SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES FOR K–12 SCHOOLS

The following list is just a start. We encourage you to be creative in planning events for IEW and let us know about your activities.

Incorporate information on a country or culture into your regular lesson plan, even if you don't teach social studies.

Explore international aspects of the arts - music, film, theatre, visual arts, literature, dance - by creating, performing, or studying artworks with an international component. This could include a field trip to a museum or concert or showing a foreign film in class.

Adopt a school in a developing country and donate school supplies, reference materials, and other items.

Trade questions and answers with students from another country through the Internet, pen pal clubs, or a Digital Video Conference.

Encourage cultural understanding for students using the online resource One World: Connecting Communities, Cultures, and Classrooms. Sponsored by the National Football League and Scholastic Inc., this unique education resource designed for teachers. The free, web-based program may be downloaded from http://scholastic.com/oneworld.

Organize a cross-cultural potluck lunch in which students bring in or make foods from their homeland or ancestors' homeland.

Ask students to write essays on countries they would like to visit and why they chose those countries.

Feature local international experts as speakers: Fulbright Students and Scholars, former diplomats or Peace Corps volunteers, business leaders working for multi-national corporations, or journalists.

Participate in a Model UN.

Assign students to produce a video or website about their cross-cultural experiences. The video could explore issues of cultural idiosyncrasies, stereotypes, and/or their own experiences in another culture.

Hold a geography, foreign language, or world history bee for your students. (For ideas, see the IEW Quiz!)