Multicultural Geography Activity

by Betty Galvan

This holiday weekend, Diego and I took a trip around the world! He has been very curious about geography for some time now and even requested a globe for Christmas. Like any other interest, I like to teach him what I can at home, so I went on the hunt for a cool geography lesson on countries and found an idea on Scholastic’s resources for teachers.

Teachers have used this lesson to help students understand each others' background. Diego loves to discuss the heritage and languages of all his friends, so I decided to help him track where his friends' parents have come from. Not only did we spend time studying the world map by looking for countries by reading, but Diego also practiced spelling his friends’ names, he measured distance for the first time, and we discussed languages!

This activity became even more interesting when we realized that a few of his friends had parents from different countries, so we used a red dry erase marker to identify the mothers’ background and black for the fathers’.
The other materials needed for this geography lesson: a laminated map, poster board paper, alphabet stickers, glue, and a ruler.

Diego started off by gluing the map to the poster board.

First name on the board done!

Diego thought it was important to track our background, too!

Working very carefully! The difficult part was not getting the map smudged!

This activity would be perfect for kids of all ages. The lesson should really focus on locating countries on a map but while working on the project, Diego and I had a natural discussion of multicultural families, languages, and travel. The best part of the project was the realization, for both of us, that people from all over the world can come together so easily!

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Betty Galvan, is helping her readers "find the positive and seek the benefits" over at her blog, MyFriendBettySays.com.

She is the mother of three beautiful little boys and a teacher.