Category Archives: Nepal

“Know My World:” Global Collaboration Projects

Posted on August 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

I had the pleasure to chat with Lisa Petro and Genevieve Murphy, co-founders of a wonderful new web site that coordinates global collaboration for classrooms called “Know My World.” Know My World offers opportunities for cross-cultural exchange for schools around the world.

How did you start Know My World?
This is my favorite question to answer about Know My World. It really displays how my world and your world and his or her world is a shared experience…
In the spring of 2010 Genevieve and I were living in Aomori prefecture of Japan. Continue reading →

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Around the World, Asia, Nepal

Tagged global collaboration

Try this Gorgeous Asian Elephant Craft

Posted on March 27, 2012 | 10 Comments

After reading so many books that featured Asian Elephants last week, we decided we needed to do an elephant art project. First I browsed on-line for elephant images, and found some beautiful hand-embroidered pillow shams and purses. A lot of times the elephants were silver thread or silver sequins, so we decided to use foil. I had seen a technique on pinterest that I wanted to adapt (see original post here), so we gathered our supplies: foil, glue, cardboard, paints. Here is our finished project. Didn’t my son do such a great job? Continue reading →

→ 10 Comments

Posted in Animals, Arts and Crafts, Asia, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam

Tagged education, elephants, multicultural

Books that Feature Asian Elephants

Posted on March 24, 2012 | 1 Comment

Elephants are the largest land animal and can live up to 60 years. There are 2 basic species of elephants: the African elephant (whose ears are larger, look like the continent of Africa!) and Asian elephants (whose ears are smaller, and look like the shape of India!). Asian elephants are an endangered species, with only 25,000 wild elephants living in: Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Nepal, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar, and southern China.

Asian Elephant from St Louis Zoo- Kid World Citizen

We saw this lovely elephant at the St. Louis Zoo (Missouri, US).

Elephants have been highly regarded to Asian culture for thousands of years; here, elephants have been domesticated and are used for religious festivals, transportation and to move heavy objects. Other fun facts:

they are vegetarians, and eat 400 pounds of green leaves, bark, branches, fruit and grass daily- they weigh over 10,000 pounds!
they have 6 sets of teeth that wear down and are replaced
the tusks are actually incisor teeth that elephants use to dig in the ground for roots and break apart tree bark. In Asian elephants, only the male has tusks
the elephant’s nose has 40,000 muscles and can pick up tiny objects

Here are some wonderful books whose main characters are Asian Elephants! Continue reading →

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Animals, Asia, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Literature, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam

Tagged elephants

Get Painted at Holi: The Indian Festival of Colors

Posted on March 7, 2012 | 2 Comments

Holi Celebration India- Kid World Citizen

Holi celebration at the College of Engineering in Adoor. Photo credit: Sandeep Pranavam, public domain.

Holi होली is a religious festival celebrated especially in Northern India by Hindus in the spring to mark the arrival of spring and new life and the end of gloomy winter. Farmers begin to plant their crops, the flowers begin to bloom, and people celebrate the new season of hope (for a good harvest) and happiness. There are also various religious legends associated with the holiday. Read here for The Legend of Prahalad and Holika. Typical food that is eaten is gujiya (a sweet puff), mathri (salty crackers) and papri (fried dough wafers).

But what truly makes this holiday unique and special is Continue reading →

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Asia, Celebrations, India, Nepal

Tagged education, holi, multicultural

Learn about the Dalai Lama

Posted on February 3, 2012 | 8 Comments

Because we all share this planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. This is not just a dream, but a necessity.- The Dalai Lama

With so much violence in the world today, it is our duty as parents and teachers to teach our children about compassion, showing them kindness and respect, and giving them examples and role models to follow. Studying great leaders who embody peace helps kids to make better decisions and learn from others wisdom as well as from their mistakes.

The Buddhist religion was founded in India over 2500 years ago, and is currently practiced by over 500 million people all over the world. The countries with the largest number of Buddhists are: China (especially Tibet), Thailand, Japan, Burma, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Viet Nam, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Laos, and Nepal among others. Every country has different ways to worship, but the universal goal of Buddhism is to achieve a state of enlightenment- freedom from suffering- through acts of compassion on all living things.

Dalai Lama Peacemaker from Tibet- Kid World Citizen

The Dalai Lama: Peacemaker from Tibet, a biography by Chris Gibb.

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, though Buddhist around the world follow his teachings of non-violence and kindness.

Dalai is translated from Mongolian as “ocean” and lama in Tibetan Buddhism is “perfect teacher.” In fact lama refers to a religious master, specifically a Tibetan or Mongolian Buddhist monk. Continue reading →

→ 8 Comments

Posted in Around the World, Asia, China, India, Japan, Literature, Malaysia, Nepal, People, Thailand, Tibet

Tagged biography, buddhism, education, famous person, multicultural

Instrument Giveaway: A Tibetan Singing Bowl and Nepalese Tingsha

Posted on January 23, 2012 | 19 Comments

This guest post and giveaway is written and sponsored by award-winning multicultural musician “DARIA-” Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou.

One great way of sharing cultures is to explore the different instruments that are found in various countries around the world. If you were to visit the area around China, Tibet, Nepal or Northern India, you might see some really unique instruments including a bowl that sings and small cymbals attached to a string that are carefully struck together to make a sound like a beautiful bell.

First there’s the singing bowl. Here is a picture of four of my favorite singing bowls – each only has a different size, shape and decoration, as well as a unique voice when played with a wooden stick. No one actually knows how old this instrument is but most historians think it was probably created about 3,000 years ago when the bronze age began in ancient China.