Seven Continent Exploration

We have finally reached the part of the social studies curriculum I have been dying to get to since my grade change to second grade, an in depth look at the seven continents, yay! The holidays around the world unit we did in December was a great intro to the seven continents, but now students will dive deeper into each continent. Not to mention they will get to listen to countless anecdotes of my travels (trust me they love these).

My passion for travel and learning about countries could not have found a better fit. Now is the time to install a love and curiosity for new places and experiences in my students. In preparation to teach this unit, I have found some great resources to couple with my own pictures, videos and artifacts I have collected over the years.

Here are a few things I have stumbled across so far that I absolutely LOVE!

You absolutely must check out the YouTube channels for Travel Kids and Kids Travel News. These kid centered travel resources are a wonderful fit to the continents unit. In both, kids share first hand experiences and information from countries around the world.

Another great resource has been a TeachersPayTeachers purchase I made called, Traveling the World- Continents, Oceans, Maps and Landforms. My favorite part of this resource are the one page readings for each continent. Each contains fun facts and practical information. It will will give a great overview and some foundational information for each continent.

To compliment these outside resources I am in the works to create a few of my own as well as video guides to pair with the YouTube videos.

My plan over the next few weeks is to do a series of posts here on the blog. Each post will cover a different continent. They will include links to online resources and my own resources I create. Resources I create will be available to download so you can use them too.

I’d love to hear your thoughts over the next few posts. Teachers, what do you look for in a continents curriculum? What resources do you use or have available to you? Do you currently integrate global studies into your curriculum? If so, how? Do you find what I have created helpful? Your comments will help me to refine and create what I hope is helpful content for teachers to use.

If you are reading this post from outside of the US I would love, love, love to hear your comments as well. What fun facts about your country would you like US students to learn? Are there customs, major sights, or native foods in your country that US students should know about? The more I can share with students the better!

Katy