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It’s here! The Global Service Advent calendar!
I loved putting together the Global Children’s Book Club so much. It was an incredible experience finding opportunities for global education and to virtually travel the world with so many of you. And now I’m excited to help you turn some of that knowledge into action!
If you don’t want to read all the details of how to print and how to use the calendar, you can go straight to print it RIGHT HERE!
I’m so thrilled to “revisit” many of those countries and add in a few new ones, but this time with a focus on service – perfect for the holiday season. We’ve had a wonderful opportunity to learn; now is our opportunity to turn some of that knowledge into action. That’s where this holiday or Christmas service advent comes in!
I’ll be releasing service opportunities related to each country each day from November 30-December 25. Each weekday will highlight a new opportunity/organization in a featured country, while the weekends will just have a small and simple act of service to do at home if you wish.
Becca at Hadley Designs (of alphabet printable passport fame) designed an incredible printable service advent calendar to follow along with all the simple acts of service. It’s a darling way to remember the countries and to encourage us to continue to find ways to act.
There are two different parts to the service advent calendar: the calendar itself, and cutouts with country illustrations to attach on top to track each day.
You can print all the files for the service advent calendar right here! Once you go to that link, you’ll enter your email, then the files to print will be sent right to your inbox.
There are a few different versions of the advent calendar:
If you’d like to print an engineering print poster, you can do that at any office supply store (like Office Depot). It cost me a grand total of $3.96 to print mine – including tax! Then you can either print out the cutouts on 8.5″x11″ pieces of paper at home or also at the store.
If you’d prefer to print everything at home, you can print the 9 pages of 8.5″x11″ pieces for the calendar. Then you can trim the right sides and the bottoms of the pages. That way, you’ll just have a strip of extra white page bleed on one connection point where the papers meet. You can overlap the pages so the lines all match up perfectly. Then you can tape on the back of the pages to hold it all together. That way, you can make a homemade 24×36 poster, and still use the 8.5×11 cutout pages.
On each day, you can color in the right number cutout for the day, which also connects with the country for the day. Then, you can find the corresponding number on calendar and tape or glue it on there.
Alternatively, you can just color in the advent calendar – either as a 24×36 size or as an 8.5×11 size. Or you can color in the advent calendar first, and then tape the colored country cutout on top for double the fun! (These are my absolute favorite colored pencils, as well as our very beloved pencil sharpener.)
However you use it, it will be a fun, daily way to remember others around the world and perfect for adding a little magic to your holiday season.
We’d love to get as many families as possible involved in spreading goodness and learning this holiday season. We’d love if you’d share with your family and friends. Or you can print out a copy, tie a ribbon on it, and hand it out as a wonderful neighbor gift!
If you share it on Instagram, please tag me (@localpassportfamily) and Becca (@hadleydesigns). If you’d like, you can also use the hashtag #globalserviceadvent. We can’t wait to see your families enjoying them!
I hope it’s a fantastic way for your family to follow along with these virtual travel activities and service ideas for kids. And more than anything, we hope it fosters understanding and compassion, and sparks anti-racist action inside and outside our homes.
Want to make sure you get all the global service advent updates on service opportunities, organizations doing good, and fun virtual travel activities? Pop your email in here and you’ll get all the info right to your inbox!
