Teachers' Corner - 1st and 2nd Class

Overview of Timpeall an domhain for First and Second class

The lesson encourages the children to think about and expand on what they know about other countries, including looking at the lives of older people in different countries.

Aims

The overall aim of the theme Timpeall an domhain is to enable the child to:

Explore ageing in other countries by looking at the similarities and differences

The objectives of this lesson are to enable the child to:

Be aware of differences in dress and language around the world
Expand his or her knowledge of different countries

Resources

For Activity 1 in this lesson, you may like to provide some clothes for use in the dressing up activity (e.g. from school drama). For Activity 2 in this lesson, you will need a globe. For Activity 3 in this lesson, photos of people from different countries would be useful - from books or magazines or printed from this CD-ROM.

The Online activities include the following words: gabhar, An Chóiré Theas, An India, i dtír san Áise, cruinneog, An Ollainn, An tSeapáin, éirí as an obair, sa tSín, folláin, déanann a muintir féin cúram.

Lesson Content

Lesson plan	Dressing up Discussion Art	Clothes from around the world People in different countries Collage from around the world

Online activities	Pop-up facts Pick one Cloze procedure Cloze procedure	Young and old around the world Older people around the world Mrs. Wong lives in China Picking coffee beans in Africa
	Write a story Draw a picture Find out	A farmer in Africa Older people in Ireland and Asia Where in the world?

Note

Be conscious of any ethnic mix in the class or in the school. Where appropriate, you can use this as an ideal source of information and materials. For example, an Indian child can bring in photos of her extended family in India. You can ask Chinese children to talk about Chinese people living in Ireland or China.

Activity 1: Dressing up - Clothes from around the world

If you have a multi-ethnic school, talk about the countries that these children have come from, and ask those children to talk about the clothes people wear in the other country.

Use any photos or pictures that you have of people from other countries and discuss with the children the clothes that the people are wearing. Talk about what the children in the class as a whole know about how people dress in other countries. Ask them to bring in pictures and bring in clothes items from other countries.

You can also use examples from the news and current affairs to discuss dress, language and other differences between different countries. The news often brings distant countries to our attention. In 1999, for example, children in Ireland saw many pictures of refugees from Kosovo. They probably saw many images of older people being carried in carts and even wheelbarrows. You could discuss how families took care of the older family members. You could discuss the dress and the language of these people and mention that a Kosovan includes aunts, uncles and cousins in his or her family. Note also that the soccer World Cup finals take place in Japan and South Korea in 2002 - the children will have opportunity to see the dress, clothes and culture of these countries. Ask the children to watch out for older people from these countries.

The dressing-up activity will create a colourful and fun atmosphere for the class. The objective of this activity is to show children that people from different countries wear different clothes, speak different languages, have different coloured skin, and live in different kinds of houses.

Creating a rich atmosphere by getting the children to dress up will enhance the enjoyment of the class. Ask the pupils to bring in some clothing, which could be adapted for ethnic dress around the world. This could include western style blouses, cardigans, skirts, aprons, overalls, tights, colourful shawls, ethnically printed skirts, and dresses, shady hats, long scarves, collarless Grandad shirts, long trousers, braces, caftans, dressing gowns, and colourful pieces of cloths (tablecloths, towels), which you can use as saris, sarongs, cloaks, and veils. If you want to simplify the activity, you can just focus on what people wear on their heads, using hats and scarves, and so on.

For example:

Asia - men and women in South East Asia wear sarongs. These are lengths of cotton that are wrapped round waists and worn with shirts or embroidered blouses. To make a sarong you need a sheet of fabric about 2 metres long. Fold around the waist and tuck in. Filipino men wear long collarless shirts.
Africa - men and women in many African countries wear brightly coloured cloths called kangas, which they wrap round the body keeping arms and shoulders free, or around the waist with a shirt or T-shirt on top. Women often wear headscarves tied behind the head. Men also wear western-style clothes.

Activity 2: Discussion - People in different countries

Using a globe, locate each of the following countries:

Ireland.
Holland
United States
Kenya
Philippines
South Korea

Ask the children what they know about the people in these countries:

What do they eat?
What do farmers grow
What else do farmers produce?
How do the people live?
What is the climate like?
Is it a rich or a poor country?
Do older people have enough to eat?
Do older people live with their families?

Here is some information that may be useful to answer the above questions: What people eat and grow:

Ireland	Most older people have just enough money to live on. Families mainly take care of older people who need help. Many voluntary organisations also help older people who need help. Older people in Ireland feel that they are generally treated with respect. Farmers produce sugar beet, barley, potatoes, wheat and oats. Many farmers produce milk. Livestock include cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry.
Holland	Many older people live in houses that the state provides. They receive a good pension from the state and have enough money to live on. They do not see their families as often as in some other countries. Farmers grow sugar beet, potatoes, wheat, apples, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and barley. Holland is also famous for its flowers. Livestock include cattle, sheep and pigs.
United States	Many older people are well off but there are some poor older people. They do not usually live with their families. Some older people go to live in Florida, where the weather is warm and there is a lot of sunshine. Farmers grow corn (maize), soya beans, hay, wheat, cotton, potatoes, tobacco, lettuce, grapes, apples, oranges, rice, sugar beet, barley, peanuts, sugar cane, almonds, tomatoes strawberries, onions, dry beans, sunflower seeds, bell peppers, carrots, broccoli, watermelon, cabbage, pears, celery and oats. Livestock includes cattle, pigs, sheep, horses and poultry.
Kenya	Older people live with their families in thatched houses. They stop working when they are 50 years of age. They teach their grandchildren about the history of the tribe. People do not live as long in Africa as in Europe. Farmers grow sugar cane, corn (maize), sweet potatoes, wheat, pineapples, tea, bananas, potatoes, sorghum (tropical cereal grass), coffee, millet, barley, coconuts, tomatoes, cashew nuts, sunflower seeds, cotton and tobacco. Livestock: cattle, goats, and sheep.
Philippines	Older people live with their families. Older people get a small pension from the government. Farmers grow sugar cane, rice, coconuts, corn (maize), bananas, pineapples, mango, coffee and tobacco. Livestock include pigs, goats, buffalo, cattle and poultry.
South Korea	Older people live with their families. They have to retire from work when they are 60 years old. Many older South Koreans are not well off, because they are forced to retire so early. Farmers produce rice, cabbages, apples, tangerines, onions, garlic, barley and soya beans. Livestock include pigs, cattle and poultry.

From the information on agricultural production in the various countries, ask the children to compare the foods grown in the various countries. The following questions may be helpful:

What foods do you like?
What foods have you never eaten?
Why are there no bananas, pineapples, coffee, tea or rice in Ireland?
What countries grow coffee and tea?
What is soya bean used for? (Answer: soya bean is the most important bean in the world, providing vegetable protein for millions of people, especially in Asia, and ingredients for hundreds of chemical products. It is the most nutritious and easily digested food of the bean family.)

Activity 3: Art - Collage from around the world

Ask the children to collect pictures of older people from newspapers or magazines, especially from countries other than Ireland. You can ask them to print the photos from this program, especially from the Infants section. Discuss with them the names of the five continents. Then do the following:

Divide the photographs by continent. Make a collage from each group of photographs for each continent.
Write the name of the continent underneath each group of photos.
Add one sentence about older people in that continent. If you want some more information about older people in different countries, see the Teachers' Corner in the other levels of Around the world.

Curriculum Links

This lesson provides opportunities for many cross-curricular activities and links directly to the curriculum for primary schools as follows:

Geography	Human environments	People and places in other areas
SPHE	Myself and the wider world	Local and wider communities

Key Questions

The key questions for this lesson include:

What do you know about the different ways people dress and speak around the world?
What do you know about how people live and what they eat in different parts of the world?