Around the World Theme for an Elementary Class
Teaching Through a Theme Over the School Year
Elementary school themes can help motivate students to learn and can help focus the teacher’s lessons across the curriculum. A great theme for elementary students is Traveling Around the World. This theme could cover many different subjects in your curriculum including science, reading, writing, and social studies.
Decorating the Room Based on the Theme
Decorate your room with travel posters. You can also group your students and have them draw a mural about different topics for each country and display them down the hall. Some ideas for murals include food, landmarks, history, and language. You can also create or purchase a country flag to display.
Have a sign saying, "Look Who's Traveling Through _ Grade" and have the kids make their own suitcases. Each student can decorate her suitcase with information about herself. Students can draw pictures of themselves with their family, list their favorite food, favorite sport or game, pets, and any other activity they liked to do. You can have one already completed with information about yourself as an example for the students. The luggage tag on the suitcase then has the student's name on it. These suitcases then go up on a bulletin board or in the hallway.
Class Activities Based on the Theme
The student of the week can be the Pilot and could choose where she wants to go out of a list of possible countries. Each student can also have a passport with his picture. Each page is for a different country, and students have to write the things they learned about each country as part of the end of each unit, before getting an official stamp. The stamp can be anything simple that you pick up from a craft store.
The passport and travel log would be a great way to see student improvements throughout the year. Obviously the first entries would be shorter, but by the end of the year students should be able to write more information, and will be a great way to allow parents to see their child’s progress.
You can follow through with the theme by reading books about the chosen country, and preparing a special snack from each country. You can also learn about the weather, and the traditions of each chosen country. Whenever you come across a holiday in your schedule, be sure to find out about how the country you are currently learning about celebrates that same holiday.
You can also take pictures of the students learning about each country, and make a scrapbook page about the student’s travels throughout the year. At the end of the year you will then have a whole scrapbook of the class’s travels around the world, and a great memory of the year.
Extending the Theme to Around the United States
If you want to try a twist on this theme, or if your social studies unit through the year is on the history of the United States, you can have your students travel around America instead of the whole world. Visit AAA or call each state’s visitor center and get the visitor guides to each state. Many of the same activities for the around the world theme can extend to an Around the United States theme as well.
Thinking creatively and encouraging student participation will provide you great learning opportunities all year long. This will also give you opportunities for games and activities based upon the country you are studying on those crazy days before a holiday break. Teaching through a theme like this can encourage your students to have fun while learning.
Check out other lesson plan ideas.
Teaching Around the World
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