where in the world our foods come from and investigate healthy multicultural cuisine.
  • Animals/Plants: Discover native flora, fauna, and habitats around the world and discuss migration routes.
Taken from The Global Education Toolkit for Elementary Learners, by Tavangar and Morales (2014)

6. Create Beautiful Art

Teachers of art and music may serve as the greatest advocates for incorporating cultural lessons into existing curricula. Working with the art teacher in your school, students can create beautiful pieces of folk art or use techniques popular in certain parts of the world in art class, while deepening their learning about the specific culture in their regular class.

Teach Kids About the World through art

Make it Fun! Play this game in your class!

Using GeoGuessr Game to Teach Kids About the World

GeoGuessr is a free, web-based geography game that challenges players to identify real-life locations from around the world using Google Street View. This game is an excellent tool to integrate technology, map skills, and cultural knowledge in your social studies class.

How GeoGuessr Works

Each game includes five different Street View locations. Students explore each location and surrounding areas, then place a red pin on the map to guess the location. Points are awarded based on the proximity of the guess to the actual location. Students can play individually or create challenges to compete with others.

Teaching Tips for GeoGuessr

  • Encourage students to look for clues such as topography, natural resources, road signs, language on signs and buildings, conditions of infrastructure, types of vehicles, architecture, plant life, climate, and cultural elements.
  • Use Google map tools to zoom in and out, view 360 degrees around, and “travel” away from the original location.
  • Model critical thinking and attention to detail by analyzing images aloud to students, discussing possible locations, and explaining reasoning.

Benefits of GeoGuessr in the Classroom

GeoGuessr helps students connect prior knowledge and experiences while developing critical thinking skills. It provides an engaging way to explore geography and cultural differences. Students learn to differentiate subtle variations between regions and cultures, enhancing their global awareness.

Conclusion

These are some of the many ways we can teach kids about the world while awakening them to the world outside their community. Global awareness is a 21st-century skill that is critically important to success in today’s world and one that we can start to develop with children in elementary and preschool. I hope these activities give you some ideas to use in your classroom!

Our Guest Expert: Teaching Kids About the World

Becky Morales is the founder of Kid World Citizen, where she shares fun multicultural and geography activities with teachers and parents. She is an ESL and Spanish teacher and speaks about global learning in workshops for schools. Becky is passionate about world cultures, world languages, and world travel. You can find more lessons and activities on her TeachersPayTeachers page.

Our Guest Expert: Using GeoGuessr in the Classroom

I am an upper elementary/middle school language arts and social studies teacher who most recently taught fifth grade. I took the scenic route to teaching, with prior jobs in insurance, nonprofit workforce development, and children’s book publishing.  However, teaching, training, and sharing were my favorite parts of all of those jobs. While I’m currently taking time away from classroom teaching to care for my young daughter, I can’t quite get away from the classroom altogether. I’m aspiring to inspire while the baby is napping with my Aspire to Inspire blogTeachers Pay Teachers store, and as a contributor to the Ohio Historical Society’s online textbooks.

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