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A Note to Teachers, Librarians and Parents
Here are some suggestions for using Read Up On It. Parents, teachers and librarians can modify these ideas.
- Write about cultural celebrations: find a holiday or festival that a country celebrates and write a report (for example, India’s Diwali, the festival of lights, Mexico’s The Day of the Dead, El Dia de los Muertos, etc.).
- Create a book of world anthems.
- Create a word search using the capitals of various countries; words can appear horizontally, vertically, diagonally, forwards or backwards.
- Make a string figure. String figures are made around the world; hundreds of patterns have been recorded (New Guinea’s Bushman, Vata, Fiji’s Crane, Mbelo, etc.)
- Spin a globe: let your finger land on a country and find a song from there.
- Make a mobile with flags.
- Choose a theme (food, colors, animals, etc.) and make a picture dictionary (German/English, Spanish/English, etc.)
- Create your own calendar using stamps.
- Make an origami fortuneteller (also called cootie catcher), chose an international theme and travel around the world.
- Find different versions of traditional games such as hopscotch (in Columbia it’s called Rayuela and in Indonesia, One Leg Jump) and give them a try.
- Discover different cultures around the word by exploring their fairy tales; create a new version by altering the story line, adding an unexpected twist or creating a contemporary spin.
- Look for games that kids like to play in different countries and make a book about them, including background information.
- Make a craft specific to a particular country or culture (China, the tangram; Vietnam, a dragon, etc.)
- Plan a cooking day: cook food from other countries and have a day devoted to food.
- Find a myth or a legend, and make up a play based on it.
- Find riddles from various countries.
- Take a trip around the world: draw a map, and each time a book is read by (or to) a child, he chooses a destination on the map.
- Learn words or phrases from around the world: choose a word, for example "hello," or a phrase such as "nice to meet you," and find the different ways it’s expressed in other languages.
- Make a travel guide; include information such as maps, history, food, attractions, and music.
- Race to unscramble the cities of the world: form two teams, each team gets a sheet with the names of 20 scrambled capitals, and they have to unscramble the words. The first team to finish wins.
- Design a cover for your favourite book, display finished cover in the class, along with the books.
- Play geography bingo: on a blank bingo sheet write words having to do with geography. Play like regular bingo.
- Curious words: create a list of English words and find the country of their origin.
- Choose your favourite character from a book and make a puppet.
- Choose a fairy tale from a different culture, make a felt board and a variety of characters and props and then retell the story.
- Celebrate heritage day: celebrate the various ethnic backgrounds with food, legends and games.
- Make a family tree and explore your ethnic heritage.
- Make an international newspaper (write news from the world), print and distribute it.
- Suggest alternate titles for a book that you have read.
- Invite guests (parents, grandparents, etc.) from various ethnic backgrounds to talk to children about life in their country of origin.
- Locate far-away places: using a map of the world, mark the birthplaces of authors or illustrators, or mark the setting(s) of the stories you read.
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