Around the World in 180 Days

Using curriculum from Kidspiration and the digital camera provided by this grant, our students will research and make every nationality's flag represented by their ancestors. Then they will start their 180 day trek learning about new cultures by traveling to a different country each week! "Sister Schools" will be identified and each class will have a foreign-culture partner class who will serve as their mentors. Students will use digital camera technology to record a storyboard of their journey and share it with their online buddies. Their activities will include:
1) After mapping their ancestral homelands students will use curriculum from Kidspiration to create an immigration web which shows the journeys that began from many parts of the world and ended with all of the students in the same school, connecting each one of them with the other.
2) Students will produce a video of each nationality's customs and it will be uploaded on teachertube.com and youtube.com making it accessible to everyone in the world.
3) Using kits sponsored by Target, our PTO will sponsor arts and crafts, movie, and game nights to coincide with our Global Culture curriculum. Families will be watching travel films, making arts and crafts, eating, and playing games from every nationality represented. These family nights will be open to the public and will feature a special guest from the community who is serving as a mentor for this program.
4) Each holiday for each nationality will be recognized throughout the year and we will host special events like country “Birthday Parties” and "Heroes: past and present” to recognize important people in each country.
5) We will host a Global Olympic Games event where flags will be displayed and students will compete in various sporting events and games of countries.
6) Nations songs and dance will be learned and performed by students at the Celebrating Multicultural Diversity Festival.
7) Students will learn how to say common greetings in each language and will practice those them during morning announcements depending on the country being studied.
8) Using the World Wide Web, students will establish mentor relationships with foreign schools and learn facts about each county, maps, recipes, language, history, and statistics about the country to be used in a math class.
9) Where in the World is Headmaster Walker? will be played during announcements. The headmaster will ask multicultural questions and winners will receive prizes.
10) Art classes will make multicultural arts and crafts which will be sold at the 1st Annual Celebrating Multicultural Diversity Festival, a free and educational community event.
11) "Guess My Garb" style show, multicultural luncheon & special guest performances by community mentors will be hosted throughout the school year.
12) Using curriculum sponsored by PTO Today, we will host several reading nights where families and community members can come together to hear “storytellers” bring multicultural books to life. Everyone will be asked to bring an old book to donate to our library.
As a culminating activity, students will bring the community together to celebrate the diverse cultures and rich traditions that make up our community by hosting a yearly Celebrating Cultural Diversity Festival. Working with local and online global mentors, students will create exhibits representing global cultures. The community will be educated and entertained as they enjoy a day of exhibits, music, dance, and food representing cultures around the world. In an effort to ensure continuation of this project, students will raise money at the festival through sales of photography, artwork, jewelry, pottery, food, and drinks. These funds will be used for seed money for next year’s festival and to perpetuate the Global Cultures curriculum.