Making some passport crafts can help get students into the travel theme spirit. One idea for a travel craft that you could incorporate into the rest of your lesson plan is the creation of a pretend passport. Make a booklet using white computer paper, and then cover the booklet with a laminated blue piece of card stock with a U.S. passport emblem on the front. Staple the cover and the pages together to form your passport, and then let the kids fill out and decorate their personal information page at the front. Leave the other pages blank to be stamped later on.
Use games to help familiarize the students with world geography. For instance, you could play Where in the World? to help get students acquainted with world countries, capitals and landmarks. Divide the class into teams, and give each group a world map. Ask students to determine the locations of certain places by placing stickers or pushpins over the correct portion of the map. Ask the groups to hold up their responses, or walk around to check the accuracy. You could also play games from around the world, like African mancala or Chinese mahjong. Give each student's pretend passport a stamp for the world games he participates in.
Storytelling is an important way to get to know other cultures and to live through others' experiences, so include aspects of this in your lesson plan. One idea could be to ask each student to go around and verbally describe a cultural experience he's had. For instance, students could tell a story about a trip to another country or could simply talk about a new foreign food they tried. Or, you could have each student choose a folk tale from another culture to tell to the class. Give each student a new stamp in his pretend passport for each country mentioned at story time.
Give students an opportunity to embark on a culinary adventure at snack time. For instance, you could assign each student a specific country, and on the day of the passport activities, he must bring in a dish representative of that place. You could also make the experience more personal by asking each student to bring in a dish that represents his heritage. Entice the students to try new foods by giving a passport stamp for each international dish they are adventurous enough to try.