ABCs Around the World

I said I probably wouldn't post from Austria, but I have something on my mind. After a beautiful and challenging hike up the foothills of the Alps, I sat down with one of my textbooks called Affirming Diversity and did some reading while hubs played in the pool with the boys. I was reading chapters about multicultural education and the importance of acknowledging the big world that exists outside our classroom walls and p.communities. I started thinking about how much I liked introducing different ways to say hello during our morning greeting circle and started brainstorming what else I could do to add in some learning about other places. Since we study one letter each week in Kinder, I decided to choose one country that starts with each letter of the alphabet that we can learn a little about when we focus on that letter. I am picturing putting a pin in a map of the world, learning how people who live there greet each other and adding each greeting to the wall near our circle carpet, and learning something special about that location. This is what I am thinking...

Afghanistan
Brazil
Columbia
Denmark
Ecuador
France
Ghana
Holland
Italy India

Japan
Korea
Laos
Mexico
Norway
Oman
Peru
Qatar
Russia
Spain
Thailand
Uruguay United States

Venezuela
West Indies
Luxembourg (I settled for any country with an x in its name)
Yemen
Zaire

I think in order to make this happen I need to do all of the leg work this summer so the materials and info I need are already prepped. That way I can possibly give the list to parents so if they are familiar with or come from any of these countries, they can share some info with me. I know many families at my school are from Mexico so that will be a fun week. We also do a snack that goes with the letter of the week so it will be fun to think about what people in other countries might eat. I would love to learn a little about China and eat with chopsticks the week we do the /ch/ sound.

I always have lofty goals during the summer, but I am excited to try and make this happen. I love visiting all these new places I have been traveling to and I always think it's important for teachers to bring their own interests and passions into the classroom.

Please excuse the typos if there are any...I am posting from my iPad.