Student as a Global Citizen

What is a Global Citizen?

A global citizen is someone who is aware of and understands the wider world - and their place in it. They take an active role in their community, and work with others to make our planet more equal, fair and sustainable. 

(https://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/who-we-are/what-is-global-citizenship)

Knowledge
To bring in global awareness and citizenship into my classroom, I am going to have my students participate in an activity called, Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley is a book about a boy named Stanley who accidentally get squished flat and realizes he can fit inside an envelope and travel the world. This book is a great segway into the whole world and showing students that places are vastly different than where they live. This activity will be great EXPOSURE for my young students to see the world beyond their own town/city.





Application
After reading the story, I would like to have my students make a list of places they have visited or different places their relatives might live.

We would make our own Flat Person to send out to relatives/friends.





Lastly, I will send a letter home to their parents asking for their help in this project.


Here is an example of a letter:

After about a month, the postcards, photographs, letters will start to trickle in! It is extremely exciting to see the different places in this world and how vastly different our houses, environments, food, clothing look! We make sure to read each child's personal postcard at group time and share it with the rest of the class. Then, we hang up the post cards on a big map on our wall and use a string to connect where we are to where the post card came from.

We also encourage families to come in and talk about the different places. Maybe cook some authentic food, show us clothing/houses/landscapes etc. That way we can discuss similarities and differences between where we live and where our Flat People went! 

Reflection on Practice

Flat Stanley is a fantastic way to introduce traveling and diversity to young children. Students will closely observe where they live and where the Flat People went and be able to see lots of similarities and differences among them. This aspect is a great attribute to being a global citizen...knowing that similarities and differences exist in the world and being empathic and compassionate towards those differences. Children will be able to see that the way they live may not be the best or right way, but they way they are used to. Seeing how other people live and eat will open their eyes to a unique, amazing, diverse world!