What are some motivating, whole-school activities that would enhance childrens knowledge of geography and reading?
I would recommend Reading Around the World as a wonderful whole-school activity to encourage reading and the study of geography. Develop a list of books at each grade level that are placed in geographically interesting places, both in the United States and abroad, fiction and nonfiction. A large world map placed in each classroom or in a central location, for example, in the cafeteria, can be used to track the places students are reading about. When a student completes a book and selects a new one, he or she can move her location on the map. Students can be encouraged to keep “travel journals” with descriptions and impressions of the places they are reading about as well as answers to specific teacher-generated questions. At the end of the “tour” students can write and share their own stories about other places, complete with geographic descriptions similar to the ones they read. Parents can be involved as well. Discussing a book with a child is one of the best ways to model how to thi
