Showing posts with label Expedition Earth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Expedition Earth. Show all posts

Wednesday, 6 November 2013

If You Were Me And Lived In ... {Review}


This year Sir N and I have decided to recommence our Expedition Earth Journey.  It was such a blessing when a month ago Carole P. Roman mailed me four beautiful books from her If You Were Me and Lived In ... series.  I received the following four books
  1. If You Were me and Lived In... Mexico
  2. If you were me and lived in... France...
  3. If you were me and lived in... South Korea...
  4. If you were me and lived in ... Norway...

All four of these books are beautifully written and aimed at an elementary age range of pre-K to eight.  All the books follow the same  format which Sir N found engaging and I found a pleasure to read out loud to him.  These books are as the series title states an introduction to the cultures of different countries.  As a South African born New Zealander now living in Australia I can appreciate the subtle differences in culture and Carole has done an excellent job in helping children see that even though people are people all over the world there are certain things that make a country and it's people unique and that is their culture.

Inside each book
  • The country is introduced by way of a map with the capital city clearly marked.
  • Where it can be found in the world 
  • An interesting fact or two about the country or it's capital city.
  • The different names of boys and girls
  • An introduction to the language and money
  • A significant landmark
  • A common cuisine
  • Children's games
  • Historical fact
  • Pronunciation guide 
Here is a YouTube clip with a sneak peak of the inside of If You Were Me and Lived In ... Mexico


What we did
Each book follows the same format so  I will share what we did with one country as we did the same with all four.
  • I gathered some extra book resources from the library.
  • Filled in our passport
  • We read the book once each day and talked about a different aspect of the culture we had learned about
  • I had some minute books we filled these in with information from the book
  • When we read about the food eaten by the french, we read up in a children's cook book and then made some of our own.
  • We coloured in a French flag
  • Labeled a map of France finding the  Bay of Biscay and the capital city of Paris. The book had a full page map of France with a star indicating the capital of Paris.  I liked the map because it was not full of the normal clutter of maps. We did find reading the labeling of the map a little hard as it was a dark colour on a dark background.  I think this could be eliminated by using a more contrasting colour like white or bright yellow in order to see it clearer. 
  • Filled in a fact sheet about France

Details
If You Were me and Lived In... Mexico
Paperback: 26 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (March 22, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1480209627
ISBN-13: 978-1480209626 
Kindle $ 0.99
Paperback: $8.99

If you were me and lived in... South Korea...
Paperback: 28 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (June 14, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1481062344
ISBN-13: 978-1481062343
Kindle $ 0.99
Paperback: $8.99
If you were me and lived in... France...
Paperback: 26 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (May 2, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1481032003
ISBN-13: 978-1481032001
Kindle $ 0.99
Paperback: $8.99
If you were me and lived in ... Norway...
Series: A Child's Introduction to Cultures Around the World
Paperback: 30 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (September 12, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1481979949
ISBN-13: 978-1481979948 
Kindle $ 1.99
Paperback: $8.62


All in all we really enjoyed these books.  I found the pronunciation guide very handy and Sir N loved how each book had it's own unique symbol on each page. You could use these books independently with very young students to introduce them to the country.  If you were reading these to slightly older students they would make an excellent spine to your study.  You could use each double page spread as a theme of the day and expand the lesson with extra books from the library or information from the internet. Sir N's favourite item in our shipment was the inflatable ball globe that arrived.  He loves finding the countries on it.

Connect with the Author
Blessings
Chareen


Photobucket

Posted by at 1 comment:
Labels: , , ,

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

Expedition Earth: AFRICA - South Africa


To round off our recent trip to South Africa we did a slow walk through our next unit in the Expedition Earth series: South Africa.

We have spent a fair bit of time at Werribee Open Range Zoo (Night Zoo & Giraffe encounter) experiencing African Wildlife.

We were blessed with many wide and varied experiences while in South Africa
Resources  

Notebook Pages
Stories
Books
On the Net
Animals
Touching a Rhino at WORZ.

Milk Tart
Cooking
  • Milk Tart this is one of my favourite dishes from South Africa.
  • Babootie a traditional South African dish
Do you have any favourite resources for learning about South Africa ?
Blessings
Chareen

Here is a 4 min video of photo's Paul took on a trip to Africa a few years ago.


  • PS We pick and choose what to read from each site. We do NOT read every article in its entirety.  
  • Due to the every changing nature of the Internet please check that these sites are still safe before allowing your children on them.  
  • This post does not contain affiliate links. 
Linking with 
Grateful for Grace: What We're Learning
 Collage Friday over at Home Grown Learners,   
Favourite Resources at Learning All the Time.
Look what we did at  Home Grown Learners
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , ,

Thursday, 19 July 2012

South African Milk Tart

Milk Tart is one of my all time favourite tea time deserts. We are currently studying South Africa in our Expedition Earth series so wanted to share it here with you.

Recently while on holiday in South Africa  I asked my Mom in law to please teach me how she makes Milk Tart.

She shared with me that she makes the crusts well in advance and stores them in a cake tin for when ever she wants to make a milk tart. She either bakes them in a glass pie dish and removes and stores the crust or she bakes them in aluminium pie dishes and stores them in those.

Crust (I do not know how many this makes I think around two)

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
  • 1 egg
  • 4 ounces butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar

Method
  1. Cream butter and sugar
  2. Beat egg well and add to mix.  Mix well.
  3. Add dry ingredients and combine.
  4. Roll out and cut circle to line pie dish.
  5. Line pie dish(s) decorate edge with a fork.
  6. Prick the center
  7. Bake at 180'C till light brown (approx 10 Min)


Filling (This is enough filling for ONE tart)
  • 2 cups Milk
  • 6 teaspoons sugar
  • 5 ml vanilla Essence
  • 1 Tablespoon butter
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 teaspoon corn flour
  • 2 teaspoons flour
  • 2 eggs beaten well.

Method
  1. Gently heat milk in pan with sugar, vanilla, butter and salt.
  2. While the milk is heating, add a splash of milk to a jug and mix corn flour and flour in the jug till no lumps are present.
  3. Add eggs and mix well.
  4. Once Milk is warm and all sugar is dissolved just before it boils pour in the flour/egg mix while whisking fast.
  5. Return to stove and cook till it thickens.
  6. Pour into crust and set aside to cool for 15 min
  7. Sprinkle with cinnamon and place in fridge to cool down completely.

Serve cold with afternoon tea.


What dessert / afternoon tea delight do you enjoy from your country ?

Blessings
Chareen






Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , , ,

Monday, 9 July 2012

A Tall Order Encounter

We are still using the Expedition Earth curriculum although at a much slower pace than before we left on our trip to South Africa.

We are studying South Africa at the moment. As part of our studies I asked Paul if we could please come to the zoo and meet the rhino (Open Vehicle Adventure) and giraffe (Tall Order Giraffe Encounter). On Saturday Lance graciously took us on an open Ute safari to meet his charges up close and personal.  I will let the photo's do the talking on this one.

Paul, Sir N Chareen and the six male giraffe at WORZ








Rhino skin feels very ruff like sand paper.



Words fail to express the amazing experience we had together as a family.

Blessings
Chareen
Posted by at 4 comments:
Labels: , ,

Monday, 9 April 2012

Expedition Earth - Kenya


We recently finished exploring Kenya and due to our adventure to Africa sneaking up on us faster than we thought,  we have not yet completed our notebook pages.

I wanted to share with you the resources we have used to learn about this beautiful country. I will update this page after we return from South Africa in June.

We are currently in transit to South Africa and would appreciate your prayers for safe travel.

Notebook Pages

The Resources we Used

Books
On the Net
Folktales from
Animals
Blessings
 Chareen 

PS We pick and choose what to read from each site. We do NOT read every article in its entirety.  
Due to the every changing nature of the Internet please check that these sites are still safe before allowing your children on them.
This post does not contain affiliate links. 


Linking with 
Grateful for Grace: What We're Learning
 Collage Friday over at Home Grown Learners,   
Favourite Resources at Learning All the Time.
Look what we did at  Home Grown Learners
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: ,

Wednesday, 28 March 2012

Expedition Earth: AFRICA - Morocco





What a beautiful country !  
I am inspired and would love to go here and explore.
We Learned
We experimented making repeating patterns.
We used Pattern Blocks from Sonlight.
  • Moroccan food tastes wonderful !
  • Morocco is known for it's ceramic tile designs.
  • The designs themselves are an act of worship and are in keeping with the Islamic law, humans or animals or plants are not to be depicted in art.
  • The kings castle has golden doors.
  • During Ramadan they don't eat during the day.
  • One sand dune is so tall it has a name. 
  • The Cascades d'Ouzoud waterfall is 100m.
  • Their colours are green and red.
  • Some one calls from the mosque minaret to announce prayer. This happens five times a day.
  • They speak Arabic in Morocco.
  • All children must go to primary school for six years. 
  • Only half the people can read and write.
  • They have a king in Morocco. Morocco is one of three kingdoms in Africa.
The Resources we Used
Books

Notebook Pages

On the Net

Folktales from Morocco
  •  Four Folktales We did not enjoy these however they were an interresting insight in the types of stories told.

Animals
Cooking
These biscuits were gorgeous.  We really like them.  We had to add extra oil as she says in the video.
 I took the two Moroccan dinner dishes and combined them to make a one pot meal.  I made the cous cous as a side rather than adding it.  It was delicious.

Blessings
 Chareen 

PS We pick and choose what to read from each site. We do NOT read every article in its entirety.  
Due to the every changing nature of the Internet please check that these sites are still safe before allowing your children on them.
This post does not contain affiliate links. 

Linking with 
Grateful for Grace: What We're Learning
 Collage Friday over at Home Grown Learners,   
Favourite Resources at Learning All the Time.
Look what we did at  Home Grown Learners
Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: , ,

Saturday, 17 March 2012

Expedition Earth: AFRICA - Nigeria


We learned:
  • Nigeria has the largest population in Africa
  • It has the largest butterfly diversity of any country.
  • Is home to a few endangered animal species.
  • Has the third largest river delta in the world.
  • Really enjoyed reading the folk tales from Nigeria.
  • The flag is green and white. The green means farming and the white means unity/peace.
  • The country is in Africa.
  • The children wear uniforms to school.
  • They speak English.
  • They pump oil and sell it to make fuel.
  • The capital is: Abuja.
One of the animals that we looked at this week is the Gorilla.  Werribee Open Range Zoo now has Gorilla's on site so I rang Paul yesterday morning and asked if we could come in and see the Gorilla's behind the scenes as a wrap up for our week in Nigeria.  He contacted those in charge who said YES.  So at 4 pm we were off to see Gorilla's up close and personal. All visitors have to wear masks. 

Just look at the size of his hand ! That's 2" weld mesh.
There are three Gorillas at WORZ.  They are fed by seperate keepers to prevent them arguing over the food.  Here is a 20 second clip of Paul feeding one. This one on one time is also used to check on the animals well being and keeps up with their daily training.





Paul feeding a Gorilla behind the scenes at WORZ


The Resources we Used

Books
Stories from Nigeria on the Internet
Some of our Notebook pages
Notebook Pages
**We do NOT use ALL pages but pick the ones we want.**

On the Internet
Animals
Cooking
Jollof Chicken & Rice

  • Suya (Nigerian Chicken Skewers)
  • Jollof Chicken and Rice really enjoyable meal will definitely make this again.
  • West African Benne Cakes over at Confessions of a Homeschooler My family really enjoyed these. We used greaseproof paper when baking which made it really easy to remove the biscuits. We baked them for 5-8 min any longer and they were over cooked.
West African Benne Cakes.
Blessings
 Chareen 
PS We pick and choose what to read from each site. We do NOT read every article in its entirety.  
Due to the every changing nature of the Internet please check that these sites are still safe before allowing your children on them.
This post does not contain affiliate links. 
Linking with 
Grateful for Grace: What We're Learning
 Collage Friday over at Home Grown Learners,   
Favourite Resources at Learning All the Time.
Posted by at 14 comments:
Labels: , ,

Saturday, 10 March 2012

Expedition Earth: AFRICA - Egypt

This week we resumed our Expedition Earth travels.  Since we are going to be going on a journey to South Africa in four weeks time we decided to visit the Continent of Africa starting in Egypt.
Mummification Experiment.

We learned
  • That kings and special people were buried in pyramids.
  • The king of Ancient Egypt was called a Pharaoh.
  • Egypt is in Africa.
  • The secret of how pyramids were constructed has been discovered.
  • They painted pictures on the walls inside the pyramids.
  • A lot of the things we use today were invented in ancient Egypt (time, 365 day year, locks, toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs etc)
  • There were no roads in Egypt because they used the Nile to get around.
  • Paper was made from papyrus and they used pictures to write words.
  • We did a Mummification Experiment. (results to come next week)
  • A mummy is a dead person.
  • We baked Egyptian style cookies and shared a cup of tea. (We had to add an extra table spoon of butter because the mixture was a little dry.)
  • Sir N's favourite thing was the pyramids. (We built a 3 D model of Kufu's Pyramid)
  • Egypt has the largest Muslim population in the world at over 80 000 000.
  • They use Egyptian Pounds and some of their coins have holes in them.
  • The Egyptian Flag has red at the top, white in the middle and black at the bottom. It also has a gold bird in the middle.

We baked Egyptian style cookies

Our Resources this week

Books

Maping
Notebook Pages

Internet
Craft
YouTube
Wildlife Study
Sand Cat
Nile Crocodile
Horned Viper
Jackal
Vulture
Flamingo
Blessings
Chareen 
This post is linking to: 
Learning All the Time Favourite Resources ,Homegrown Learners Collage Friday, Red Oak Lane Share Your Ideas and Learning All the Time  Look what We did.
Posted by at 10 comments:
Labels: , , , , , ,

Thursday, 21 July 2011

Home Made Pies (Argentina)

Last week we were studying Argentina and while I was surfing YouTube looking for some interesting video's to show Sir N on Argentina I stumbled across some one making pies and thought oh yes we can do that

Ingredients
  • Puff Pastry (home made or bought)
  • Mince (precooked with vegetables)
  • Milk (to baste the product before baking)
Ingredients ready

Cut out circles

Add a spoon of mince mix

Fold in half and pinch pleat the edge

Ready to bake.  The pinch pleat was to difficult for Sir N so he used a fork.
Baste with Milk. Bake for 20 min till golden brown. 180'C fan forced.

Golden Brown and enjoyed for dinner
You can watch a great video on how to make these on 

Blessings

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)