International Student

Volunteers

Activity handbook

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Thank you for choosing to be part of our International Student Volunteering programme!As well as being a lot of fun, volunteering in a school will also help you to develop important and transferable skills for future study and employment such as:

Communication skills Self confidence Creativity Time management Cultural awareness Teamwork Networking Leadership

This guide is designed to give you some practical ideas for classroom activities to help get you started in your volunteering placement. They are intended to act as a guideline only, so please feel free to adapt them or use your own ideas if you wish!

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Activity 1 – “Where in the world am I from?”

You may be surprised by how little knowledge younger children have about other countries and where in the world they are located. A good starter activity to introduce your country is to ask the children to guess where they think you may be from. If they do not know straight away, you could try giving clues to help:

First of all, ask children to locate the UK on a map (this may be more difficult for them than you think!). Then, give them specific clues about the location of your country; like what continent it is on, whether it is north or south of the equator, east or west of the Prime Meridian etc. Finally, show your country outline on an unlabelled map;

Show some photographs of typical landscapes; Talk about the climate/weather in your country; Tell pupils what currency is used – show images of

notes/coins (or real examples if you can!) and think about developing a Maths activity based around the currency exchange rate, e.g. “if £1 = 133 JPY, how much would a cinema ticket / McDonald’s Happy Meal cost in JPY?”;

Show pictures of some famous landmarks.

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Once pupils have guessed your country correctly, you could then go on to introduce the following activities (some of which are described in more detail further on in this guide):

Time zones – Which time zone is your home country in and what does this mean? You could set some questions around time difference (using clocks/visual prompts) – “If it is 10am in my country, what time is it in the UK?” etc.

Geography and climate – different or the same? A special celebratory event in your country; Traditional crafts from your country.

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Activity 2 – Geography and climate – Different or the same?

Take a look at different elements of your home country’s geography and climate. What stands out as being different to the UK? Are there things which are similar/the same? Things you could consider include:

Weather – you could download actual and historical weather data from the internet for both the UK and your native country. What was the weather like in both places on a specific date, e.g. 25th December (Christmas Day) or 1st August (UK summer)?

Seasons – Spring, summer, autumn and winter, vs dry/monsoon or similar all year round?

Landscape – How does the landscape in your country look? Are there mountain ranges, deserts, rainforests, lakes, rivers…? How does this compare to the UK? Use a PowerPoint presentation to load images of the terrain and ask the pupils to list similarities/differences;

Why not ask the children to imagine they are visiting your country and to write a postcard home about what it is like from the point of view of a UK visitor? They could even design the front of the postcard, taking inspiration from the landscape images previously shown to them!

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Activity 3 – Famous landmarks

Landmarks help to make a place internationally recognisable, but some are more famous than others. Start by asking pupils to identify famous landmarks in Durham / the North East / the UK and then go on to introduce one or more landmarks from your country. You could do this in the following way(s):

Photos; Videos; Models – why not ask the children to design/make their

own?

You might also like to include some of these elements in your discussions:

When/how/why the landmark was constructed (or is it natural?);

Design features / architecture; Cultural / religious significance.

You could also gather some statistical data (with or without the help of the children) and ask pupils to compare and contrast one of your country’s famous landmarks with e.g. Durham Cathedral – which is older/taller/longer etc?

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Activity 4 – Language taster session

Most children love to talk and get very excited about being able to say a few words in a new language! It is very difficult to teach the rules of grammar and the complex foundations of a language in a short space of time, but why not give pupils a chance to learn how to say simple words or phrases in your mother tongue? For example:

Numbers 1-10 – perhaps a game of bingo? http://myfreebingocards.com/

Colours – Give pupils different coloured cards and ask those with certain colours to stand/sit/kneel

Animals – bingo, guess the animal (acting) Short phrases to build simple dialogues, for example:

“Hello!”, “How are you?”, “Fine, thank you”, “What is your name?”, “My name is _________”, “Goodbye!”

This can be done in the form of songs, rhymes and games to make it more memorable and fun for the class! In fact, teaching pupils any type of song in your native language is a great way to improve their listening and speaking skills. If your language has a different script to English, you could also design a lesson to allow pupils to write e.g. their name.

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Activity 5 – A special celebration from my country

Children love to learn about special holidays and celebrations from around the world. Why not tell them about how you and your family celebrate special days in your culture / religion and show them photographs and videos and examples of costumes, songs, dances, foods etc associated with the occasion? Here are some links to online activity templates for a range of special days to help get you started:

Chinese Year of the Monkey activities (changes each year): https://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/classroom-resources/list/year-monkey

Activities relating to Diwali, (Rangoli patterns, colouring cards, crafts etc): http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/diwali. Stories, activities and lesson plans for Diwali: http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Holidays/diwali/

Bastille Day: http://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/ks2-geography/ks2-around-the-world/ks2-around-the-world-france/1

Christmas: If you are from another European country, why not use Europe Direct North East England’s handy guide to Christmas around the EU as a starting point for your session? https://europedirectnortheastengland.wordpress.com/2016/09/22/a-christmas-resource/

Eid: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/eid , http://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/eid-ul-fitr/1

Hanukkah: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/hanukkah Mardi Gras: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/mardi-gras

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