This teacher found out the family origin of the students in her class. She asked the parents to bring in post-cards sent to the family from relatives from their respective countries. The children were shown where those countries were on a map relative to there home state. This was a nice way to honor the children's countries of origin while at the same time introducing maps and geography concepts.

very cool; i visualize this as a world map w. pins and strings that tie back to NJ
Thanks for the comment. I like your suggestion. What a great way to make this more tactile and relevant for the children. Part of the beauty of this is now I give that visual suggestion to other teachers. :-)
Yes, love the idea of connecting it back to NJ
Great Ideas