Connecting Ideas to Resources - The World

I love connecting the dots. But these days my ‘dots’ are resources and I  especially love it when they start to connect in really meaningful ways.

For example, Art Against the Odds (709.0407 RuA 2004) describes where we can unexpectedly find (or often miss) art produced in places such as prisons or mental institutions.  Or, in third world countries where the head of a charitable organization watched a young boy playing with a homemade boat (old rubber, flip flop, sticks and string).  This piece of ‘art’ returned to the U.S. (in exchange for a real boat the whole village could use for fishing) and inspired a traveling art show with toys/art created by poor people, usually children, from the developing world.

Connection No. 1 – Galimoto by Vera Williams (823 W6733G PIC BK) 

-An African boy describes his day collecting bits of stuff to make his own wire push car.

Connection No. 2 –   Push toys from 10,000 Villages (745.59 Ga 2006 A/V)

                                   Bottlecap Monkey  (731 Bo 2006 Realia)

                                   Recycled products kit (363.728 Re 2005 A/V)

                                                -All the above provide examples of items

                                    made from bits of stuff.

Connection No. 3 – Material World : Global Family Portrait (306.85 Ma 2007)

                                                -Looks at families from around the world and

                                    their possessions.  Besides seeing the disparity

                                    between rich and poor countries we see what items

                                    are considered important. 

I see great connections with these resources and the grade 3 social studies curriculum where students learn about quality of life in various countries.

This begs the question: How do our own lives or the lives of kids from your classrooms, compare?

Lots of opportunity for cross-curricular connections, too.  Think art, math and science.