Teachers Tool-Kit

Guide to teaching Global Citizenship

in the classroom!
Lorem Elementary Science Fair
School Gymnasium
Sunday, August 16, 2015 9am
Five effective activities that will help develop the global citizen
within your students! These activities will allow your students to
engage the world around them critically, while also letting them
see it in a fun and light-hearted way!

* Optimized for students between grades 4 and 6.

Activity #1:
This is a fun activity that will allow your students
to realize that underneath all our differences,
there are other children around the world just
like them. It will let them see that there are
obvious things that set other children apart from
them but they are all alike in hopes and desires.
Goals: To allow students to view the similarities
between them and children in other parts of the world.
Resources Needed:
- Bananas
- Pictures & stories//videos of other children.
Procedure:
Step 1: Students will be given one banana each. They will
need to study it, remember its features and even name it!
Step 2: All the students will then put their bananas in a
basket, at which point, the teacher will rearrange them.
FRUITFUL Pairing
Step 3: The teacher will ask the students to find their
bananas. Now, surprisingly, most students will pick the
right ones due to little indicators.
Step 4: Now the teacher will ask the students to peel them
and put them back in the basket. Again the teacher will
rearrange them (or wont even have to) and ask the
students to pick them out.
Step 5: The students will have a difficult time, as they will
realize that most of them look exactly the same. At this
point the teacher can make the point that beyond physical
appearances or barriers, much like the bananas, all
people are alike.
Step 6: The teacher will then ask a handful of students for
the names they gave their bananas and share pictures and
stories or full videos of students in other parts of the world
with those names (e.g. the boy in the picture above,
named David). This will be in attempt to show that those
students are much like the ones in your class, as they also
like to do similar things. ***Students may eat bananas
post-activity!
This activity will allow students to visualize differences as
a physical attribute that can be removed. And as they pair
this way of thinking with a certain face/child, it will allow
them to see that there is not much difference in people
no significance in us and them.
Activity #2:
world-play

Goals: To give students a chance to absorb different

This specific activity will allow your students to build
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cultures and find collective solutions to help all the
different people. on the mindset that they have obtained from the last

Resources Needed:
one. Students will have the chance to role-play as
countries. This will allow them to evaluate different
- Paper
cultures and what they lack and will also allow them
- Pencils
to find collective solutions.
- Pictures/information of designated countries.

Procedure: Step 5: After the students have presented their

Step 1: The class will be split up into five groups.
Step 2: The teacher will give four groups countries that are
fairly poor and lack a lot of development/resources, while
one group will receive a powerful, developed nation.
Step 3: The groups will then be asked to do research on
their nation. This means understanding the culture (i.e.
how they live). It also means assessing strengths (e.g.
exports) and weaknesses (e.g. lack of electricity)
Step 4: The teacher will double-check the work to ensure
that the information found is correct for each country and
then they can begin presenting the information they
found in groups. *** Videos are recommended.
designated countries, the teacher will then present
problems. Now these could be worldwide problems or
problems with one or more countries (out of the 5
countries selected).
Step 6: The students will then have to work together and
analyze what their respective countries can offer to resolve
the issue.
Step 7: Each group will write a report about the solution.
This activity will allow students to see the contrast in the
lives of people from different countries. The
presentations will allow them to view the lifestyles of the
unprivileged in the context of their own. And the role-
play problem-solving will allow them to see that there is
always a solution to the worlds problems.
Activity #3:
Disaster Diversity
For this activity, students will have the
opportunity to evaluate a natural disaster of their
choosing one that occurred in a fairly
undeveloped country. This will allow them to see
what happens/lack thereof in terms of relief and
help from the international community.
Goals: Depicting to students how fragile some
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countries are and how difficult it is to get the
international community to help.
Resources Needed:
-Computer
Procedure:
Step 1: The teacher will divide the class into 6 groups
and each will choose their own natural disaster to
present about.
Step 2: The teacher will ask the students to provide a
brief history about the countrys general development
and the state of the country prior to and post the
natural disaster.
Step 3: The students will also be responsible for
evaluating the capability of the country to deal with the
disaster and the response from the international
community.
Step 4: The teacher must approve the topic before the
students can begin research.
Step 5: Once the research is completed, students have
to find an interesting way to present the information.
Step 6: The students will offer their own suggestions on
what contingencies could have been placed to
minimize the damage or what more the international
community could have done after.
Step 7: Finally after the students have presented, they
will have a question & answer period, in which the the
students/teacher may ask questions.
This activity depicts to students that there are
countries that live in normal conditions and are still
fragile, therefore natural and unstoppable disasters
can be extremely devastating. Furthermore it allows
Activity #4:
Culture Fair

Goals: Allowing students to experience the bigger world In this fair, the students will be able to proudly put
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in their own smaller and familiar context. This will enable
them to evaluate their contributions in the larger context. their heritage or that of their family on display.

Resources Needed:
Students will benefit from this by seeing the amount
of diversity and where their peers/their families come
- Unique cultural items
from. This will also allow all students to evaluate their
- Arts/Crafts supplies
place in the global context.
- Textbooks/computers for research

Procedure:
Step 1: Each student will be given a template to follow in
order to build a small top-section of a booth. Once they
have constructed this, they may colour it in any fashion that
represents their culture.
Step 2: The teacher will ask the students to do research on
their country and find some unique facts about their
culture. This research must include information from family
members along with standard methods. They must also
bring one unique cultural item. ***If there is more than one
student per country, they may work together.
Step 3: The students will then find a way to present this
(whether its a power-point, a video or simply a speech).
This will include be at their respective booths and will start
with a small intro to their family tree. The students will then
proceed to give a short insight into the history of their
country and its place in the world today. ***The more
visuals, the better
Step 4: The teacher must mediate these presentations and
ask any relevant questions or add any valuable information.
Step 5: The students will then tour all the booths, view the
differences and information, along with the item brought
from home.
Step 6: Students will then pick one other country to write a
report about, outlining what they found interesting and
what they liked.
The fair and presentations are a great way to present
diversity in a context that is fun and informative at the
same time. If the teacher encourages the students to
embrace their culture (e.g. present unique items, dress in
certain clothing!), then other students will also be likely to
embrace it and learn about it.
Activity #5:
Travelling Animals

Step 3: The students will then write a proper journal entry

This final activity will allow your students to go further
than hypothetical classroom exercises and connect
with the world. It will build real and interactive
connections with other students, so that the children
may witness for themselves the differences and
similarities.
on what the animal did in that 24-hour period and will
sign it with their names.
Step 4: The teacher will double-check the entries to
ensure that it is appropriate and easy enough to
understand for the children who it will be going to. He/she
must also be in contact with the teacher in the other
country to ensure that the same procedure is followed.

Step 5: The students will then receive their animal/journal

Goals: Giving students a chance to share their lives and
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experience est in order to form a
lives of others,
back and read the lives of the other students and will write
one reply. The journal will then be sent back so that the
collective identity. other student may reply with any questions/comments.
Resources Needed: Step 6: When the students receive the journals for the
final time they will have their answers and will be given the
- Stuffed Animal
opportunity to keep in contact with the other student if
- Journal they choose to.

Procedure: Step 7: Lastly students will be asked to write a report on

Step 1: Each student will bring a stuffed animal (that they
are willing to part with) and will be given a journal.
Step 2: The teacher will ask the students to bring the
animal to school one day, name it and record what they
(the student & the animal) do for one day (full-24 hours).
the similarities and differences.
This activity shows students the daily lives of students in
other countries who perhaps do not have the privileges
that they do. It can depict to them a very different part of
the world but at the same time, many things about the
daily lives will feel very familiar and it is sure to be
exciting for them.