Geography: the North American Continent

We just completed a week long study of the North American Continent. Here is a summary of what we covered:

We read various books on North America, some of which appear at the end of the post. Added to those at the end of the post are: Atlas of North America by Karen Foster and North America by Katie Bagley.

Rylan completed this North American themed math worksheet which I made for him. It can be downloaded here if you would like to use.

We made and ate Mexican food. We were out running errands all day Thursday and had to stop at McDonalds for lunch, I suppose that could count as American food, right (or just bad food!)? :P

We listened to various Putamayo CDs, the selection can be seen at the end of the post.

Rylan put together a North America poster based on our learning, which included a map, people of North America, animals of North America, and a fact sheet. We also added the USA flag that Rylan had colored during the week.

We made dream catchers (Native American) and read about what they are and how they are used (here is a tutorial on how to make them).

We added the Baha’i places of significance in North America to our wall of Baha’i Holy Places and Houses of Worship around the world.

We read about children of North America in Children Just Like Me.

We read the story from North America (the American Southwest) entitled “She Who Is Alone” from the book The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales. We also read a few stories from Around the World in 80 Tales, which I have to admit I edited somewhat, since some of the stories in that book are a bit (or a lot) mean spirited.

Rylan completed some pages in the Around the World Coloring Book.

To see our previous continent studies, click on these links: Africa, Asia, Europe.

This has been added to: Show&Tell and Preschool Corner & 5K too.

Geography: learning about Europe

As always, we started our new continental study with looking back on our travels, this time through Europe – Rylan has travelled in England and Italy (oh, how I would love to spend a few weeks in Italy again…).

{Rylan (18 months at the time) pointing to the intricate ceiling inside the Vatican, Rome, Italy…I believe his exact words were, “Mommy, WOW!”}

Our learning activities included:

• Reading the True Book “Europe”. I read it to the boys over the course of the week, we stopped to discuss and research more in depth certain aspects of the book as we went along. At the end of the week I gave Rylan the assignment of reading the book again himself while I put Damian down for a nap, then I gave him a short oral quiz (styled like a game) to see how much he remembered.
  
• We made and ate European food…to be honest this is no great thing in our home! A lot of European styled dishes are a part of our ordinary diet, especially Italian pastas!
  
• We watched Celtic Woman and the Riverdance together.
  
• We listened to various Putamayo CDs with a European flavor, you can see the list at the end of this post.
  
• We put together a European poster based on all our learning, which included a map, places of significance, people of Europe, and a fact sheet.

• We practiced our Spanish (since this is the second language we are learning in school) and learned how to say hello in other European languages.
  
• We added Baha’i places of significance in Europe to our wall.
  
  
• We read about children of Europe in Children Just Like Me.
  
• Rylan built the Eifel Tower out of Lego for fun.

To see our previous continental studies click on these links: Africa and Asia.

This has been added to Preschool Corner and 5K too.

Geography: Asia Study

Over the past couple of weeks we have been studying Asia as a part of our general introduction into world geography (then we will go on to specific countries). Before our summer break we had just completed Africa.

We have had so much fun studying about Asia, I have to say that geography is fast becoming one of my favorite subjects to do with Rylan (and Damian joined us for many of the activities too). Here is a list of the activities we did and the resources we used:

• We read the True Book: Asia together and created a fact sheet from it. We also read parts of several country specific picture books.

• We read about children living in Asia in Children Just Like Me.
  
  
• We colored and labeled a map of Asia.
  
  
• Rylan drew pictures of some Asian animals and colored in a Japanese lion mask.
  
  
• I printed off pictures of Asian people from Google images, and Rylan cut them out and glued them onto our Asia poster, as we discussed where the people came from.
  
  
• We put together an Asian poster of all the info we collected above, to put up in our school area.

• We read folktales from various Asian countries (some are in the book list shared at the end of this post).
  
  
• We listened to Asian music (see recommendations below) and learnt how to say hello in several of the languages (a fun song to use is the “Rapp Song” on the DVD Hooray for the World! by Red Grammer).
  
  
• We ate Asian food. I made khoresh bademjoon (a Persian dish), the boys helped me make fresh humus (Israeli/Arab food), we went out to a Chinese restaurant, we made havesh polo (a Persian styled rice with carrots), and we also ate a Japanese inspired meal together.
  
  
• I put together an Asian sensory tub for the boys to play with, in rice of course! I had envisioned a lot more going into this tub, but Asian items proved hard to find on this little island!
  
  
• We made Chinese lamps and origami sea creatures. We were also going to make a Japanese kite, but didn’t get round to it with the flu bug visiting our home during that week!

• We used our homemade tangram set (tangrams originated in Asia).
  
  
• Rylan completed Asian themed math worksheets, which I shared for download here.
  
  
• Asia is of special significance to Bahá'ís, since it is the birth place of our religion (much like all the other major religions in the world), so we read stories about the beginning of our Faith, learnt about pilgrimage (which Rylan has been on, but was very young), and we also started to create a wall of pictures and facts about Bahá'í places of significance, which we will add to as a part of our “travel” through the continents.

• We had fun going down memory lane as we looked through our pictures from our seven years of life in Israel.

{setting off on a several hour camel ride through the mountains along the Red Sea…that’s Grandpa with the cap on}

Website resources:

• Asia Kids Society
  
• GEO Puzzles - Asia
  
• Printable worksheets for use with Children Just Like Me: from Jolanthe at the Homeschool Classroom

Learning About Africa Part 2 (printables included)

So I am finally getting round to posting part 2 of our African Studies (part 1 here). I have been putting it off because I knew I would have to gather various images, books, and info and honestly, I feel like I am leaving something out, but hey, at least you'll get the general idea of what we covered! We started by reading general information/facts about the African continent and then we cut and paste this poster together with the facts and images we found in our research. Rylan also colored and labeled a continental map and some African animal coloring sheets I found for him online. Rylan put together this South African flag puzzle that I made for him, and we glued it onto the poster as well. After going through this book, Rylan built the included African savannah diorama.

For maths work with an African flavor I created these "African Addition Worksheets" which you can download here if you are interested in using them.

I also made these "African animal skip counting worksheets" which you can download here.

I put together some African themed writing practice, using this site.

Rylan completed this word maze after reading Lions at Lunchtime with Dad (bedtime reading). I downloaded it from a teacher resource site, but I cannot find the link for it right now!

We took a close look at all the African art we have in our home - my husband and I collected many beautiful pieces before leaving Africa. We have various stone, metal, and wood carvings, bead work, woven baskets, small pieces of furniture, drums, clay pots, and even a clay mask hanging over our television. After this Rylan made an African mask himself:

We also listened to African music and read many picture and non-fiction books, most of which can be viewed in the carousels below. I had planned to cook up an African meal, but we didn't get round to that, we may do it sometime in the near future, but I am kind of hoping my sister-in-laws will send us some biltong instead! ;)

This has been addded to: Preschool Corner & 5K too

Learning About Africa Part 1: the reminiscing

We have begun to learn about the different continents as a general introduction to world geography, before moving onto specific countries, and we started with Africa. We have been having fun with the African theme for the past couple of weeks now. In another post I will share with you what we have done, but first a little reminiscing...see although I was born and spent my first 6 years in the US, I grew up in and did all my schooling in Southern Africa (well, except for 2 years in middle school which I did in Israel, and my masters degree, which I completed in Switzerland...but those are altogether different stories). So, I thought it would be fun to start this section out by taking a little walk down memory lane with Rylan, so he could see what our life was like in Africa. My husband also grew up Southern Africa, and we spent the first five years of our married life there before moving to Israel.

Rylan loved looking at all the pictures, especially since my husband and I spent a great deal of time in animal reserves, and Rylan loves the animals! I thought it would be fun to share some of his favorite photos with you. See the mama and baby giraffees behind me? We were walking inside a private reserve owned by the company my husband worked for. It was just a 5 minute drive from our home!

Playing with lion cubs - this was in another private reserve about 20 minutes from our home. In the picture below, one of the lion cubs jumped up on Ramtin's back and started licking the back of his neck, which was red for two days afterwards, their tongues are like rough sandpaper!

Me holding little 6 week old Lucky, a lion cub who had been rejected by his mother because he was the runt of the litter. He was raised by people until old enough to be returned to the wild. We got to watch a lot of his growing up. We often used to go have a Sunday brunch at this reserve, and he would sit under the table at our feet while we ate, and let me tell you, not a single time did we return home without Ramtin missing a shoe lace! Lucky used to love chewing on those shoe laces. :)
Rylan thought this one was really funny...not so much at the time...a bull elephant charging our car!

We are not the only ones who have been in African animal reserves, however, little Rylan has gone on his own safari. When we has two and half we went back for a visit, and made sure to take him to Kruger National Park for a week. He loved seeing the animals up close in the wild. This baboon jumped on the back of our car, and Rylan put his hand on the glass, and the baboon put his hand against Rylan's through the glass (I enjoyed that moment and forgot the camera, this shot was just before that happened).

Thank you for walking down memory lane with us!