South and Central America week for the Global Service Advent is sponsored by Cotopaxi.
Join us as we journey to the incredible country of Venezuela! During this virtual tour of Venezuela for kids, we’ll enjoy fun and inspiring Venezuela activities. This Venezuela virtual field trip is a perfect way to explore and also serve the world right from home during this holiday season!
You can find the full list of countries for the global children’s advent right HERE. Be sure to sign up for the email list to get all the information in advance and to receive fun extras!
Don’t miss the global service opportunities, teaching moments, and giveaways with the Global Service Advent!
Get your FREE Printable Global Service Advent Coloring Calendar here!
Here’s the 2020 Global Service Advent schedule!
Here’s the Global Service Advent Printable Book List!
This Venezuela virtual tour contains affiliate links, but all opinions are 100% my own. That means I earn a small commission if you purchase through my link, but doesn’t change your price.
Venezuela Activities for Kids and Service Ideas
Table of Contents
SERVE AROUND THE WORLD
Featured Organization Doing Good: International Rescue Committee x Cotopaxi
Cotopaxi‘s grant to the International Rescue Committee has helped to:
- Provide child protection services to over 2,000 crisis-affected individuals, including children, adolescents, and their caregivers.
- Give cash assistance to more than 9,000 Venezuelans, Colombian returnees, and vulnerable members of host communities.
- Provide medical services to over 10,000 people, mostly children and women, including primary health care and sexual and reproductive health services.
- Implement gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response activities, reaching more than 1,000 women.
- Start operations from a new field office in Soacha, Cundinamarca, expanding our reach in Colombia.
- Start activities in two new sectors: education in Colombia, and cash assistance in Venezuela.
- Grow our program and double our staff count to ensure we provide timely and quality services despite the programming challenges we face because of COVID-19. We have managed to increase the percentage of Venezuelan staff from 17% to 25%, in line with our commitment to have a more diverse and inclusive team.
How Families Can Help in Venezuela
- Consider if there’s some way you can donate or fundraise at least $1 for the IRC. Here are some ideas for either fundraising online or outdoors:
- Sell 4 cups of lemonade
- Sing a holiday song in a parking lot and collect donations
- Host a virtual IRC fundraiser
- Teach a 10 minute kids class on Zoom (baking? LEGO building? Star Wars origami?)
- Contact members of Congress to keep asylum seekers safe.
- Search for and sign up for a volunteer opportunity with IRC.
- Donate a rescue gift, such as a year of school or a soap kit.
- Simple service at home:
- Put together a kit for a refugee family in your own community.
- Listen to the story of this refugee escape
- Consider if there are any gently used items in your home you could donate to your local IRC chapter
Supporting Individuals in Venezuela
- Purchase Venezuelan art
- Take a virtual cooking class on Venezuelan Empanadas
- Take a Venezuelan music lesson
- Attend a joropo class
VENEZUELA ACTIVITIES: LANGUAGE ARTS
Featured Venezuela Book
Wings and Dreams: The Legend of Angel Falls by by Irania Macias Patterson (Author) and Catherine Courtland McElvane (Author)
Author Read Aloud
Wings and Dreams: The Legend of Angel Falls Picture Book Discussion Questions
Other Venezuela Books for Kids
Languages in Venezuela: Venezuela Activities for Language Arts
Spanish is the language spoken by the majority of Venezuelans. Chinese, Portuguese and Italian are the most spoken languages in Venezuela after the official language of Spanish.
VENEZUELA SOCIAL STUDIES: VENEZUELA VIRTUAL TOUR OF HISTORY & LANDMARKS
Venezuela History
Basic Facts
- The capital of Venezuela is Caracas.
- The official name is the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (República Bolivariana de Venezuela) .
- Nicolás Maduro is the current President of Venezuela.
- Venezuela is located at the northern end of South America.
- Venezuela is bounded by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Guyana to the east, Brazil to the south, and Colombia to the southwest and west.
- Spanish is the language spoken by the majority of Venezuelans. Chinese, Portuguese and Italian are the most spoken languages in Venezuela after the official language of Spanish.
- The currency in Venezuela is Venezuelan bolivar. $1 USD = VEF 9.98750 Venezuelan Bolivares
- Venezuela has only two seasons: Summer and Winter (dry and rainy season). Rainy season goes from May to November. The rest of the year is summer.
- About 88 % of the population is Christian, primarily Roman Catholic (71%), and the remaining 17% is Protestant.
- The biggest industries in Venezuela are oil and heavy industry products, like steel, cement and aluminum.
Venezuela Fun Facts
- Venezuela has a fairly authoritarian government that strictly manages food shopping. Residents may only shop on certain days of the week depending on their ID card numbers.
- Venezuela has the cheapest gas prices in the world.
- Canaima National Park, which houses Angel Falls, is one of the largest national parks in the world.
- Venezuela is the first country to stop using the death penalty.
- Between December 16-24th each year, the roads in Caracas are closed to allow people to roller skate to Christmas mass.
- Venezuela has had a significant humanitarian crisis, which has just gotten worse since the 2018 election. Many refugees are fleeing the country due to unemployment and poverty. The emergency has become even worse with the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before, there was already a medicine and healthcare shortage, which has only gotten worse. Many medical staff are leaving, and infant and maternal mortality rates are skyrocketing.
Warning: This video may be better suited to older children and adults due to the distressing nature of some of the challenges within the country.
Map of Venezuela
Color in Venezuela on this map of South America!
Venezuela Flag Activity
Flag from HERE
HERE is a fun printable Venezuela flag coloring sheet!
Venezuela Virtual Tour to Featured Landmarks
Angel Falls
Angel Falls is the highest uninterrupted waterfall in the world! Its Spanish name is Salto Angel, and the name in the indigenous Pemon language is Kerepakupai Meru, which means “waterfall of the deepest place.” The waterfall is 3,212 feet high – over half a mile! – and has a plunge of 2,648 ft. The waterfall is within the Canaima National Park in Venezuela at the brink of the Auyán-tepui mountain.
National Pantheon of Venezuela
The National Pantheon of Venezuela (Panteón Nacional de Venezuela) is a burial site national heroes. Near the city of Caracas, there used to be an old and ruined church, so the Pantheon was created there in the 1970s.
Featured Important Venezuelan Person: Simon Bolivar
Simon Bolivar was a Venezuelan soldier who led many of the South American revolutions for independence from the Spanish. He was called El Libertador, or the Liberator. He was a military and political leader who eventually helped what are now 6 countries become independent: Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama.
At the height of his rule, Bolivar led an area from the Argentine border all the way to the Caribbean Sea. He fought over 100 battles and rode nearly 50,000 miles on horseback during his campaigns for independence. That’s 10x more than Hannibal, 3x more than Napoleon, and 2x more than Alexander the Great!
VENEZUELA ACTIVITIES: ARTS & CULTURE
Featured Venezuelan Artist: Carolina Herrera
Carolina Herrera is a Venezuelan fashion designer. She is known for having a beautiful but unfussy style. She is also famous for having dressed numerous United States First Ladies.
Carolina became “accustomed to seeing pretty things” after her grandmother took her to fashion shows and purchased her clothing from expensive designers. Here’s her spring 2020 runway show!
Venezuelan Craft & Culture Activity for Kids: Angel Falls Art Craft for Kids
Angel Falls Art Craft for Kids
Print or view a landscape of Angel Falls before doing the “waterfall” painting.
Materials
- Paint
- Pipettes
- White construction paper
- Small cups or jars
- Smocks (optional)
- Easel (or just prop up your paper somehow)
- Choose different shades of blue (or mix up different tints by adding different amounts of white). Place paint in small cups or jars. Thin slightly with water so it is a pipeable consistency.
- Fill pipettes with different shades of blue.
- With paper upright, pipe color from the top of the page so it drips down like a waterfall!
Carolina Herrera Fashion Design Art Project
Take a look at some of the looks designed by Carolina Herrera over the years, especially for the First Ladies of the United States. Here’s a wedding dress she designed for Caroline Kennedy. What are some similarities between the dresses? Has anything remained consistent over the years? What has changed?
Materials
- Construction paper
- Pencil
- Oil pastels
- Imagine you are Carolina Herrera. Using your pencil, sketch an outfit for today’s President or First Lady.
- Fill in and shade with oil pastels.
Other Venezuela Activities for Kids
VENEZUELA ACTIVITIES: MUSIC & MOVEMENT
Venezuela Movement Activities
Baseball is the most popular sport in Venezuela and the professional league started in 1945.
Toros Coleados
Toros coleados is also popular. It is similar to a rodeo, with cowboys on horses. They’re often side events, often when a religious festival is taking place.
Venezuelan Folk Dance: Joropo
Venezuelan Music
SCIENCE + MATH
Cooking activity, Venezuelan animals
Venezuelan Foods
Featured Venezuelan Food: Venezuelan Recipes for Kids
- Arepas are prime Venezuelan street food. An arepa is a bit like a corn pita filled with anything from beans and cheese to meat or eggs. Leftovers are popular filings!
- Pabellón criollo is the Venezuelan version of the traditional South American rice/beans/meat plate. This version uses a stewed meat, rice, and black beans.
- If you’d prefer something for breakfast, perico is Venezuelan scrambled eggs with onion.
- Cocada is a delicious and refreshing coconut smoothie-like drink!
- Finally, this Venezuelan coconut pudding looks simple and yummy!
Animals in Venezuela
VIDEO + FURTHER LEARNING & DISCUSSION FOR VENEZUELA VIRTUAL TOUR
Kid Movies About Venezuela
Venezuela with Kids Discussion Questions
- If you were on your way to a special religious ceremony for a holiday, what would be your preferred way of getting there? Would you roller skate? Jog? Drive?
- If every other country were still using the death penalty, would you decide to stop using it?
- If food were rationed, what are some things you would do to ensure you could eat properly?
- Angel Falls has become very popular in recent years. What are some measures the country can take to protect the falls while still allowing visitors to enjoy them?
- Design your ideal arepa – what would you put inside it?
Thanks for Taking a Virtual Visit to Venezuela With Us!
We’ve loved putting together this resource to virtually visit Venezuela. We’d love to hear if you do any of these activities for a homeschooling Venezuela unit, or if you visit in person!
We hope to inspire curiosity and connection through exploring and learning, and we hope this guide helps you and your families. Please share any activities you do with us over on our Instagram. And we’d be delighted if you passed this Venezuela for kids virtual tour and homeschooling resource along to others, as well!
MORE POSTS
IF YOU LIKED THIS POST ABOUT VENEZUELA ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS, YOU MIGHT LIKE THESE POSTS TOO:
- Virtual Field Trips for Toddlers and Preschoolers
- Egypt Virtual Tour with Kids
- Our Favorite Kids Books About the World
NOT READY FOR A VENEZUELA HOMESCHOOLING UNIT QUITE YET? PIN THIS POST FOR LATER!
.svg){kind=link}
[…] Venezuela Virtual Field Trip […]
Thanks for this post, I learned alot also, the waterfall looks very amazing!