The
Global Education Club
The
Global Education Club
A
Sample Year
We focus on a need
that is not
being met in the world.
We work on awareness of the
issue,
and actually doing something about it: awareness and action.
The same needs are found in
our own communities
and around the world.
Here's a sample year's worth of activities to get your ideas flowing!
| Date | Need | Awareness | Action |
| September | Environment | Discuss how much land and resources are wasted with landfill. Dump out a garbage can after lunch: separate garbage into different sections (eg plastic, glass...) Show which sections could be recycled. Discuss the money that can be earned from recycling. | Set up rubber recycling tubs
in each classroom for juice containers and
pop cans. Set up recycling schedule for different groups
and classes to do the recycling throughout the year. Set up a worm composter
for organic waste. Start paper and cardboard recycling in your school. |
| September | Health, Medical Care | View Terry Fox videos. Discuss how Cancer research needs money. Discuss how one person can make a big difference. | Organize a Terry Fox walk for the last half hour of a day. Invite the school, parents and siblings to participate and to each bring a loonie to donate. Set up a big map of Canada; put a sticker on in a row for each loonie collected. Try to get enough stickers on the map to cross Canada. |
| October 16 World Food Day |
Food and Water | Distribute "Cookie Game" to all classes in the school, where children learn about unequal distribution of global (and local) food. | Challenge classes to collect items for the local Food Bank. Offer a prize to the class who brings in the most food items (chocolate cake!) |
| November 11 Remembrance Day |
Safety
Clothing |
Discuss how there are up to 35 wars each year in the world. View current newspaper articles about war. Discuss how wars start, how they keep people from meeting their needs, and how we can create peace. For clothing, discuss how children in our own communities need warm coats and mittens for winter. | Distribute poppies for Remembrance Day. Conduct a fundraiser for a peace organization, such as Doctors Without Borders, which offers medical help in war-affected areas. Collect used winter coats from school community for "Coats for Kids" program, or local shelter or second hand store. |
| December
Christmas |
Sharing resources | Learn about how we over-consume in "northern" countries - 20% of the world's people consume 80% of the world's resources (paper, oil, metals, plastics, food....). Is that fair? How can we personally change that? Interview an older person to find out what they "didn't have everything" when they were younger, and the pros and cons of that. | Set up a Christmas Bazaar, with parents co-ordinating it. Get families to donate used items in good shape, that students can buy for a loonie for presents for family members. Donate proceeds to a local charity. Make a gift for someone for Christmas by recycling items (eg. a sock dog that can lie under a door to prevent drafts). Wrap gift with old calendars or newspaper funnies. |
| January | Education, literacy | Collect used books from students in the school. Give a prize to the class that collects the most (lollipops!). Sell books for 25 cents at a Used Book Sale one lunch hour. Invite parents! | Make a donation to CODE, an international literacy organization. |
| February White Cane Week |
Support for disabilities | Share teacher resources from CNIB. Do blindfold exercise, to empathize with issues facing blind people. | Hold a fundraiser to raise money to pay for fancy yellow Braille rulers available from CNIB. Distribute rulers to everyone in the school. |
March 21 |
Anti-Racism | Have a simulation exercise where children paint their faces strangely in the morning, and collect comments throughout the morning/day. Debrief at noon or later afternoon. Discuss the kinds of comments, the reason people make comments, other ways of discriminating and bullying, and what we can do about it. | Get each student to trace their hand on coloured paper. Make a rainbow from the hands to display in school lobby. Title it "The Many Colours of Our School". Celebrate cultures in the school via a multicultural clothing show. Have a door decorating contest. |
| April | Affection, Love, Safety, Homes | Discuss how we all need safety, love, and sometimes need to find a safe place to be for awhile. | Make a donation or collect items for a local Women/ Children's shelter. |
| May
Mother's Day
|
Endangered Animals | Explore websites by World Wildlife Fund to learn about endangered animals and plants and what various organizations are doing to help. | Sell carnations as Mother's Day gifts. Donate the proceeds to an organization that helps endangered plants and/or animals. |
| June | Poverty | Discuss what creates poverty. What things are hard to live without when we don't have money? | Conduct a fundraiser and send money to Help The Aged, which helps fund operations for older people in poorer countries. |
|
The Global
Education Club
Website
E-mail contact: kathleen.cochrane@fmpsd.ab.ca Check out Kitty's other webs at www.kittycochrane.ca
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