The World Map, Olympic Style

I was inspired by the blow up world globe I have hanging up in my house. The children come visit me and after knocking it around for awhile ask, what is this? It’s like a map of the world, on a balloon, I tell them. I taught a little girl the continents and show most people where Panama and the United States are, because – to my disbelief- they are unaware of their relative location on the planet. The mountains, lush jungle, and gravel road in and out of our community are all they know and all they've needed.

With the summer Olympic Games going on in London, I decided to paint a world map at the school in my community and include lesions in social studies about geography and the Olympic Games. We talked about what the games are, what the events are, and who participates. We highlighted Panamanian Olympic long jump gold medalists Irving Saladino. Then the kids practiced their own long jump! Using the map we could identify the countries participating in certain events – nearly the entire world coming together in competition no matter the size, wealth, or history of the country… or athletes. We’ll track the medal results throughout the games keeping a close proud eye on our panama friends. When I was a little girl I dreamed about being an Olympic gymnast and I hope the children felt inspired to dream about goals for themselves as well!

Here is photo documentation of the painting process, as well as the activity in the school.