1. English and what other language have official status in Canada?
   
   
2. Which three civilizations inhabited the land that is now Mexico before Spaniards conquered the area in 1521?
   
   
3. Which country is the only industrialized country in the world without a national (public) healthcare system?
   
   
4. In the United States, which minority group is both the largest and the fastest growing?
   
   
5. Which North American country is larger in area than China?
   
   
6. What are Canada’s two national sports?
   
   
7. According to legend, who appeared several times to an indigenous man named Diego in December 1531, thus becoming the patron saint of Mexico?
   
   
8. Artists from which country inspired muralist movements worldwide?
   
   
9. Roughly what percent of U.S. Americans attend weekly religious services?
   
   
10. What rural Mexican article of clothing may be used to carry a child, cover the head or arms, or help support water buckets carried on the head?

Canadian spelling of English words follows U.S. standards in some cases (e.g., organize rather than organise) but British standards in others (centre, not center), and Canadians call the last letter of the alphabet zed, not zee.

Nearly one in five Canadians speaks a language other than English or French as their native tongue. In the 1990s, Chinese surpassed Italian as the third most common language in the country. Among indigenous groups, more than 50 languages are spoken.

Since 1993, more than 300 women have been killed in or around the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which neighbors El Paso, Texas. A federal-level investigation of the murders opened in 2004 in response to widespread complaints about corruption and mishandling of cases on the local law enforcement level. Most of the women killed worked at maquiladoras, which are border industries that sprang up with the passing of NAFTA in 1993 and are run on U.S. investment and Mexican labor.

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• The state's name comes from the Colorado River. Early explorers called the river Colorado (Spanish for "colored red") referring to its muddy waters.
  
  
• Colorado was the second state to pass a law allowing women to vote.
  
  
• The professional Rodeo Hall of Fame is located in Colorado Springs.
  
  
• Colorado is known as the "Centennial State" because it joined the union one hundred years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
  
  
• The Four Corners area, in the southwestern corner of Colorado, is the only place in the United States where four states meet.
  
  
• The federal government owns more than one-third of Colorado.

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World Holidays Featured This Month

Qatar – National Day – September 3
Marks independence from Britain and is a day of parades, art shows, sporting events, and feasting. Buildings are festooned with red and white lights for the festive occasion.

Honduras – The Day of the Child – September 10
A popular, though non-official, holiday when children receive sweets and gifts at school and adults congratulate them when passing them on the street.

Argentina – Student Day – September 21
The first day of spring, which is marked by students gathering in parks for picnics and soccer.

Malta – Victory Day – September 8
Celebrates the victory over the Turks in 1565 as well as the end of World War II.

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McREL Geography Standards

The World in Spatial Terms

• Standard 2: Knows the location of places, geographic features, and patterns of the environment.
• Level II [Grades 3–5] Benchmark 3: Knows the approximate location of major continents, mountain ranges, and bodies of water on Earth.

Human Systems

• Standard 10: Understands the nature and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics.
• Level II [Grades 3–5] Benchmark 1: Knows the similarities and differences in characteristics of culture in different regions (e.g., in terms of environment and resources, technology, food, shelter, social organization, beliefs and customs, schooling, what girls and boys are allowed to do).
• Level II [Grades 3–5] Benchmark 3: Understands how cultures differ in their use of similar environments and resources (e.g., comparing how people live in Phoenix, Arizona with how people live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia).

Developed by Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning

National Geography Standards

The World in Spatial Terms

• Standard 2: The geographically informed person knows and understands how to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environments.

Human Systems

• Standard 10: The geographically informed person knows and understands the characteristics, distributions, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics.

Developed by the National Council for Geographic Education

National Standards for Social Studies

Culture

• Standard E [Early Grades]: Social Studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity, so that the learner can give examples and describe the importance of cultural unity and diversity within and across groups.

Developed by the National Council for the Social Studies

• CultureGrams Kids Edition

1. Select four or five countries you would like the students to study as a class. Then have the students read the Kids Edition report for those countries. This may be done during class time or as homework assignments, spread out over several days.
   
   
2. Have each student create quiz questions about his or her country based on the reading. The students should not make the questions too difficult, as the questions may be asked of members of their own team during the upcoming Race Around the World activity.
   
   
3. Compile the questions together and distribute them to the class. You may wish to have some as "questions of the day" in the lead-up to the activity.
   
   
4. Mark a number of cities as "pit stops" on a world map. The students’ hometown should be the first and final pit stop.
   
   
5. For the Race Around the World, divide the students into teams. Each team should be represented by a symbol on the world map (e.g., different-colored airplanes). In turn, ask each team a question from those the class has submitted. With each correct answer, the team’s marker should be moved to the next "pit stop" on the map. The first team to travel around the globe to the original destination wins the game.
   
   
6. Extension Activity
   
   Compare the "route" the students traveled in their Race Around the World to some of the routes taken by early explorers around the globe (e.g., Magellan, Drake, Cook). How long did it take these explorers to complete their routes? How long would the students’ route take by airplane?

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