The International Relations Council is pleased to offer supplemental global education resources covering a variety of international topics currently taught for the use of teachers and students.
It is important to keep in mind that the Global Education Resources should serve as a starting point for your global education. This is not an all-encompassing list of activities; instead, it provides you and other students with enough information and resource to begin learning about the world. As an apolitical, nonpartisan organization, the International Relations Council does not endorse any of the organizations, associations, universities, bodies, or websites cited in this guide.
This page contains resources for students in grades K-5. Simply click the resource title to be linked to the source. If there’s a resource you don’t see here, or if you have additional resources you would like to share or request, please click here.
Key to Resource Standards
Standard 1: Choices and Consequences | Standard 2: Rights and Responsibilities
Standard 3: Culture, Values, & Diversity | Standard 4: Change and Continuity
Standard 5: Dynamic Relationships
Standard 1: Choices and Consequences
Goods and Services Activities: In this set of activities adaptable for grades K-3, parents and educators will find ideas for teaching about local, domestic, and international economics alongside supply and demand. These activities are designed to complement the BrainPOP Jr. Goods and Services topic page, which includes a movie, quizzes, online games, printable activities, and more.
Objectives: To understand how supply and demand works, and how this determines the price of a product. To understand what a producer is and where products come from.
Tilting Temperatures: In this lesson plan, which is adaptable for grades 3-12, students use BrainPOP resources to explore how the tilt of the Earth creates seasonal temperatures. Students will learn how global warming is caused by changes in the Earth’s atmosphere, and develop a plan to reduce their personal carbon footprint.
Objectives: Understand that the tilt of the Earth is the reason for seasonal temperature changes. Understand that global warming is caused by changes in the Earth’s atmosphere. Develop a plan to reduce their personal carbon footprint.
A World at Peace: Students will brainstorm the basic rights of people everywhere by first looking at the Bill of Rights, then they will look at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UNICEF’s Committee on the Rights of the Child. Finally, they will create a multi-media creative writing assignment imagining a world at peace.
Objectives: Know how and why people compete for control of Earth’s surface, understand factors that contribute to cooperation or conflict, understand efforts to improve political and social conditions, know ways in which conflicts about diversity can be resolved in a peaceful manner that respects individuals rights and promotes the common good.
Standard 2: Rights and Responsibilities
Standard 3: Culture, Values, and Diversity
Follow the Food: Various strategies educators can use to design lesson plans that use cooking as an instructional tool to develop young people’s understanding of people and culture.
Objectives: Expand student’s worldview which can include reinforcing geographic concepts, connecting food’s origins to history, exploring the impact of food on rituals and religions, describing cultural characteristics of your family and class members.
Holiday Culture Collage: A project where students create a collage that showcases their family’s culture and how they spend the holidays. At the end, they will give a brief oral presentation to the class.
Objectives: Explore different cultures, increase oral communication skills.
Multicultural Restaurant Chef: Students role-play as prospective chefs of a new multicultural restaurant. They will research the foods of multiple cultures and create an advertisement depicting their favorite foods.
Objectives: Improve research skills, learn about different cultures.
Celebrating International Days: A project where students will explore the concept of International Days and learn about one day in depth, culminating in a classroom celebration of multiple different global holidays. To research the day and to plan a party, they will use and develop their research and writing skills as well as their ability to work effectively in groups.
Objectives: Students will develop research and writing skills along with critical thinking. Students will also learn how to work in groups and collaborate.
Travel Fair: Designed to complement the Continents and Oceans topic on BrainPop Jr., this lesson has students choosing a country of interest and prepare a report and presentation for a class travel fair.
Objectives: Students will be able to develop their knowledge on geography and cultural awareness through creative methods of making their own presentation.
Ellis Island Activities: In this set of activities adaptable for grades K-3, parents and educators will find ideas for teaching about immigration and Ellis Island. These activities are designed to complement the BrainPOP Jr. Ellis Island topic page, which includes a movie, quizzes, online games, printable activities, and more.
Objectives: To be able to understand immigration and how Ellis Island has played a role in immigration into the U.S.
Continents of the World: In these two lesson plans for grades 3-5, students will learn how to use a world map and how to understand latitude and longitude. These activities are designed to complement the BrainPOP Continents of the World topic page, which includes a movie, quizzes, online games, printable activities, and more.
Objectives: To be able to identify and define longitude and latitude as well as being able to locate them on a grid using parallel lines and degrees of latitude and longitude.
Standard 4: Change and Continuity
Standard 5: Dynamic Relationships
Geography of a Pencil: Students map the origins of a pencil, predict and map trade and transport networks, and relate what they learn to globalization.
Objectives: Students will identify component parts of a pencil, recognize major producing countries of pencil materials on a map, create maps of trade and transport networks, and discuss global trade and identify factors that affect it.
Climates and People: Three strategies designed to help students understand how climate influences the activities of people.
Objective: Use data source as a tool (graphs, charts, tables), analyze how people are affected by, depend on, adapt to and change their physical environments in the past and present.