Schools Around The World- Whole Wide World Toys
schools around the world

Everyone Goes to School! Lesson Plan Grades 1-3

For Teachers

Overview

Children will learn about the kinds of schools attended by children around the world. They’ll compare and contrast schools around the world to their own classroom experiences. They’ll brainstorm to create an international school in an imaginary place with all their favorite things about other schools (including their own).

Suggested Materials and Preparation

  • This Is the Way We Go to School: A Book About Children Around the World, by Edith Baer and illustrated by Steve Bjorkman. Scholastic Press; Reprint Edition, 1992.
  • This Is the Way We Go to School (Scholastic News Nonfiction Readers: Kids Like Me), by Laine Falk. Children’s Press; 2009.
  • Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World, by Susan Hughes. Owlkids; 2011.
  • School in Many Cultures (Life Around the World), by Heather Adamson. Capstone Press; Revised Edition, 2016.
  • Children Just Like Me: A School Like Mine: A Celebration of Schools And the World, by DK Children; 2nd Edition, 2016.

Introduction

One of the most important things that have happened in the past couple hundred years is the worldwide push for making education a human right. Most children around the world are now required to participate in some schooling. There is still a battle ahead to ensure ALL children have this right, but we’ve made great strides in this area globally.

A great way to connect children here to children worldwide is to contrast and compare school experiences. After all, school is where many children spend most of their waking hours.

Some schools around the world have classrooms outside or without walls or windows. What is your school building like?

Before beginning, know that the school information included here is all pre-pandemic. At the time of the formation of this lesson, we are amid major shifts in the way people around the world are responding to both the pandemic and the need for education. However, we don’t know how long those shifts will last or what education will look like in the future.

This lesson was written with that shift in mind but with an eye toward what were fairly stable schooling models in various countries pre-pandemic. In some places, these earlier models, like Nordic kindergartens and preschools, have actually had a considerable influence on education during this global pandemic.

For example, children in Denmark are now having school in as many outdoor and public places as possible to keep from overcrowding classrooms and causing more people to become ill. The elementary, middle, and high schools are following the lead of the schools we’ve included an example of here.

We don’t know what school will look like in the future, but the people who will be helping make those decisions are sitting in your classroom right now.
The architects, community leaders, governmental leaders, medical personnel, teachers, lawyers, and citizens of tomorrow are your audience today.

So fill them up with lots of good ideas. Allow them the opportunity to dream about change, and fuel their inspiration with encouragement.

We may need every ounce of that creativity and ingenuity in the near future.

Begin this lesson by asking: How did you get to school today? How many of you woke up and thought, “I’d really rather go back to sleep.” (It’s okay to raise your hand for this, too, teacher! We’re all thinking it at some point!)

Let's compare schools around the world to see how your life is the same or different from others.

Let’s talk about how different your life would be if you lived in some other parts of the world.

Continue the lesson by either showing the video mentioned below, reading one of the books below, or using all three. They are all excellent resources.

  • This Is the Way We Go to School: A Book About Children Around the World, by Edith Baer and illustrated by Steve Bjorkman. Scholastic Press; Reprint Edition, 1992.
  • This Is the Way We Go to School (Scholastic News Nonfiction Readers: Kids Like Me), by Laine Falk. Children’s Press; 2009.

Imagine with your students what it would be like to travel to school in any of the ways mentioned or shown. Compare your own collective experiences with the ones shown, finding similarities and differences.

Say: In this lesson, we’ll compare our school with other schools around the world. We’ll talk about things we love about our own school and the way we do things, and we’ll find some new, interesting things about other schools. At the end of the lesson, we’ll dream up our own imaginary school using all our favorite ideas from all of the schools.

Activity One

Spot the Differences!

Have students tell you the things they enjoy most about their school experiences. Include things like the building, the classes, student responsibilities, teacher responsibilities, and outside time.

Make a grid for comparing the different aspects of your school and others using these criteria for the rows (i.e., building, classes offered, student responsibilities, teacher responsibilities, amount of time spent outside, etc.).

Label your own column with your school’s name. Create 5 to 7 blank columns for schools in other countries.

Watch the short video below to get a glimpse of classrooms worldwide as an introduction to the concept that not all schools are alike, although many places have similarities.

Scenes from schools around the world
https://youtu.be/at2gAjtsgtk

Either read one or more of these books as a class OR, if your students are capable, allow them to use these books to research on their own and share the information they’ve found.

As you all discuss the findings, fill in the chart with similarities and differences found in schools in different countries.

  • Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World, by Susan Hughes. Owlkids; 2011.
  • School in Many Cultures (Life Around the World), by Heather Adamson. Capstone Press; Revised Edition, 2016.
  • Children Just Like Me: A School Like Mine: A Celebration of Schools And the World, by DK Children; 2nd Edition, 2016.

When you’ve completed as much as you are able on your grid (there may still be room for more information that can be added in the next activity), discuss your findings. What things do children love about other schools and the way things are done? What things would they not enjoy? Are there things they would trade from your school day for something done differently elsewhere?

Keep notes of their ideas, if you’d like to since they’ll use this information later in the lesson.

Activity One

Dive Deeper

Explore two or more of the following videos to get a closer look at some of the things that make these schools unique.

For example, if you live in Southern Florida or Northern Alaska, it wouldn’t be very easy to have an outdoor school, would it? It’s not a practical idea year-round. But you could do outdoor days or weeks. Talk about what you would be able to learn in those times in “outdoor school”. What things can you do in that setting that you cannot do in your classroom now?

Talk about schools in the Outback. Some of those schools have fewer than ten students! What would it be like to have a school with all different ages, one teacher, and only ten kids? What could you do in that school that you couldn’t do in the schools where you live? What advantages do your students have that kids in very small Outback towns do not?

Show What You Know

Create Your Dream School

Divide the class into planning groups that correspond with the areas on your information grid. For example, your list might include architects, indoor/outdoor experts, class creators, principals in charge of kids, and principals in charge of teachers.

If making one school is too difficult to agree upon and your students need more control, group children in a way that one of each of the jobs listed in the example (or any jobs you come up with) is represented in each one of several “school planning” groups. This way you’ll have four of five different schools being created, and each child in the group is in charge of one area but will get help from the group members to complete their tasks.

Architects will create a plan, drawing, or 3D model (depending on what crafting materials you have lying around) of the school they would like to design.

Create Your Dream School

Class creators will decide what classes are offered. They can also decide things like how many children should be in each class, how often classes meet, and what sort of supplies kids will need.

If students are advanced, you might even give your architects and class creators budgets (having class creators who want all video game classes will quickly learn how little feasibility this might have in real-world experience, for example).

Invite the principals in charge of kids to help create school rules, reward systems, schedules, and decide what they will do if children don’t want to follow the rules.

Invite the principals in charge of teachers to choose when teachers get planning time, what teachers can wear, and what things teachers will need in order to be successful.

Encourage them to use ideas they like from your existing school, incorporate ideas from other cultures that they enjoy, and make up their own.

Name your school, and get ready to recruit!

Sum It Up!

Invite Students to Your School!

The most important part of any school is the one thing schools can’t be schools without—students!

Have children create posters, flyers, brochures, commercials, or some other advertising to entice students to attend their school.

Then find a way to share the ideas with others

If you are homeschooling, you could send the advertisement to other families, and have them pretend to enroll, or vote “yes” or “no”, saying whether they’d like to come to your school or not.

If you are a classroom teacher and your class made four different schools, ask another grade level to vote on which school they’d most like to attend and have them share reasons why.

Have fun with it! Talk about your imaginary school, what each day would look like, and why the various aspects are important to your students.

If at all possible, try to incorporate some of the ideas they’ve come up with into your daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly routine so students can feel more ownership regarding their schooling experiences.

After all, teachers, parents, and schools are experts at making dreams of all sorts come true!

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