We had a great introduction to Geography week!
Some of the things we learned about:
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Hello to All The Children of the World song
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Prayed for lost souls of the world
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Read: Maps and Globes by Jack Knowllton
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Learned about the earth, animals, and cycles of nature
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Made a paper Mache’ globe
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Memorized the continents and oceans
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Issued Passports for our Journey
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Discussed Matthew 28:18-20 ―All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Here are some of the activities we managed to get pictures of:
We always start each day with the Pledge of Allegiance and thank God for our country.
Learning about maps and globes:
We learned the names of the countries and oceans and played the Geography Hopscotch Game from Spell Out Loud:
Of course we made our paper Mache’ Earth, by the way, this is really more of an “outside” activity in case any of you were getting ready to try it! I’ll post more details of this craft later on.
We sang our “Hello to all the children of the world” song. This one was so fun, I can’t get it out of my head… “Hello, Bonjour, Buenos dias…G’Day, Guten Tag, Konnichiwa…Ciao, Shalom, Dobre Dyen….Hello to all the children of the world!”
We made maps, my son chose our garage, and is pointing to my van on his map.
Finally, we decorated and issued passports to all of the new World Travelers!
The only mishap for the first day of school was this:
One of our chairs didn’t quite make it through the day thanks to my son who can’t seem to keep the feet of his chair on the floor. And I’ll have you know, that being it was the FIRST day of school, I didn’t even lose my cool! Praise God for that because part of me wanted to ;o)
For more detailed lesson plans and to learn more about our Geography Curriculum click here!
Stay tuned next week to learn what we are doing for China!
I felt obliged to leave a comment here about Erica’s Expedition Earth, just in case someone else ends up in the same boat as I. Before the year began I bought a “big name” curriculum that was a little over 300.00 and at the time was very excited because I read all the reviews. I even built up the children, when our school year began we dove in with great expectation and was very much let down! The TM advertised that it would be ALL you need to have a great year, but I found at the beginning that I had to supplement things, so we would have the “meat” of what the subject of the curriculum advertised to be! Let me say this that if you do not have a good library in your town you will not find the books recommended, and will have to research other books on the topic.
Through the third country I was upset! I did not want to spend more money on this subject because it took my entire budget for the year; I had to scrap together money for Math and Language arts, which was all the extra you needed! (which the curriculum is short on other areas also). I went back and forth on what to do. I finally broke down and excepted that it was God’s will in the first place to order Erica’s curriculum, (I went against this at first just because the other was a “big name”) I used an extra 15.00 and bought and down loaded Erica’s curriculum and I am excited again! Her curriculum has the “meat” I was looking for, I have to admit that I will be supplementing with other things I have found and some of the first curriculum but it doesn’t need this, The curriculum can very much stand along especially if you use her Discovering God’s Animals for science which is FREE.
Erica has done it again, she has saved my sanity! She truly has been an answer to my prayers, if I would have listened in the first place.
To be fair I will say this about the “other” curriculum (if you are looking for this subject you will know the one to which I refer)
The other goes in depth in praying for missionaries with a book, but it is not always the exact country in which you are learning which proved confusing to my children. Erica’s has a pray time for the same.
We love the art book that came with the other curriculum, but you can use the same art book with Erica’s or choose to use her art projects.
The other curriculum uses an Answers in Genesis science book, which I love, but is not a good fit with younger children. But the same book can be used with Erica’s if you have an older child; Erica’s science with animals is a perfect fit with younger children just as she claims.
The World Geography book that comes with the other curriculum is a good fit with older children as it claims, but again if you have older children they can do this book right along with the simpler pages Erica provides with her curriculum.
And if what caught your eye with the other curriculum was the learning through reading, you can do the same type of “basket” with Erica’s curriculum!
So what it comes down to is Erica offers the same subject including the “meat” for FAR, FAR, cheaper! From one homeschooler on a budget to the next! Please check it out before spending a lot of money, it is worth it!
PS. The Bible the other curriculum offers was not nearly enough for us we ended up reading the verses like planned and then supplemented with another curriculum.
I wish I’d read this comment earlier in the year! We’re into our second country with this same curriculum and I feel exactly the same as brandy. I also bought expedition earth and am now using it alongside the other. The “other” needs the supplementing, not expedition earth! So glad I found this! We were headed for a disappointing year! Thank you!!!
Hi Erica, I was just wondering how often you would recommend doing this? i.e. Is it a five day a week, 1 hour a day curriculum, or less or more? Just trying to see if I can fit it in with our busy schedule this year. I have been making my own country lapbooks but am thinking this will save me lots of time (and in the end am sure money!) Blessings Lisa
This looks like so much fun! I’ve been looking for geography ideas but they only thing that has peaked my interest so far is Little Passports. But I am really trying to stay on budget. I love your ideas, they look super fun. I look forward to exploring your blog and seeing what else I can copy. LOL.
Heya.
I began teaching it last year using a town map in order to teach it well. In the first few lessons I used a map of town to help the children understand a map. I also discussed the map features as well. We then looked at a map of Britain and the entire world too. Good luck. It is nice to meet you.
Part of one lesson was dedicated to finding out about map symbols. Half of one single lesson was spent on doing a map of our houses. Another task involved creating a map in colour. I created a short quiz based on maps for my pupils to answer. I got them to decide what to include. That was fun. As part of the topic we traveled by train.
The third exercise meant that the children had to produce a written article on map uses. Other activities involve making a map in different colours and producing a fact file on a town. We also did a ton of orienteering and finding out about the history of maps. They even did a short article on a country in question here and made a fact book. The children really have now studied their own area.