Title: Global Discovery Activities: For the Elementary Grades
Price: $29.95
Overall Rating (1-10): 10
Value (1-10): 10
Flexibility (1-10): 10
Ages/Grades: K-6
Review:
Global Discovery Activities is a resource book for teachers and homeschoolers who are interested in expanding cultural literacy. This expansive book is filled with hundreds of activities supporting cultural awareness around the world. It contains hundreds more reproducible activity sheets to supplement activities and reading, as well.
The book is laid out in a really neat way. It is divided by cultural region. This is appealing to folks who practice a unit study approach to Homeschooling. It is very simple to study geography and incorporate these activities, by region, into your curriculum. Likewise, this is an invaluable guide to historical and culturally-accurate references and resources.
The cultural regions covered in this book include Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Caribbean and other islands, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, Canada, Native American Cultures, and the US.
For each region, you start out with a nicely organized list of recommended reading. I really like that this is the first (instead of the last) offering to the teacher as this helps me organize the lessons. I can put appropriate books on order at the beginning which leaves plenty of time to receive them and read through them before we finish a region. For each book, a nice summary explains the content of the book which helps pick through the stories for age-appropriateness and interest level.
The second section of each region offers information about folk tales in that region. Extensive history is given about the role folk tales played in each region. Suggestions for folk tale classroom activities follow the folk tales section of each region. Most of these activities can easily be converted to Homeschool classrooms. Each region has a dozen or more activity suggestions to choose from. This is so great for the hands-on learner. Following that is our favorite section of each region: Celebrations! We loved reading about the celebrations that traditionally take place around the world. It’s amazing to learn just how different the customs and traditions are even within each region. It would be easy to incorporate these celebrations into a Homeschool family calendar and reenact them at home! Again, a series of activities for classroom celebrations is offered. Almost all can be used at home and many would make for great Homeschool cooperative or group activities.
Then each region shares some cultural arts and crafts information. Once again, a series of suggested arts and crafts activities for all skill levels, ages and family sizes are offered. There are activities for the very artistic down to the art-challenged – definitely something for everyone! Next we find sections on regional games and songs, dances and rhythms. The games tend to be games that need multiple players although there are solitary activities and games listed, too.
There is also an extensive list of food and recipes by region. This is such a great way to incorporate math and eating into a Homeschool lesson!! I like that the recipes are simple enough for most kids to complete (or at least help with) and don’t usually require too many hard-to-locate items. My kids LOVE the recipe portion of each region!
Last, but definitely not least, comes the State Standards tie-in. After each region, a number of ideas are given for how to incorporate the lesson into state-standards for curriculum and learning. This is important to many homeschoolers who are under tight state guidelines. I love how it tells exactly how to incorporate reading and language arts as well as social studies. I think it could elaborate even more and include math and science as well but it’s a great start.
Bottom Line: This book is a great value, an invaluable resource for both cultural exploration and fun! Kids of all ages will really get into these activities groups by regions around the world. And I think it’s probable that all of us parents will learn a thing or two along the way! This book has an enormous amount to offer Homeschooling parents.