Sunday, August 5, 2012

Traveling the World–Introduction to Geography

Over the last two weeks, we began our two year study of the world!  We had a great first two weeks of introduction to geography. The main resources that we are using are Expedition Earth from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  This is loaded with hands-on projects, printables, and more!  We are also using Galloping the Globe.  

Alexis and Josiah are both excited to learn about many different countries.  I issued them their very own passports that will be stamped with the flags of the countries as we “travel” to them. 

Here are a few things that I managed to capture this week.

They had LOADS of fun making a paper-mache globe!  2012-07-24 12.17.52


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The learned the names and locations of the seven continents and five oceans by singing them to the tune of “Oh My Darling.” 

We began the week by talking about the Creation of the world.  They worked on pages for their Earth lapbook, which I do not have pictures of.

Books we read included: Me on the Map, Follow that Map, and How to make an Apple Pie and See the World.

After reading, Me on the Map, they found their own “place on the map.”  Thanks to TeachMama for the printables!  They worked together on this projects.  Josiah did most of the cutting, and Alexis did the writing.  This activity helped Alexis with learning the difference between continents, countries, towns, and states.  A lot of this was still over Josiah’s head, but he is still picking up things and learning.  Our layers include: My Planet, My Continent, My Country, My State, My City, My Street, and My Home.

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Josiah really enjoyed the mapping books!  He has always loved to play with maps and always asks questions related to directions. Whenever we are in the car, he wants to hold a map or the gps.   From a very young age, he could tell when we were headed in a wrong direction.  Now, he says things like, “Why are we headed West?”  

With our studies, I plan to use as many Five in a Row books as I can.  This week, we used “How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.”  There were so many things to do with this book that we could have spent a few more weeks with it!  They both enjoyed this story very much! I found many ideas on Homeschool Share.

We used printables from Homeschool Share to create a scene from the book.  They love whenever I bring out a big roll of paper.  They spent a a long time working together to make their scene!


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Baking our very first apple pie was great practice with reading a recipe and practicing fractions.  It was also great practice for my patience Smile  I didn’t manage to get any pictures of the process!

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Afterwards, we had an Apple Pie Party!  They invited family over to share their pie with.  The scene that they painted and the paper-mache globe made great decorations.  They sang their Continents and Oceans song and Alexis read “How to Make and Apple Pie and See the World” for our guests to hear! 

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First, we will be traveling to Asia!  When I told the kids that we would be studying China first, Alexis said, “Lots of things are made in China!”  Stay tuned for more world travels!

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