Begin any travel or geography unit by having students explore their own town or city. Ask students to draw pictures of places in the community that are special to them, such as their homes, the library, a movie theater or local parks. Bring in a map of the town and show students where their school, their homes and other popular locations are situated on the map. Once students explore their town, create city passports with them by folding and decorating sheets of computer paper. Partner with local businesses to provide students with stickers or stamps in their passports for visiting different locations throughout the town and give a treat to students who collect the most stamps or stickers.
Have students create a mini passport book by folding a sheet of paper in half. Encourage students to decorate the outside of the passport with an official-looking symbol of their own design. Prepare stations to represent different countries where students play a game or complete an activity related to each country. As students complete the stations, stamp their passports with a stamp to represent that country. Students will be able to travel the world without leaving the classroom.
Many passport stamps are basic, but some countries have unique passport stamps. Share pictures of passport stamps with students from your actual passport or online photos of passport stamps. Discuss what the unique stamps show about their country. Have students design their own passport stamps for their city or country. Design the passport stamps on a small rectangular piece of paper. Fold a large piece of poster board in half and label the front "Our Class Passport." Glue the passport stamps inside.
Help students write letters to tourism departments of foreign countries and foreign embassies requesting information about their countries. It will take some time to receive responses, but when they arrive, share the information with students. Create a bulletin board labeled "Our Passport to the World" and add new information to the board as it arrives. Cut the stamps off of the envelopes and glue them onto a piece of poster board labeled "Our Class Passport." Some letters will never be answered, but most organizations will be more than happy to send information back to students.