Homeschool Creations

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Australia ~ Our Studies of the Land Down Under

We took two weeks to study the continent of Australia ~ and since I’m already behind in my geography posting, this post will have both weeks of our lesson plan layouts in it. Our first week we focused more on geography, currency, the Australian  flag, etc.. and during our second week learned about kangaroos, koalas, did lots of drawing, took some virtual tours and completed some minit books for our notebook. Here’s a peek at our studies:

Week 1 Layout
 
Monday
  • Introduce new song about Australia from Geography Songs 
  • Use atlas and globe to locate Australia
  • Talked about the size of Australia {slightly smaller than the US}
  • Independent reading ~ the girls spent this week reading Destination Australia together each day
Tuesday
  • Review geography song
  • Learn {and reviewed} some geography terms: coral reef, desert, rain forest, island, & also about Ayers Rock
  • Fun saying some Australian slang words
  • Learned about the flag of Australia using our notebooking page
Australian flag thumbnail Click on thumbnail to download pdf file
Wednesday
Thursday
Week 2 Layout

Monday
  • Review geography song
  • Looked at the Australia for Kids slideshow
  • Independent reading {McKenna ~ Dingoes at Dinnertime}
  • Completed our mapping activity of Australia
Mapping Australia thumbnail Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Tuesday
  • Review geography song
  • Took a little tour via the Time for Kids: Australia site
  • Learned about animals that are unique to Australia: platypus, kangaroo and koala were the ones we focused on
  • Used Draw Write Now to draw a koala bear {Book 7}
  • Independent reading
Wednesday
  • Review geography song
  • Used Draw Write Now to draw a kangaroo {Book 7}
  • Worked on our minit books about kangaroos {from Homeschool Share}. We put these books on a sheet of cardstock and added them to our geography notebook. Minit books we focused on: kangaroo facts, kangaroo family, all about pouches, kangaroo matchbooks, kangaroo habitat, birth and care of joey, kangaroo diet
  • Independent reading
Thursday
  • Review geography song
  • Watched a video on the Sydney Opera House
  • Drew our own maps of Australia using Draw Write Now as a guide
  • Summarize independent reading book and copy summary/dication
  • Added our notebooking pages to our binder and stamped our passports!
Books We Used



 
Resources and Websites

Jolanthe Signature affiliate button

Labels: , ,

4 Comments:

  • I am glad that you are starting to share your country study again. We are planning to do Australia soon, and I am hoping to use some of your resources.

    By Blogger Natalie PlanetSmarty, At April 1, 2010 at 11:09 AM  

  • Wow!!! What a great plan! Thanks for sharing :)

    I am new to your blog and am in the process of finding some inspiration in my upcoming journey of homeschooling my DD beginning this Fall. I adore your blog and find you very inspiring! Looking forward to reading more :)

    By Blogger Our Creative Day , At April 1, 2010 at 12:12 PM  

  • Hello from Australia. :) We are currently in South Australia in the Eyre Peninsula to be exact. In 3 weeks time we will be in NSW in the Blue Mountains checking out the Jenolan Caves. A week later we will be in Katoomba checking out the skyway and surrounding area. A week after that we are checking out the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Well, that's the plan. Looking forward to seeing parts of Australia in real life. :)

    By Blogger Deborah, At April 2, 2010 at 5:38 AM  

  • We live in Europe and travelled around Australia for 10 months, it is a wonderful place.

    A couple of things that you children may be interested in - Australia is not an island, it is a continent. The largest island in the world is Greenland.
    Ayers Rock is officially known as Uluru/Ayers Rock.
    Many people prefer just Uluru.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At October 4, 2010 at 4:49 PM  

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have a question and would like a reply, feel free to ask. I do my best to reply personally to you, but please be sure that there is an email linked to your comment or your profile! :)

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]



<< Home