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

 Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Wednesday

• Review geography song
  
• Children Just Like Me book and notebooking page
  
• Visited National Geographic for Kids: Australia site
  
• Independent reading

Thursday

• Review geography song
  
• Learned about Australian currency ~ watched this video on the polymer banknotes
  
• Added a few pages about Australian currency to our notebooks
  
• Story from Around the World in 80 Tales
  
• Reading together book on Australia {from our bookshelf}

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

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

• National Geographic for Kids: Australia site
• Kangaroo Lapbook ~ Homeschool Share
• Australian Polymer Notes ~ pdf about history of Australian currency
• Reserve Bank of Australia ~ a video look at Australian currency
• Ayers Rock ~ some great pictures and history on the big ol’ rock
• Australia for Kids ~ slide show that walks you through Australia
• Sydney Opera House website
• Delightful Learning ~ Michelle shares her study of Australia