New Topic - Around The World

[Guest]

Hiya i'm starting a new topic after christmas around the wordl has anyone got any planning or ideas on the is topic i haven't got a clue where to start!!

Than You

AEK

[Guest]

Mmm quite a large topic! Could you start with some stories? Handa's Surprise is an obvious easy choice - could be used as a starting point for looking at fruits, animals, clothes, landscape and houses/villages/towns.

[Guest]

Hi AEK,

 

I love the topic around the world. We always started of by the children making a passport and talking about hot and cold countries. As a group, we discussed our holiday experiences. The children wrote their own lists for packing suitcases. We set our own aeroplane up with chairs etc and went to the arctic. This opened a opportunity for fantastic role play!!! We looked at melting/ freezing and talked a little about the inhabitancy. Next, we got on the train to China for the festival of New Year. The train was fantastic the children really used their imagination. We went on a boat to Mexico. We looked at their culture and completed some fantastic art work.

 

We always cooked some of the traditional foods.

 

 

Hope this is useful!

 

Golden wink

[Guest]

Here I was looking for inspiration for a new topic after christmas - was planning to reuse an old one for ease - we are having building work done to become a foundation stage unit starting in Feb - bu think i'll scrap those ideas and write a new topic on around the world.

 

Thank U

Sarah xoxox

[Guest]

Hi there,

'Penguin Small' ( think its by Mick Inkpen) could be quite useful as he travels from the North Pole to the South Pole to escape from the polar bears and comes across a warm 'jungly' island.

Things that immediately jump into my head are- cold-hot countries jungle animals and arctic animals and their habitats. Different homes around the world, keeping cool, keeping warm, travel agents, airport, making postcards,sending postcards safari parks, children bringing in photos of their holidays, saying hello and thankyou in French or Spanish, relatives abroad,clothes around the world

chinese new year coming up -use the internet and look at holiday sites- Disneyland

Hope something sparks you off

Lynda

[Guest]

Sarah just read your reply-you could link with buildings around the world and watch the changes in your new unitMy children were engrossed with the building work when our unit was being developed last year. That kind of 1st hand experience sounds just too good to miss -good luck with it all

Lynda

[Guest]

I agree with Lynda and personally feel that topics are more valuable for the children if they are based on current, relevant exploitation on what is happening in their world around them.

Some lovely ideas though, just don't think they are workable in terms of "relevance" to young children and for the length of time a topic may be planned to last for.

How do children respond to role modelling "going on a train or plane" if they've never been on one? Therefore I would ask if this curriculum focus is totally inclusive?

 

Peggy

[Guest]

Hi,

 

I did a 'Journeys' topic last summer which included aspects of 'Around the World'. We set up the role play area as an aeroplane complete with a 'view' and the children made tickets and passports and checked each other in. An old computer joystick made a good steering thing or whatever technical term you're meant to use with regards to an aeroplane! We had a trolley with food in it and the children walked up the middle of the plane, giving out food to the passengers.

 

We 'went' to China and found out about the Dragon Boat Festival. We wrote our names in Chinese (there's a website that will convert names into Chinese characters) and tasted different Chinese foods, talking about our preferences and dislikes. We also made shadow puppets and used them to act out stories (a table placed against a wall with a blanket over it, the puppets and a torch). We also found out that red is a 'lucky' colour in China and that if you can balance a red decorated egg on its end at exactly 12 noon then the following year will be a lucky one. Believe it or not, some of my children managed it!

 

There's a really good Scholastic book 'Festival Fun fo the Early Years: Chinese New Year and Dragon Boat Festival' which details these activities and lots more.

 

We also used the book 'We're Going on a Lion Hunt' by David Axtell (pub. by Macmillan) to look at Africa. It's like an African 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt'. I got in a lady who does charity work in Africa and she brought in some artefacts and did a talk. We made old maps by painting paper with coffee, tearing the edges and screwing up the paper and then drawing on the route that the girls took. I also gave them some small world figures and grass, water etc so they could act out the story. Oh, and I turned a pop-up tent into a cave by piling brown material on it. The children sat inside with a torch and read books about lions.

 

You could also go to Australia - fab dreamtime stories. This would mean that you could look at natural dyes - spinach, saffron, mud, coffee, beetroot all come out well - and explore the dot technique used in Aboriginal art. I did this and we had great fun going out to find a stone with which we could crush up our beetroot etc and a stick to paint with. The stick isn't that successful for painting dots (all part of the learning curve!) but a cotton bud produced perfect circles.

[AnonyMouse_4544]

We have done Festivals around the world as a topic before and Also just looked at how Christmas is celebrated in other countries. I think this could be an exciting topic for the children Good Luck!

[Guest]

I agree with Lynda and personally feel that topics are more valuable for the children if they are based on current, relevant exploitation on what is happening in their world around them.

Some lovely ideas though, just don't think they are workable in terms of "relevance" to young children and  for the length of time a topic may be planned to last for.

How do children respond to role modelling "going on a train or plane" if they've never been on one? Therefore I would ask if this curriculum focus is totally inclusive?

 

Peggy

44523[/snapback]

 

Peggy I understand what you are saying but we have a middle/high class intake which travel around the world. There are many role modelling situations children do not encounter but is that not the point? to re-enact and experience different life situations with adults. I dare say children have seen an aroplane or train in a book, televsion etc. Small world is another area where the children experience' trains or planes'. We must make sure that children understand that there is a world around them to explore and enjoyl. The currciulum focus is not soley based on modes of transport and discussing where and how the children have travelled.

[AnonyMouse_4544]

When we looked at journeys in the summer I asked my class how many had been on a train/boat/ plane /car/ bus etc and only 1 child had been on a train while over half of the class had been on an aeroplane. some children had only been in friends cars and a couple had never been on a bus. Sometimes we assume all children will have similar experiences or background knowledge but this isnt so.

[Guest]

I did Around the world as my Summer 2 planning...will scour my planning discs to find it for you.

I did a book called Whistling Thorn for Africa...a beautiful story about Giraffes...I then linked this with Giraffes can't Dance- a book and CD I used for dance! It's a fantastic book with a super story!

I also looked at world music. Take a look at http://www.putumayo.com/ for inspiration!....I did a passport stopping off at different countries looking at their music, food, traditions, animals and weather.

We looked at camouflage of different animals around the world and made camouflage pictures....they chose their favourite animal then created a background.

We also made friends and links with schools in America- New Zealand- Australia and South Africa.

We had a Japanese student at the time and we celebrated Children's day and made carp kites using tissue paper....we set up the classroom in Japanese style- I wore a Kimono and the children made and ate rice balls!

 

Although if doing it at this time of year I would take advantage of the Chinese New Year...try this site for some New yr ideas...http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/chineseny.html

mmmmm...will ponder this some more and see if I can come up with anything else.

 

Dougal xx

[AnonyMouse_4544]

I got the CDs from Natural World well think they are the same

http://www.thenaturalworld.com/NaturalWorl...uct/2515000.htm