Backpacking Through Europe

8-Week Overview

Week One

Objectives:

Students will become more globally aware of people and places.
Students will begin to prepare for the backpacking adventure.

Activities:

Discuss different types of people throughout the world.
Read books such as People by Peter Spier and Children Just Like Us.
Look at the large globe with the class and play games to guess which continent is facing forward at the time to gain geographic awareness.
Read Flat Stanley and have students all make a flat version of themselves to attach to European map during travel.
Make papermache globes where the students place the construction paper continents in their proper place.
Have the students vote on four countries that they would like to visit. Graph the results using the national flags as the symbol for each country.
Go over itinerary with the class using maps and discuss various forms of transportation that could be used.
Have children brainstorm what they would bring with them on their backpacking adventure and begin to construct their backpacks.
Begin to collect student's birth certificates to create passports for travel.

Week Two

Objectives:

Students will prepare their backpacks for our traveling adventure.
Students will learn background knowledge about the four countries that we are visiting.
Students will discover what taking an airplane trip entails.

Activities:

Students should finish up their backpacks and contents.
Students will both write and draw about what they want to learn in each country visited.
Read books about airplane flight and being an airplane pilot such as Up in theAir and What its like to be an Airplane Pilot.
Have passports ready for the students travels with the information taken from their birth certificates.
Transform the entry way of stage to look like boarding gates and the stage to look like a plane with a VCR set up for the in-flight movie.
Make tickets, ticket holders, Wiley World hats, peanut bags, and flight attendant costumes for the plane and have the children prepare their backpacks.
On the day of travel, hang signs throughout the school to show where the gates are located, departure times, gate assignments, and set up the baggage claim.
Have older students dress as flight attendants to stamp each childÕs passport and take one part of their plane ticket. They will also check each childÕs backpack and give them a claim check.
The students will watch "Charlotte's Web" during flight as they are served peanuts and pop.
Upon arrival they will receive their backpacks with their claim check and they will go back to the classroom which is decorated like London.

Week Three

Objectives:

Students will have a clear understanding about the culture of London, England. They will be introduced to famous buildings and monuments, common types of clothing, popular sports, native foods, and the currency exchange system.
Students will reflect on everything that they learned while traveling by writing in their travel journals and completing their guide sheets for their scrapbooks.

Activities:

Read English folk tales and factual books about England.
Listen to music and sing songs that were originated in England.
Prepare guide sheets to show what they have learned. The students can draw pictures and then glue these sheets into their scrapbooks.
Have reprints made of snapshots so the students can pretend that they are visiting London.
Read stories about the king and queen of England and have the students write creative stories about what they would do if they were king or queen.
Make flags of the United Kingdom.
Watch movies that show the countryside of England, so the students can become more aware of the climate and terrain of the country.
Have children write postcards home to their families to tell about their travels.
Show the class an English Pound and talk about the conversion of United States currency.
Set up a pretend store where students could purchase items that are important to them only with pounds. They would have to also give the American equivalent.
Have tea time during snack. Bring in tea and small pastries for the students to sample.
Bring in English children's magazines.
Read books about school in England and about typical children who live there. The students can compare and contrast their own lives to those of children in England.

Week Four

Objectives:

Students will have a clear understanding about taking a boat trip and traveling across the English Channel.
Students will begin to learn about the French culture including some simple French vocabulary.

Activities:

Read many books to the students about boats, so they become familiar with its make up and vocabulary words used to describe both the external and internal structure.
Have the students create their own boats that they would like to use to travel from England to France.
Geography activities to make sure that all of the students know the path that the boat will take using the class maps and globes.
After the boat trip have students write about their journey in their travel journals.
Read stories about France so the students can learn about the culture of France.
Guest speaker will come in to teach the students how to count, the colors, and simple conversation words.
Prepare language books that are in English and French so the students can continue to work on their skills.
Make French flags.
Prepare guide sheets to show what they have learned. The students can draw pictures and then glue these sheets into their scrapbooks.
Bring in baguettes and jam for the students to eat during snack.

Week Five

Objectives:

Students will have a clear understanding about the culture of France, and they will be introduced to famous places, common types of clothing, popular sports, native foods, and the currency exchange system.
Students will reflect on everything that they have learned while traveling by writing in their travel journals and completing their guide sheets for their scrapbooks.

Activities:

Continue to use guide sheets for the student's scrapbooks.
Have the students reflect about all of the places that they visit in their travel journals.
Watch movies that show the countryside of France so the students can become more aware of the climate and terrain. Contrast with the climate of the United States.
Have reprints made of snapshots from France for the students to glue into their scrapbooks.
Read stories about children that live throughout France. Compare their life to a second grader living in Urbana.
Have the students write home to their families to tell about their travels.
Show the class French francs and talk about the conversion of United States currency.
Set up a pretend store where the students use their francs to purchase items that are pertinent to their lives. Ask them what the cost would be in American currency.
Bring in literature that children in France use.
Listen to music that was originated in France and sing various songs.
Read about the schools in France to see how different they are from American schools.

Week Six

Objectives:

Students will have a clear understanding of taking a train trip from one country to another.
Students will be able to map out the path from France to Germany on a map.
Students will begin to learn about German culture.
Students will learn simple vocabulary words spoken in German.

Activities:

Watch movies about trains and taking train trips, so the students can visualize the trip we will be taking. Watch movie about taking Eurorail train specifically.
Read books about trains using them for transportation.
Geographical activities where students map out the path that we will take in our train when we are traveling from France to Germany.
After the train trip, have the students write about their experience in their travel journals.
Listen to music that is from Germany and sing various songs.
Read stories that are authentic to Germany so students begin to learn about the culture.
Make German flags.
Have the students look through newspapers from Germany and the News Gazette. Compare and contrast.

Week Seven

Objectives:

Students will become familiar with the culture of Germany. They will be introduced to famous places, common types of clothing, popular sports, native foods, and the currency exchange system.
Students will reflect on all of their traveling experiences in their travel journals.
Students will use their scrapbooks to keep the guide sheets and their pictures.

Activities:

Read books about children going to school in Germany so the students can compare school in Germany to the United States.
Prepare guide sheets to show what they have learned. The students can draw pictures and then glue these sheets into their scrapbooks.
Watch movies about the countryside of Germany so the students can become more aware of the climate and terrain of the country.
Have the students make cheese and sample it with crackers for snack.
Read books about the famous places in Germany.
Make reprints of photographs they can add to their scrapbooks.
Show the class German currency and have them figure out the conversion from American currency.
Set up a pretend store where the students use their German currency to purchase items that are important to them. Have students figure prices in American currency as well.
Bring in literature that children in Germany use.
Have a speaker come in to teach the students how to count in German and participate in a simple conversation.
Prepare language books so the students can practice their skills and remember the vocabulary that was taught.
Have the students write postcards home to their families to tell about their travels.

Week Eight

Objectives:

Students will understand geographically how we are going to travel from Germany to Italy.
Students will have a clear understanding about the Italian culture. They will be introduced to common types of clothing, famous places, popular sports, native foods, and the currency exchange system.
Students will learn simple vocabulary in Italian.

Activities:

Geography activities to map out the path that we are going to take from Germany to Italy using class maps and globes.
Have students write in their travel journals about the train trip.
Prepare guide sheets to show what they have learned. The students can draw pictures and then glue these sheets into their scrapbooks.
Read books about Italy and the people that inhabit the different regions of the country.
Watch movies about the countryside of Italy, so students can become more aware of the climate and terrain of the country.
Show the class Italian currency and have them figure out the conversion information to exchange American currency.
Bring in literature that children in Italy use.
Read about the various sports played in Italy. Play games that are authentic to Italy.
Listen to music and sing songs that were originated in Italy.
Have reprints made of snapshots so the students can add them to their scrapbooks.
Make Italian flags.
Have children write postcards home to their families to tell about their travels.
Set up a pretend store where students could purchase items that are important to them only with Italian currency. They would have to also give the American equivalent price.
Bring in breads and pastas for the students to sample during snack time.
Read books about school in Italy and about the typical children who live there, so the students can compare and contrast their own lives to those of the children in Italy.

Conclusion

Students will all complete their scrapbooks and write a final entry in their travel journals to conclude their journey. Then once all of the scrapbooks are completed, children can share them with each other. They can show other classmates their drawings and their favorite places. The students will leave their scrapbooks on their desks during open house so their families can see where they have traveled and everything that they have learned during the past eight weeks as they backpacked around Europe. All of the children will make geography pizzas of Europe using different ingredients to mark the places that we have visited.

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