Showing posts with label Geography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geography. Show all posts

Tuesday 30 October 2012

TT - The Global Puzzle

 Welcome to Tuesdays Treasures.  I started these posts as a way of sharing great books in honour of my friend in New Zealand who would arrive with the treasures she had unearthed at her weekly trip to the library!

There are so many wonderful books out there hiding on shelves so I invite you to blog about a book on your shelf, one you're reading or one you found at the library and add your post to Learning All the Time Favourite Resource Link Up. 



This week ...
The Global Puzzle
I recently received this puzzle in the mail and am impressed.  I can't give a review yet as we have not commenced building it.  I will update this post as soon as we do!>

From Sonlight: "Did you know the average individual knows where only 18 of the world's 193 countries are located? A Broader View decided they wanted to do something to improve this statistic, so they created The Global Puzzle, a unique 600-piece puzzle that has proven to increase its users' geography knowledge by an average of 472% after completing the puzzle only one time."

Over at The Pioneer Woman: "The Global Puzzle was definitely challenging. With such a strong focus on Geography this school year, I imagine the kids will be able to work through it much faster at the end of the year when we pull it out again. Because of the difficulty level, and the non-interlocking manner in which the countries fit together, it isn’t a puzzle we would leave out and work on over and over. There are MANY very small pieces that could easily be lost if we weren’t careful. I would recommend The Global Puzzle with the caveat that it is way more challenging than expected – even for “frequent puzzler” families. Children 10 or younger will likely want your support.

Have you built or used geography puzzles If you have used this one what did you think ?
Blessings

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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
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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.
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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.
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Tuesday 24 January 2012

Tuesdays Treasures {24} - A Port Through Time

 Welcome to Tuesdays Treasures.  I started these posts as a way of sharing great books in honour of my friend in New Zealand who would arrive with the treasures she had unearthed at her weekly trip to the library!
There are so many wonderful books out there hiding on shelves so I invite you to blog about a book on your shelf, one you're reading or one you found at the library and add your post to Learning All the Time Favourite Resource Link Up. 



This week ...
A 10,000 year journey from trading post to modern seaport
 
  • Format: Hardback
  • Number of Pages: 32
  • Vendor: DK Publishers
  • Publication Date: 2006
  • ISBN: 00-7566-2221-2
  • Author Dr Anne Millard
  • Illustrator: Steve Noon
I love the Through Time book series.  They are beautifully illustrated and lots of fun to look through. You could spend days on each page and still not see everything there is to see.  Each book picks one location and shows you how it develops from nothing to present day.  Some pages contain "cut away" images. The book finishes off with a brief historical look at shipping through the ages and world trade.

Other books available in the series are: A Farm through Time, A City through Time and A Street through Time.

What's your favourite history resource?

Blessings


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Tuesday 8 November 2011

Tuesdays Treasure 16

I recently received this book from The Book Depository. I must confess I am impressed.  Often times books with loads of pictures tend to be full of twaddle but not this one. 

Geography from A to Z
A picture glossary

  • Format: Paper back
  • Author: Jack Knowlton
  • Pictures: Harriett Barton
  • Pages: 48
  • Cover: Soft
  • ISBN: 9 780064 460996
  • Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
This book is available from:

This little book is worth it's weight in gold if you have students in primary school studying geography. 

Blessings


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Friday 28 October 2011

Hanging Rock


When we completed Week 5 with Sonlight we took a day trip to Hanging Rock. It always amazes me how things just happen to fall into place when we need them!  We learned about mountains that week and Paul not knowing this suggested we go for a day trip to Hanging Rock.  It was so much fun seeing Sir N experience walking up a 'mountain' clambering over big rocks and learning what his own capabilities are.  Go N!

Hanging Rock Tree Stump Carving.

When we arrived we had a look at this Manna Gum tree stump.  This tree was over two hundred years old when it was struck by lightening and came down. Rather than remove the stump that had seen so much history the council commissioned Tim Jones in 2006 to create a sculpture with the remaining stump.   The carvings took him three months to complete.






Enjoying how far we could see from up high.

On our way down we had a look around the information center.


It was a wonderful day out in the sun and watching Sir N discover the beauty of seeing far and wide from up on a mountain.

Blessings




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Thursday 13 October 2011

Making a Volacano

In our home school we have been reading about Volcano's and decided to make one out of plaster of Paris from a kit I purchased from ALDI.

Sir N and our kit.

Contents of our kit. Great easy to follow instructions.

Putting the elastics on to hold the pieces together.

Plaster of Paris ready to mix.


Poured the mixture into the mold.
I got a little bit of a start as it started pouring out the sides but no fear there was enough and it soon stopped oozing.  I am grateful Paul was home when we did this as I would have waited too long before pouring the mix into the mold.  If you wait too long then you get a lot of bubbles in the mix you can't get out, it needs to be runny when you pour it in.  I also thought I had used too much water but that was not the case. We left it on the bench for about four hours and then ....
One volcano we had!

We waited for about a week before we attempted to paint it. This step was more time consuming than I had anticipated so I helped Sir N.  I think in hind sight I should have taken out the poster paint and thicker brushes.  Older sister came to the rescue and provided us with glitter glue pens which Sir N thoroughly enjoyed applying to this volcano.



The instructions say to mix paint, vinegar and dish liquid for red coloured eruption.  I was disappointed with the chemical reaction this had. (I have since learned that you need to mix food colouring, dish liquid and baking soda then add vinegar for a red eruption, we had mixed the paint, dish liquid and vinegar) So we tried again this time with baking soda and vinegar and that was much better. You could hear the bubbles forming and popping.  It was so much fun.

Baking Soda, poster paint (it's better to use food colouring)
dish liquid and vinegar.

Sir N's volcano and city.

Adding vinegar to the baking soda.

1*2*3 Success


We had lots of fun doing this.  You do not need a kit to do the same with your children.  You can accomplish the same thing using a water tight jar of some kind (plastic, metal or glass).  Put it down build up some soil around it, make your city etc then add baking soda, food colouring and dish liquid and mix in the jar.  Slowly add vinegar and watch the eruption. 

Blessings

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Wednesday 20 July 2011

Expedition Earth: Argentina

As it turns out my local library is not as well stocked as I would like so we ended up doing a lot of on line research for this week in Argentina.  :)

First we stamped our passport and entered our first country in South America.

 What we learned:


All in all an interesting place and Sir N and I would really like to go and see the Iguassu Falls.

Here are our worksheets:



No books to share as our library had none that were relevant for younger audiences.

Next stop: Venezuela

Blessings

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