The first ever Go Global Week at our school was challenging to plan, but my partner, Heather and I accomplished what we had hoped, and student and teacher reception was phenomenal. Our goal was to bring the world to our students grades 2 through 5. We live in a very non-diverse suburban area, and honestly we weren’t sure how our idea would be received by our administration when we presented our plan. They were wonderfully supportive so we began our planning. We wanted to approach the students at their level, so there had to be a great deal of differentiation.
In a nutshell we searched for: folktales for 2nd grade, landmarks for 3rd grade, speakers, activities. and global issues of the countries for 4th and 5th grade.
We decided on nine countries because that is how many 4th and 5th grade classes we had. China, Peru, India, Italy, France, Haiti, Mexico, Ethiopia, Australia were visited by all students. During rotations passports were stamped, videos were watched, music was heard and discussions were had. Lower grades did crafts and S.T.E.M. projects for each country. Speakers for the Upper Elementary came from our community and were well received.
The students are talking about the countries they visited, the teachers have said that they were learning as well, so we are calling this a win.
worldwidedeb 