Photo by: andreasnilsson1976
This year’s World Cup tournament is fast approaching. From the 12th June onwards, children across the country will spend a month feasting on a festival of football. Even if England do their usual trick of losing in the quarter finals, the host of international Premier League stars on show will keep the kids interested until the final whistle.
From a teaching perspective, the World Cup provides a fantastic opportunity for pupils of all ages to learn about the countries participating in a way that inspires camaraderie, competition and the chance to learn about life in other parts of the world.
This year’s tournament will be held in Brazil, a fascinating country rich in natural resources, awe-inspiring landmarks and vibrant cultural heritage.
So with that in mind, here are some ways teachers can and have used the World Cup in their lesson plans, as well as some ideas for World-Cup themed rewards.
Introductory Resources
Acquainting your students with some background knowledge of the World Cup is a good jumping off point.
The official FIFA World Cup website contains a resources section providing information on the competition’s targets for sustainability, carbon offsetting as well as their campaign to end racism and discrimination in football. Any of these articles could make an interesting class discussion topic.
Create your own World Cup tournament
For P.E lessons, setting up your own mini World Cup competition is a great way to engage pupils who are normally not that interested in sport, as there is the opportunity for some cross-curriculum integration.
For example, if you divide your class into small teams, each representing a different country, you could get pupils to look up some football songs or chants in the country’s language for the supporters and teammates to cheer from the side-lines.
To further boost motivation, use School Stickers Customisable sticker making tool to design your own unique stickers to use as rewards for good sportsmanship. Here is a unique design we made earlier, featuring a famous Brazilian football chant. “A Taça do Mundo é Nossa” which means, “The World Cup is ours”
The World Cup and Literacy
The National Literacy Trust is currently working with football fiction author, Tom Palmer, to create a collection of downloadable resources which encourage children with an interest in the beautiful game to read for pleasure. For the 2010 World Cup, the Trust reported to have over 100,000 downloads from over 2,500 schools as buzz for the competition reached ‘fever pitch.’
To get your hands on these activities, lesson ideas and resources, check out the literacy trust website.
To further boost motivation in literacy (with a football-themed twist) why not reward your ‘football mad’ pupils with some of these Football Praise Shirt Stickers? Each pack contains a range of colours and encouraging phrases, which should appeal to the various football teams your pupils support.
Learning about the countries taking part
Researching all of the different countries taking part in this year’s World Cup will no doubt be a popular classroom activity amongst teachers, because there are 32 countries participating. For your typical classroom size, this works out roughly around one country per pupil to research.
Reward students with Football Reward Stickers
Whether you’re planning on setting a written task or class presentations, School Stickers has a range of football reward stickers with motivational messages printed on the front to praise and encourage your pupils for their great investigation skills.
If you have any other ideas for World Cup related classroom activities, please share your thoughts below.