The World Cup for this year begins today — and it can be a great source of summer learning! Math and geography are the stars of a World Cup study.
Learning goals:
- Locate World Cup countries on a map and identify their flags.
- Learn basic World Cup vocabulary, soccer rules, and sportsmanship.
- Explore culture through food, language, music, and landmarks.
- Practice math with brackets, score tracking, graphing, or measurements.
- Respond in writing through journals, research cards, or reflection prompts.
Start with a poster
There are lots of choices for ready-made posters or you can make your own. We love this one, because it’s made of fabric and has lots of information on it, but any chart will work.
- Start with geography. Find your country, your neighboring countries, the nations your ancestors came from… As many countries as you can keep students’ attention for, it’s a good way to refresh memories. For each country, find the location on the map and a few interesting facts.
- Check out flags! Try memory games: cover the names of the countries with a sentence strip and see if your students can remember the country belonging to the flag.
Once the games start taking place, here’s how to fill out the brackets:
- Group Stage
- Locate the Groups: Your poster features 12 Groups (labeled alphabetically).
- Write in Scores: As games finish, write the final scores and match outcomes (Win/Loss/Draw) next to the corresponding countries.
- Track Standings: Points are awarded as follows: 3 for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss.
- Advance Teams: Write down the teams that finish in 1st and 2nd place in each group. Also, keep an eye on the best third-place teams, as the expanded 48-team format allows some of them to advance to the next round.
- 2. Knockout Round Bracket
- Round of 32: The poster has designated slots for the top 32 teams. Write the advancing group winners and runners-up into their specific Round of 32 slots.
- Write the Matchups: As the single-elimination games take place, track the winners of each match into the next bracket (e.g., Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals).
- Fill in the Finals: Finally, carry the last two teams to the Championship game and record the winner.
Learn the rules
If you’re not already a soccer fan, brush up on the rules so you can tell what’s going on during the matches.
The basics of the rules, team positions, and what’s going on during the match, told in photographs and clear kid-friendly language. The book makes some great points beyond the basic rules, too, as you can see from a few pages shown below.
Watch opening ceremonies and a match
The first match as of this writing is Mexico vs. South Africa. Settle in for the opening ceremonies with snacks representing your favorite of the opponents. It’s fun to root for one side or another in the game, but sometimes you don’t have a real favorite in the first match. Make the choice into an educational opportunity:
- Have each person choose a side and give three reasons for their choice.
- Have people randomly draw a side to root for.
- Play minute pool. Again you can get a ready-made form for this or make your own. For this game, people choose a minute into the game when they think a goal will be achieved. You can then root for any team to make a goal 10 minutes in, instead of rooting for one team or the other.
- Make snacks or cookies from each nation in the match and have a tasting. Each person can sample both and pick the side to root for based on the snack they prefer.
Choose a favorite
As the matches continue, choose a country to follow. You an also pick a “villain.” That is, a country you see as a rival and which you do not want to win. This is a common custom and doesn’t need to be taken seriously.
Get to know your chosen favorite country! Each time you watch a game, try a dish (check out kids’ cooking kits for help), listen to the local music, and check out Google Street View showing major landmarks of the country. Ask each member of the group to present one surprising fact about your chosen country at each game. Do the same for the “villain” country if you choose one.
Each person can have their own favorite, too — just extend the exploration to more countries.
You can also focus on the specific countries playing in the matches you watch.
Keep track
Whether you have a hero nation and a villain or play the field, fill out the brackets as teams win, lose, and are eliminated. Things can get very exciting as the numbers of teams still in the competition get smaller. Graph the scores of the competitors and see who the data suggests will be the winner.
Keep a group diary, too, or individual reflections for each day. Develop a habit of writing in quiet time each day, and then read out the reflections at breakfast the next morning.
Don’t be couch potatoes throughout the World Cup! Get out and play. You’ll get a lot more out of being a spectator if you’ve tried it out.
