Mexico Germany Japan Italy France Australia

Our students have used fiction and non-fiction books, encyclopedias, CD-ROMS, magazines, interviews, Arts & Humanities, Writing, Technology and HCTV resource teachers assistance, e-mail and internet sites to create a very special Virtual World Tour. First they researched The CIA World Fact Book web site and compiled a database full of fascinating facts about each country. Then they prepared this web site to share more information they learned in their classrooms and the library. They are also designing picture maps using Kid Pix Deluxe Studio with Miss Connie in the Computer Lab.

Click here for your Virtual Passport. ( Use 8 1/2" by 13 1/2" paper. Print range: first page only. Put your paper back in the tray exactly as it came out and go back and print range: page 2. Fold in half, then in half again.)

Use your Passport to record interesting places you visit as you click on each country during your trip. You will find many exciting links, even live web cams, to help you have a wonderful virtual tour around the globe. To figure out what time it is in the country you are touring, visit the Professional Clockery,Inc. website. If you like viewing the live web cams, click on Web Cams of the World. This site has more than 2,000 live views around the world.

To learn even more language and information from the featured countries, check out Little Explorers Picture Dictionary with Links by Enchanted Learning.com. This site has English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese versions for 1,283 illustrated dictionary entries, many with child friendly related links. Little Explorers was chosen as one of the "Top 50 Educational Web Sites for Kids" in "Computing for Kids," Summer 1997 issue!

Michelle Shiffler found another wonderful site, Foreign Languages for Travelers, where you can hear the pronunciation of over 70 languages.

You might also like to check out The Odyessy and the special Kids Zone for K-6^th Graders. Follow along an actual global trek, now traveling from Mali to Cairo, whereby the educators/trekkers will share their observations about non-Western cultures and peoples as they travel around the world. Critical global concerns are addressed, giving students a chance to think about positive change from their own corners. Text, videos and audio are sent into the site at least twice weekly. You can view the agenda of this 2 year trek by looking at the orientation. It really is an incredible site, and provides an excellent opportunity for your students (along with 1,000,000 others already joined!) to do some virtual traveling to places they may never see otherwise, and understand each place's historical and cultural context. Students can also do in-service training through this program. A teacher's guide is available at this site. (From Classroom Flyer)

We can all work together to end world hunger at The Hunger Site . The United Nations World Food Programme is pleased to announce that The Hunger Site, an independent website created to alleviate hunger, has chosen to give the donations it generates via the internet to WFP. Cash donations equivalent to millions of servings of food have been donated since the site opened in June 1999. You and your class can help eliminate world hunger with a click of the mouse. . .Endorsed by the United Nations, this online hunger support service works by having corporate sponsors donating 1/2 cent to the U.N. World Food Program each time you or your class clicks the submission button. It does not cost you a cent, privacy is guaranteed and no information from you is required. Children can view the world map, in which a country is dimmed every few seconds as someone dies from hunger--a hard figure to comprehend. No gimmicks here, but a simple and worthy project to get your class involved in while learning of global communities, resources and/or world population.

International Day Dinner

As a culminating activity an International Day Dinner was planned. Mrs. Janey Thornton, Director of Child Nutrition Services for Hardin County, and her staff, brought a Multi-cultural luncheon for students, faculty, staff and invited guests to sample. Here is the wonderful menu, which included several dishes from each of these countries.

Students in Mrs. Muratalla's class performed The Mitten by Jan Brett for the January PTA Program. Students researched the animals, discovering their habitats and how they adapt to their environment. Then they created puppets of the animals mentioned in the book. The performance was the culminating activity of a multi-cultural unit as the folktale was from the Ukraine.

The class was excited to get e-mail and a package of postcards, pictures and notes about several books from the author. If you would like to correspond with Ms. Brett, click here.

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