Our Summer Term Project is ‘Around the World’!

Written by montess on March 30, 2021. Posted in Uncategorized

This term at Chrysalis we will be taking the children on a world-wide adventure exploring some of the different continents and countries on our planet. We thought it would be particularly nice for the children to learn about the countries that some of our families have very close connections with. So, as well as other countries, we will be including:

China

Myanmar (formerly Burma)

Poland

Spain

Italy

With this project – the sky really is the limit!

There are so many different aspects about other countries that we can talk about with our children to help them develop their understanding of the world. It’s important that we don’t use stereotypical images when talking about another country, but for example, to show that there are skyscrapers in African cities just as in UK cities.
Our project embraces language, costume, religions, travel, festivals, food, care for our world, native animals, weather, music – the list is endless. This is a wonderful topic for celebrating the diversity of the children and it’s also a theme for recognising the similarities we share with those who live around the world.

We can easily cover all the key learning areas of the EYFS with this project. Some of the types of things we might include:
Personal, Social and Emotional Development

• Role play areas – Bedouin tent, Inuit igloo etc

• Stories and songs from other countries

• Story telling using props and puppets

• Looking at different national or religious costumes/head coverings

• Talking about festivals and celebrations from other countries

• Puzzles and games depicting pictures from around the world

• Learning to say ‘hello’ in different language

• Collecting water in containers in the garden and talking about the importance of water in different countries and how we need to use water carefully

Communication, language and literacy

• Looking at artefacts from around the world – African instruments or masks, bells, sari material etc

• • Telling stories of journeys using these props
  • Book making
  • Memory games – ‘I went to market and I bought…’
  • Sharing holiday photos from abroad
  • Chinese writing
  • Making up a global alphabet using words associated with other countries
  • Small world toys eg airport
  • Boats to travel in water tray/desert in sand tray
  • Books, rhymes and songs from other countries

Knowledge and understanding of the world

• World maps, globes and atlases

• • Tasting food from other countries- Indian sweets/German Stollen cake/French croissants/Chinese rice etc.
    • • Labelling a world map with children’s names of places they have been/ their relatives live
      • Playing ‘Fruit Salad’ with fruits from around the world
      • Non-fiction books
      • Posters and pictures showing scenes from other countries
      • A collection of hats from other countries – sombrero, Australian bush hat, Russian fur hat, British sun hat etc.
      • Holding a Japanese tea ceremony

    

Problem solving, reasoning and numeracy

• • Russian Dolls and other things that fit inside each other

• • Foreign coins
  • Role play areas – shops from other countries e.g. African market stall/Indian sari shop
  • Patterns and shapes – Mehndi and rangoli patterns from India/ Tangrams from China
  • Look at the patterns on different national flags
  • Sorting artefacts to their appropriate country
  • Counting songs and books from other countries
  • Learn to count to 5 or 10 in another language

Physical Development

• • Simple Origami

• • Using chopsticks
  • Dressing up in different costumes from other countries
  • Having a go at tai chi or yoga