Traveling France: Week 2

Testing is done and it was back to school as we know it. Groans and complaints aside, the week was very fun and even I learned a lot in the process {who says homeschooling is all about the kids, eh?}

The main focus this week was the Eiffel Tower because it was just too fun. :) The girls especially enjoyed picking one of Monet's paintings to imitate {I picked 4 different paintings and let them choose one}.

When I tried to sit the girls down at the end of the week to put their notebooking pages into their binders and stamp their passports, Laurianna asked if we could study for another week and do a lapbook. So I'm going to be spending the next few days pulling together something for next week.

Monday

• Geography song (kids are singing it to me while pointing to the countries on the map)
• History of France {via Time for Kids} ~ I printed off what they provide for us to use in our notebooks
  
• Read a few chapters of The Little Prince
  

Tuesday

• Geography song
• Visited the official website of the Eiffel Tower and took a 360 panoramic tour
• Put together some paper crafts of the Eiffel Tower
• Played a few games for fun (Hector at the Eiffel Tower)
• Read The Cat Who Walked Across France by Kate Banks
  

Wednesday

• Geography song
• Practiced counting to 10 in French {see YouTube video clip below}
  
• Read a few chapters in The Little Prince
• The Travel Linguist ~ French 101 teaching some basic French phrases
  

Thursday

• Geography song
• Talked about Claude Monet & watched short documentary about him
• Picked our own Monet painting to imitate
• Read more in The Little Prince
  

Resources and Websites

• Hector and the Eiffel Tower ~ has 7 different games that kids can play including puzzles and spotting the differences in pictures. FUN!!
• LaTour Eiffel ~ the children's page has some great resources for teachers!! Be sure to check it out. I've listed a few individually below since there are pdf's that you can download and print for the kids. They also include some great lesson plans {12 in all}
• 360 Panoramic view of Eiffel Tower ~ courtesy of LaTour Eiffel
• Eiffel tower crafts: from Papertoys.com and Group Publishing {the one from Group is a little less involved, so that's the one McKenna did}
• Time for Kids ~ sightseeing guide and a little tour through France, history timelines, postcards, and even a little challenge quiz once you are done with your virtual tour.
• Learn to Speak French ~ video with short quiz on counting 1 to 10
• The Travel Linguist ~ French 101 teaching some basic French phrases
  
• Claude Monet Life and Art ~ site providing a lot of links to the life and works of Claude Monet
• Claude Monet Documentary ~ via YouTube about 4 minutes long
  

Books We're Using