Learning About New Zealand ~ the Land of Kiwi

New Zealand was a stop we took in our geography travels after learning about Australia. New Zealand has two main islands and is in the South Pacific Ocean. We spent time learning about the many meanings of the word ‘kiwi’, the culture of the Maori people, how the flag was created; read/learned about sheep, talked about Sir Edmund Hillary and even learned a little about the sport of rugby.

Week 1 Layout

Monday

• Introduce new song about New Zealand from Geography Songs
• Use atlas and globe to locate New Zealand
• Talked about the size of New Zealand  and that New Zealand is called the ‘land of the long white cloud’

  Tuesday

• Review geography song
• Learn {and review} some terms: volcanoes, island, earthquakes, geysers
• Independent reading ~ the girls spent this week reading Meet our New Student from New Zealand together each day
• Filled out the map of New Zealand using our notebooking page

 Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Wednesday

• Review geography song
• Children Just Like Me book and notebooking page
• Talked about the currency in New Zealand
• Learned about the government in New Zealand {democracy}
• Independent reading

Thursday

• Review geography song
• Visit the National Geographic for Kids: New Zealand site
• Story from Around the World in 80 Tales
• Talked about sheep and used Draw Write Now to draw our own
• Reading together book on New Zealand {from our bookshelf}

Week 2 Layout

Monday

• Review geography song
• Watched a video about Maori warriors on You Tube {see below for video clip and link}
• Learned about the flag of New Zealand

Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

 

Tuesday

• Review geography song
• Learned about Sir Edmund Hillary ~ from New Zealand and climbed Mt. Everest
• Talked about rugby and the All Blacks team
• Completed some sheets about Sir Edmund Hillary {see links below}

Wednesday

• Review geography song
• Visited Time for Kids ~ New Zealand 
• Talked about the three different meanings of the word ‘kiwi’ ~ fruit, bird and nickname of people from New Zealand
• Ate some kiwi :)
• Drew a picture of a kiwi bird

Thursday

• Review geography song
• Summarize one of our reading books and copy summary/dication
• Added our notebooking pages to our binder and stamped our passports!

Books We're Using

Resources and Websites

• Time for Kids ~ New Zealand
• National Geographic for Kids: New Zealand site
• Virtual New Zealand
• Reserve Bank of New Zealand ~ pdf of New Zealand currency
• Kidzone: New Zealand page
• Tourist Board video for New Zealand
• All Blacks Rugby team ~ You Tube video
• How to Draw a Kiwi Bird ~ might want to visit this page on your own and print off the directions. Sometimes they have odd ads….
• Kiwi Bird.org
• Knowledge Quest ~ New Zealand unit study
• Kiwi crafts
• Mt. Everest notebooking worksheet
• Scholastic ~ Sir Edmund Hillary
• Scholastic ~ teacher book list recommendations for learning about New Zealand
• Recipes from New Zealand
• Debbie @ Our Cup of Tea ~ her families studies about New Zealand