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.