World Geography

Our co-op has decided to do a World Geography class this semester. Personally, I love learning about new places and am very excited about this class. It is my hope that the kids will find it interesting and fun. Here is a sample of the lessons that we will be doing:

Central and South America
1. Welcome to Central and South America! How long do you think it would take to get to one of these countries by plane? By car? By foot?
2. What do we already know about this area of the world? Teacher should list students’ comments on the board as they offer them.
a. Language
b. Religion
c. Politics
d. Food
e. Education
f. Traditions
3. Let’s see if we can learn new things about our neighbors! Pass out the outline map of Central and South America. Have students fill in the country names and color each country a different color. Point out interesting countries and facts about them as you discuss. For example: Panama/Panama Canal, Ecuador/Galapagos Island, and Brazil/Amazon River.
-Have the students make a special color for these areas on their map.
4. Are there any interesting land forms in this area of our world that make it interesting? South America has some of the highest mountains (outside of Asia) in the world: Consult http://www.scaruffi.com/travel/tallest.html. It also has some of the longest rivers in the world: Consult http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/geography/longestriverstable.htm . They also are home to some of the rain forests of the world: Consult http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/krubal/rainforest/Edit560s6/www/where.html .
Central (Mesoamerica) and South America
1. Angel Falls- highest free flowing waterfalls in the world
2. Atacama Desert- one of the driest deserts on Earth
3. Amazon River Delta- largest Aquifer in the world
4. Amazon Rain Forest- provides largest amount of timber and medicinal plants
5. Chile- largest producer of fruits and vegetables to North, South and Mesoamerica
6. Tierra del Fuego- most southern tip of South America in Argentina, closest land to Antarctica
7. Patagonia- sparsely vegetated plains in southern portion of South America in Chile and Argentina
8. Andes Mountains- highest mountain range in western hemisphere, site of the 1972 plane crash with Rugby team, longest exposed mountain range in world.
9. Panama Canal- Completed by United States and Panamanian Government in 1914, it saves over 18,000 miles by water to go from New York to California.
10. Called Latin America because all of the non-native, spoken languages are derived from Latin. Calling someone Hispanic is actually not appropriate because to be Hispanic you must come from the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic). There are several different dialects of Spanish spoken in Central and South America and a Spanish speaker from Chile or Argentina would have a very difficult time communicating with a Spanish speaker from Cuba.

5. Have the students create a map key with distinctions for each of these and illustrate them on their map as well.
6. Let’s take a look at another important part of Geography- “Human Movement” (Natural Resources). Where do the products we use originate? Invite students to collect labels from foods, clothing, toys, and other products they use. Where do those products come from? What percentages of those products are made in your state? Your country? Other continents? Are we dependent on products from all around the world? Talk about how products made outside your community might get there. Now that we have an idea of what Central and South America looks like, let’s see what natural resources they have to offer.
a. Central America has natural resources of copper, gold, silver, and zinc.
b. South America has natural resources of coffee beans, cocoa beans, bananas, timber, rubber, gold, bauxite, spices, and salt.
7. Have students incorporate their maps and a list of natural resources into their travel guide for Central and South America.

After this introduction to the Continent, we will then discuss the culture of the region and focus on a holiday from this area while comparing it to the US. For example, while we are studying Central and South America we will look at the Carnival celebration in Brazil and how does that compare to the US celebration of Lent. As a follow up to the culture discussion, we will have the students create a craft from this area of the world. For Central and South America we will create maracas!

As a culmination of the area study of Central and South America, we will ask each student to bring in a dish native to this area and the class will participate in a International Food Court. I think that the kids will love this! After the kids dig in, we will have a guest speaker from this region discuss their culture and homeland with the kids. I am blessed to have great friends from the three regions that we will be learning about (Africa, Central and South America, and Asia) that will be our speakers! I am very excited to hear what they have to share.

I always want my children to have something tangible to bring home from their classes and this is no different. I have created a Travel Guide for the students to create in conjunction with what they are learning in class. I have uploaded the file to HS Launch for others to download. I am hoping that the kids will enjoy choosing pictures from the region to included in their guide and sharing them with their class.

While doing my research for this curriculum, I have come across a few great geography sites that might be helpful if you are studying this subject.

http://www.learningtreasures.com/geography.htm
http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/edgeography.htm
http://www.mandarintools.com/chinesename.html
http://www.ibike.org/library/africakids.htm
http://www.africaguide.com/cooking.htm
http://family.go.com/food/article-224973-asian-recipes-t/
http://www.wisedude.com/misc/continents.htm
http://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/geography-activities.html
http://player26.narrowstep.tv/nsp.aspx?player=globe_trekker&ref=pilot_web
http://indianchild.com/Recipes/indian_recipes_index.htm
http://www.africaourafrica.com/content/Interesting-places-in-Africa?page=1
http://www.africaourafrica.com/content/Interesting-places-in-Africa?page=1
http://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/kids-geography.html
http://www.mapmsg.com/games/statetris/usa/
http://www.postcrossing.com/
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/South_and_Central_American_Geography.htm
http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/Samerica.html
http://www.travelforkids.com/
http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/testmaps/maps.htm
http://www.edupics.com/en-coloring-pages-pictures-photo-geography-c143.html
http://www.tlsbooks.com/geographyworksheets.htm
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/uploads/j/jacaud/105960.pdf
http://www.gamequarium.org/dir/SqoolTube_Videos/Social_Studies/Geography/
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/globaltrek/
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/country_lapbook.php
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/education/ideas.htmlv
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Places/
http://www.travellerspoint.com/pcindex.cfm
http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/WebLinks/weblinks-geographygeology.htm
http://www.squidoo.com/JapanUnitStudy
http://tagfoot.com/jimmie/bookmarks/geography
http://www.squidoo.com/MexicoAdventure

Okay- so it is a lot of web sites!:0) I do not know when to stop!

I hope that you enjoy your study!

Explorers Lapbook

I decided to create this lapbook for my kids to do over the summer. I found this great book at the library called Look it up Explorers, and I used it as the basis for my lapbook. I decided to divide the section into the Americas, Africa/Asia/Australia, and Artic/Antarctic.

For each section I made small matchbooks with different explorers on each one. I made my list of explorers using the book above. My intention is for my kids to read the section on each explorer and write important facts about them in the matchbook. Also, for each section I mad a fold up book with a map of their region inside. My plan is to have the kids track the voyages of each explorer in a different color.

As a second thought (and because I had extra room), I decided to include small books on different related topics. For example, with the Americas section I included books on the Incas and Aztecs, Sacajawea, and Scurvy. For Africa, Asia, and Australia I made small books on The Crusades, The Nile River, Confucianism, Buddhism, Easter Island, and The Great Wall of China. For the Artic/Antarctic I included books on Icebergs, Inuit People, Penguins, and Dog Sleds.

The lapbook is not tremendously in depth but for summer work it will do just fine for us. I hope you enjoy.

To help me make this book I used the homeschoolshare site because they have a wide variety of lapbook templates and Google Images. Sorry all of my pictures are sideways!:)

Safari Lapbook

My youngest child is wild about animals. His primary interest is in the animals from Africa. While I was trying to create the different lapbooks for my other kids, he wanted one for himself. After some thought, he decided that he wanted a "Safari Lapbook". Well, I wasn't sure what that exactly was but I tried to put together a little something that could pass as a safari lapbook.

Since most of the animals that he is interested in reside in Africa, I first started with a map of Africa with each country defined. I got this map from a Google images search of "map of Africa". My original concept was to have the map of Africa in the middle and have a pocket for various countries that held some of the animals found in those countries. I thought for a while about how to arrange the file folders to accommodate such a large space and then decided to make use of that extra poster board in the closet!:)

When you open the lapbook I wanted to have something where we could talk about how you get to Africa. I wanted to make sure he understood that it is not down the street!:) I used a lapbook template from Homeschoolshare http://www.homeschoolshare.com/lapbooking_resources.php#Templates_Listed_by_Divisions_)

and Google images for the clip art safari guide.

After further opening the book, you will find a T book where we highlighted the "big five" animals found in Africa. Again I used a template for the book from Homeschoolshare and Google images for the pictures of the animals. Son #3 cut and pasted these in place. I had fun making the little road for this section. Silly, I know, because I am not sure there is actually black top roads in the safari but it is cute in the book! I used actual street signs from Africa for the street signs along the road. Again, Google images helped me out there.

Now for the main part- when the lapbook is fully opened you can see the map of Africa and the large matchbooks for the various countries. No rhyme or reason for my selection of the countries. Many I chose them so that I could spread them out around the map. I used a couple of great sites for the animal images. Majority of them were from the country I was focusing on for that matchbook.

http://www.africaguide.com/wildlife/index.htm

http://www.animalinfo.org/country/chad.htm

http://www.animalinfo.org/country/nigeria.htm

http://www.sa-venues.com/wildlife/wildlife_crocodile.htm

http://www.kenyatravelideas.com/kenya-animals.html

http://www.sa-venues.com/wildlife/

http://www.wildmadagascar.org/wildlife/animals.html

http://www.wildegypt.com/

http://www.selamta.net/wildlife.htm

Ultimately, my goal is for Son #3 to write about each animal on the back of their card. Hopefully, as we continue in our geography studies, we can add more animals and maybe more countries.