Having a Swedish background, we’ve volunteered to represent Sweden several times at our kids’ school’s countries of the world events. Here are some of the fun activities we’ve included.
introduce your country
First we like to decorate our area by printing a large banner that says “Sweden”.
Then we greet our visitors with some Fun Facts about Sweden. For example:
Sweden is a country in Northern Europe that is famous for being the home of Swedish meatballs, IKEA, and Minecraft!
map it out
Kids love having a map or even better – a globe to visualize where in the world the country is. Try this printable map by Beyond Mommying.
food
A country’s food showcases a major aspect of the culture and sharing some edible treats always goes over well.
We’ve offered Swedish fish candy, “saft” (fruit juice, available at IKEA), and baked goods. Add cute little Swedish flags to a pastry! Sometimes you can find Annas Pepparkakor, Swedish gingerbread cookies, in the international section of your grocery store.
In Swedish there’s actually a special word,”fika”, that is a really big part of the culture. It means having a coffee and/or baked treat. It’s a really cozy experience. Kids usually get some saft (concentrated fruit juice you mix with water) to go with their pastry instead of the coffee.
I made this printable fika coloring page to display by our treats, explaining the meaning of the word.
craft/activity
Offering a craft activity is always a popular part of the countries of the world. What could be easier and more fitting than a Swedish Dala Horse Coloring page? This coloring page lets you trace the word and teaches you about Sweden’s traditional carved wooden horses.
the language
So far we’ve already included a lesson about Dala horses. Next, consider an extra credit language lesson for the ambitious, like this numbers coloring and tracing page.
Or these tracing flashcards to teach you some Swedish words about people:
holidays
Some of the most iconic Swedish holidays are midsummer and St Lucia.
Midsummer occurs on summer solstice and includes folk costumes, floral wreaths, and singing and dancing around a maypole.
St. Lucia occurs on December 13 and marks the beginning of the Christmas season. Most schools, and cities have their own St. Lucia pageant, featuring a girl that wears a crown of candles. She is accompanied by a chorus of followers dressed as her Lucia maids, star boys, and sometimes gingerbread men, and Christmas elves. They sing Christmas songs and traditional saffron buns and other treats are served.
The crown the St. Lucia wears is actually real live burning candles! Yikes! For safety reasons, a bucket of water is often kept handy, and for younger children there are battery operated candle crowns. Or this printable paper version, too, that works well for countries of the world activities.
Here are some Swedish holiday themed coloring pages you can download and print for the activity.
givaways
Now visitors have gotten some introductory fun facts, tasty treats, a few coloring pages, and finally they can walk off with their newly acquired Swedish knowledge while waving a little Swedish flag.
Download, print, cut, and hot glue to some lollipop sticks (available at Michael’s).
Other county flags available:
about me
I am an experienced freelance graphic artist based in South Florida. With over 15 years in the graphic design field, I have worked for a diverse range of companies and clients. I specialize in print design, including package design, catalogs, flyers, business cards, collateral, signage, as well as digital graphics, such as email marketing graphics, animated GIFs, landing page designs, web banners and more. My work is characterized by efficiently and successfully interpreting the request and translating it into a finished design. I am excited about the opportunity to work on new graphic design projects. If you’d like to work with me (or just say hello!), you can contact me at www.giddyhedgehog.com/contact.
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