around the world in 8 sessions

One of the classes I taught at our spring co-op was a geography class based on Nellie Bly's trip around the world. She was a journalist in New York, and in 1889-90, she took a trip around the world for the sole purpose of beating the record set in the fictional book Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. She sent dispatches to the newspaper in New York as she went.

So for our 8 sessions, we followed her around the world, reading fairy tales and other stories from each location we stopped at, doing art projects and playing games, and learning a little bit about various countries. We "visited" England, France (and read an edited version of 80 Days that class because Nellie Bly visited Jules Verne at his house while on her trip), Italy, Egypt, India, China, Japan, and the US.

For our Italy day, the kids carved soap sculptures.

In India, children play a game where you put a bunch of dried beans in a small pile, then blow on it really hard to get them to spread and you keep the ones that aren't touching the pile. Whoever has the most at the end wins.

 

I go to church with a family from Hong Kong, so I invited my friend and her college-age son to visit our class. They showed lots of pictures of China, talked about the Great Wall, and even had treats for the kids to try.

The one student brave enough to try salted and dried anchovies, and he liked it!

For our USA day, we put together map puzzles of North America and the United States.