Traveling Russia: Week 2

After our first week studying Russia, I found even more to study the next week. There are times when the resources seem to be overwhelming, especially when you find them on the tail end of your studies.

Both of our girls love to pretend to be ballerinas, so this week we spent some time listening to famous Russian composers and watching some ballet in action. Needless to say, there have been lots of tights flying, tutus twirling and spinning like crazy. Zachary included. :)

Monday

• Quick review from previous week's studies
• Look at the currency of Russia (see notebooking page I made below)
• Review geography song (from Geography Songs cd)
• Pick a meal to make and put grocery list together
• Watch a little of Fiddler on the Roof (since this takes place in Russia)

Tuesday

• Sing geography song and point to countries on map
• Talk about some of the geographical/climate features of Russia and do map activities: Ural mountains (divide Russia between Europe and Asia); coldest inhabited place on Earth is Verkhoyansk; dry climate and poor soil; Volga River is longest river in Europe, three of longest rivers in world are in Russia (Ob, Yenisei, and Lena); Lake Baikal is deepest, largest fresh water lake in the world; three differenet land areas: tundra, taiga, and steppe
• Listen to Tchaikovsky and have fun dancing

Wednesday

• Use Draw Write Now to draw picture of a brown bear and also copywork about bear
• Talk about some of the different animals in Russia
• Review geography song
• Talk about the history of Russia using notebooking pages
• Watch a little bit of Nutcracker

Thursday

• Sing geography song and point to countries without using cd
• Talk about religion in Russia and what happened during Communist rule (atheism). You can read about Laurianna and McKenna's reaction to atheism on our family blog - too funny.
• Compare Russian alphabet to our alphabet
• Work on making meal (Beef stroganoff)
• Stamp passports

Websites that we visited:

• National Geographic Kids - facts and pictures about Russia
• Enchanted Learning about Russia - members only
• Travel for Kids - fun things to do with kids in Russia. Also includes book ideas for helping kids learn about Russia
• Time for Kids - learn more about Russia's culture, landscape and resources
• Mission Friends - resource available from the Lutheran Church. This is the student pdf version that you can print off and use as a great resource for you teaching of Russia. It includes the map activity that we did and a lot of wonderful information. Our kids really enjoyed this!
• Nutcracker on youtube - this is the first of 16 mini-videos of the Nutcracker performed at the Royal Opera House. The girls loved this!

The currency notebooking sheet that I put together on the ruble: Next week we are going to be moving our studies to England/Great Britain, so stay tuned for more!

Resources that we used:  


 

Traveling Russia: Week 1

This last week we started our study of Russia with the girls. I haven't had a chance to sit down and pull all my thoughts together until now, so I might miss some stuff that we did because there have been moments when we have veered off course from my plans and I keep forgetting to pencil in what we actually did {sigh}.

That said, I can give you a basic framework of what our week looked like, include some links that we/I used, the books we used, and one of the worksheets that I pulled together for us. I'm also working on putting a post together that talks about some of the specific things that I try to do for each country that we study (and might go into a little more detail in this post too about how we did some of the things to give you an idea).

Monday

• Locate and map Russia. We have a wall map and globe that we use for this. The girls find the country on the map and we talk about a few different things: what continent the country is on, which hemispheres, what other countries it is near, etc...
• Introduce our new geography song. I can't say enough about how much we have enjoyed the cd Geography Songs and how much the girls (and Zachary by default) have learned from this cd. This week we learned the song "Former USSR". As we sing the song, we find the other countries that are mentioned in the song and work on remembering where the countries are and pointing them as we sing along.
• Use our atlas to learn more about Russia. We use The Children's World Atlas from Rand McNally. We read the little blurbs in the book on industry and other key facts about the country: population, major cities, etc...
• Find the capital of the country

Tuesday

• Read Children Just Like Me and complete the worksheet. I made a worksheet to go along with the book, so after we read about the child from the country we are studying, we fill in the information we learned (what city, religion, language, favorite foods, etc...)
• Learn about Russia's flag. This week I made up a little worksheet about the flag of Russia (you can print it off below).
• Review our geography song
• Talk about some interesting facts about Russia: it is on two different continents (found dividing point), 11 different time zones, takes up almost all of Eastern hemisphere

Wednesday

• Review our geography song with map.
• Play a Russian game
• Travel and learn a little about Russia via a website - a virtual tour

Thursday

• Review our geography song
• Learn about the language(s) spoken in Russia and different religions. We also used this time to talk about the time that Russia was under Communist rule and people weren't allowed to believe in God.

Here are some of the books that we used this week in our studies:

Some great websites and links related to Russia:

• St. Petersburg.com - a virtual tour of just about anything you can imagine in St. Petersburg
• Flags of the World - a site that gives a lot of detail about the flag of Russia
• National Geographic Xpeditions Atlas - can print of detailed (or not) pdf maps of Russia or any other country
• Ethnologue.com - talks about how many different languages there are in Russia (105 in case you were wondering, four of which are dead)
• Games children play in Russia
• Kids Culture Center - has a lot of basics about Russian culture along with resources
• Rainbow Kids - different coloring pages to learn about Russia

This is the worksheet I put together on the Russian flag:

Next week we will be continuing our time in Russia and learning about the currency of Russia, making a meal, studying the different geography features of Russia and the climate and more so be sure to check back or look for the second link/post.

 

Israel for Kids: Week 2

We've been continuing on in our study of Israel this last week and a half. The girls spent a little more time visiting some websites this week for some virtual tours - which they were thrilled with. In addition we've also spent time doing the following:

• Continued practicing our new geography song about the Middle East (from Geography Songs)
• Used the book Welcome to Israel: Talked about the size of Israel (similar to New Jersey), the history of Israel and the birth of Israel as a nation, the first Jews (Abraham and Sarah), the Star of David, and the Dead Sea (lowest point on Earth)
• Mapped a more detailed map of Israel (Enchanted Learning) and also a map of Israel and its neighbors (love this one!)
• Learned about Israel's currency (and made up a notebooking sheet for it)
• Made a dinner of Baked Felafel Sandwiches with a side of hummus for dipping
• Took a little quiz to see what we had learned about Israel {click on thumbnail below to download pdf}

 

Sites We Visited 

• Israel Embassy for Kids - a virtual trip to Israel for kids that helps kids learn about Israel's currency, geography and much more - the girls loved this!
• 100 Ideas for Teaching Israel - some great ideas on this page. We used several of these this week in our study of Israel
• Time for Kids - mapping activity for kids focusing on Israel and its neighbors
• About.com: Judaism - free Israel coloring pages for kids
• Israel currency - notebooking page I made showing the paper currency of Israel
• Yahoo Kids - quick facts about Israel
• Go Israel.com - Israel's ministry of tourism, includes maps and pictures. Also has some great videos that the kids loved!

Books We Used 

 

Israel for Kids: Week 1

This week we started a 2-week study of Israel. Here's a little peek into what we've been talking about:

• Locate and map Israel
• Talked about the geography/terrain of Israel
• Learn new geography song {Middle East} using Geography Songs
• Read Children Just Like Me pages and completed the notebooking page
• Learned about Israel's flag and colored it
• Talked about prayer shawls (since the design of Israel's flagis based on a prayer shawl). The prayer shawl (or tallis/tallit) is a religious symbol, a garment - a sacred and important part of the Jewish life.
• Learned about the currency of Israel {click on thumbnail below to download the pdf file}

 

Books We Used

Sites we visited

• Coloring Castle - blank flag of Israel to color
• Children Like Me notebooking page - notebooking page designed for kids to fill in with their answers after reading Children Just Like Me
• 100 Ideas for Teaching Israel - some great ideas on this page. We are going to be using several of these in the next week when we continue our study of Israel
• Ahklah: Jewish Children's Learning Network - some great information here. Facts about Israel, all about Jewish holidays, Jewish heroes and traditions.
• Hope of Israel - information about the prayer shawl and other customs
• Recommended books for kids about life in Israel (grades K-12)
  
   

Tiger Lapbook

We wrapped up our unit on India with a study on Tigers. We used the lapbook provided by Homeschool Share.

We learned all about:

• a tiger's diet
• habitat and home
• tiger's teeth
• how to classify a tiger
• the different types of tigers
• what areas tigers are native to
• types of tigers
• the anatomy of a tiger
• how tigers find their prey
• and more!! (you just need to check it out)

The girl's had fun using Draw Write Now again to draw their own tigers and also wrote a few facts in their journal so that we could add the page to our lapbooks. We have really loved using these books to add onto our art and drawing. The girls love to draw and these books have helped them so much!

During the week we found several different books about tigers, some fun stories and some fact books that we read and studied together - did you know that a tiger can pounce from a still position up to 30 feet? When we measured it out, we realized that it was almost the length of our entire house.

Then we had fun trying to see how far we could pounce...a measly 3 1/2 feet was the record for Zachary!

Here are the books we used this week along with our study.

Fun Literature

• Tigers at Twilight - Mary Pope Osborne
• Sam and the Tigers - Julies Lester
• Tiger's Story - Harriet Blackford

School Books

• Pocket Factfiles: Mammals
• Marvels of Creation: Magnificent Mammals
• Tigers (True Books)
• Why Do Tigers Have Stripes - Helen Edom
• Amazing Tigers (I Can Read)
  

 

India for Kids ::Week 2::

This is our second week studying India (scroll down for links a little further in the post). We continued our studies this week and learned more about peacocks, the currency of India, the Taj Mahal and rangoli. Here’s a peek at our week:

Monday

• Mapping of India - more detailed than what we did last week. We also focused on the surrounding countries and bodies of water. I made a map worksheet for this (below) that you can also download.
• Henna tattos - the girls had a lot of fun watching Indian brides get the intricate tattoos before their wedding and also watching parts of different wedding ceremonies.

Tuesday

• Peacocks - we found a short little video clip about them and also found a great info sheet to learn more about them. The girls also spent some time on the easel painting their own peacock (do you recognize it in the slideshow above?).
• William Carey - missionary to India

Wednesday

• India's money - the rupee and the paise. I made an information sheet about them (you can click on the thumbnail link below if you would like to download it).

 
Thursday

• Cooking - the girls helped me make a chicken curry dish (yum) along with Naan bread
• Taj Mahal - We studied who had it designed and why it was built. We also found a short video clip to see a little more of it
• Learned about rangoli - a form of Indian art. We used colored rice to design our own patterns.

Some of the books that we used this week

Great links for India

• DLTK - Rangoli designs and ideas on making your own
• PBS - Pictures and information on the Taj Mahal
• Indian Bridal Henna art - You Tube video showing how the art is applied
• National Geographic - short video clip about the peacock
• National Geographic - printable page on the peacock 
• India Video - I haven't even begun to browse through the many video clips all about India on this site - suffice it to say there are a LOT!!! Just a few: peacock sanctuary, Taj Mahal, Diwali celebration showing rangoli design
  
   

India for Kids ::Week 1::

This week we started a 3 week study of India. Here's a little peek into what we've been talking about.

Monday

• Locate and map India
• Learn new geography song (see video clip below)
• Color/label map of India
• Use atlas to find India and learn more about resources

Geography Song: Countries of South Asia

I

Tuesday

• Children Just Like Me notebooking page
• Learned about India's flag - colored/designed our own {click on image to download pdf}
• Visited Time.com to do a little online sightseeing
• Read about Amy Carmichael {missionarary}
  

Click image to download the India flag printable

Wednesday

• Studied the peacock (India's national bird)
• Talked about the Himalayans and Mt. Everest

Thursday

• Geography term: peninsula
• Looked at clothing that is worn in India

Books We Used

Websites We Used

• Time for Kids India - takes you on a little "tour" of India with "A Day in the Life", sightseeing, history timeline, lingo, etc...
• Time for Kids sightseeing tracker - a fill-in-the-blank guide to follow along with the tour
• Kids Konnect - LOTS of resources for India here
• Geographia - intro to India along with history
• Travel for Kids - book ideas for kids based on geographic areas in India.
• Children Like Me notebooking page - notebooking page designed for kids to fill in with their answers after reading Children Just Like Me - and I'm a bit partial to the page since I made it up :)

 

Studying Japan ::Week 2::

This was our second week learning about Japan and the girls had a lot of fun with many "hands-on" activities: origami, watercolors, calligraphy, puppet theatres, and Japanese screens. Much reading and even a great video or two thrown in. Since Japan has over 70 volcanoes, we are going to be doing a unit on volcanoes next week - as requested by the girls! 

Monday

• Review what we learned last week
• We used Kids Web Japan to look at the history of kimonos different types of kimonos and had fun doing a virtual game dressing girls and seeing where they would wear the kimono and outfit that we picked for them.
• Japanese screens ~ Each of the girls designed their own Japanese screen trying to follow each of the four seasons.

Tuesday

• Mapping/labeling Japan {see printable below}
• Made a fun little Japanese counting booklet and practiced our calligraphy.

Wednesday

• We first read The Paper Crane (Bang) and then picked out a few pieces of origami to make: a mask and a boat...fairly simple but fun!

Thursday

• The girls colored and put together their own Banraku puppet theatre. We found some great links on youtube to see some theatre in action too.

Literature we focused on:

• Sadako and a Thousand Paper Cranes (Coerr) - this was the book Laurianna read independently this week
• The Paper Crane (Bang) - we read this book aloud and McKenna also read it to me
• The Boy of the 3 Year Nap (Snyder) - independent reading for McKenna
• Japanese Children's Favorite Stories (Sakade) - read aloud stories to the girls. 
  
  Some other great links for Japan:
  

• Homeschool Share unit/lapbook on the Crow Boy
• Christian Homeschoolers. com - lots of links and resources for Japan
• Smithsonian Education - included 3 different lesson plans about Japanese art, screens, etc..
• Travel for Kids - many links and great book references
• Time for Kids - mini tour of Japan including history timeline, native lingo, a day in the life
• BBC Science and Nature - pictures and facts on the Japanese macaque
• Family Fun - Japanese paper dolls
• Lapbook Lessons - lapbook and unit on Japan {only wish I had found this earlier!!}

Studying Japan ::Week 1::

This week we started our study of Japan. Of all the countries we've studied so far, Japan has had some amazing websites available to use in our studies. We’re planning on making this a three week study and wrapping it all up with a unit on volcanoes. Here’s how our first week was outlined:

Monday

• Review geography song
• Locate & map Japan with watercolors {link below}
• Use atlas to learn more about Japan
• Hello Japan video

Tuesday

• Read Children Just Like Me & use notebooking page
• Color Japan’s flag {printable below}
• Facts about Japan using National Geographic for Kids website

Wednesday

• Kids Web Japan
• Talk about the Mon {family crest}

Thursday

• Review Asia geography song
• Woodcuts/paintings {link below}

Laurianna's independent reading for the week was Dragon of the Red Dawn by Mary Pope Osborne and the kids also enjoyed listening to the audiobook when Laurianna had finished reading it on her own. We've also been reading stories from Japanese Children's Favorite Stories and The Boy of the Three Year Nap.

Great Links

Kids Web Japan - great videos, virtual games, pictures - too much to list, but a GREAT resource!! This week we watched the "Hello Japan" video, learned about tea ceremonies (and had our own), looked at some of the typical Japanese food

Visit Japan - this link is specifically to a quick video about Japan

National Geographic Kids: Japan - country facts, postcard, video clip and information on Japan

Japanese Woodcuts to Color - Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop has a great project for using watercolors to recreate some famous Japanese woodcuts

Hokusai's Great Wave - picture and information on woodcut painting

Next week we'll be continuing our study of Japan by studying Japanese screens, origami, Japanese counting, puppet theatre and some other fun things too.

Studying Korea: Week 2

This week we finished our tour of the peninsula of Korea. I found several other websites to visit this week with the girls. This week we focused more on South Korea.

Monday

• Talked about kimchi pots
• Mapped the Yellow Sea and the capitals of Norht & South Korea and explored on our globe a little more

Tuesday

• Talked more about the missionary Bob Pierce
• Watched some Korean drama and studied the Korean Hahoe drama masks
• Played "Kawi, Bawi, Bo" - Rock, paper, scissors
• Watched a video on the female divers of South Korea's Jeju Islands

Wednesday

• Talked about Korean currency - I put together a little info sheet with pictures of the current South Korean currency (you can print off a copy for yourself below if you would like)
• Practiced Korean numbers

Thursday

• Made Korean beef tips (one of Daddy's favorite meals)
• Put our notebooks together with our Korean studies information
• Marked our passports as having studied Korea

 

We are still reading aloud the book Archer's Quest by Linda Sue Park (and I'm even interested to see how this is going to turn out!). Laurianna has continued reading Seesaw Girl by Linda Sue Park and McKenna LOVES the book Dear Juno by Soyung Pak.

What We’re Reading




Website Resources

• Keeping Up With the Wedemeyers - has a coloring page for Korean hanboks and some pictures of her two kiddos dressed in traditional Hanboks
• National Geographic Kids - printable facts, a video of female divers, and an e-card you can send
• Kwintessential - interesting tidbits on language, customs, culture, and etiquette
• Hahoe Mask Museum - pictures and descriptions of the Hahoe drama masks
• Hahoe Mask Drama - pictures of traditional folk plays

Here is the document with the South Korean currency: Next week we will be starting a three week study of Japan ... and I so need to get working on those lesson plans. I've started researching some things, but haven't sat down long enough to put it all down (that's usually my Friday afternoon and Sunday evening routine).



 

Korea Study: Week 1

We really are having a fun time this year with our geography study and learning together, which always makes it fun! We looked at North and South Korea this week, although the majority of our studies were focused on South Korea.  

Monday

• located and mapped the Koreas
• reviewed our Asia area song
• colored the South Korean flag
• independent reading {see carousel below} Laurianna is reading Seesaw Girl by Linda Sue Park and McKenna is reading Dear Juno by Soyung Pak. Together we are reading aloud the story Archer's Quest (mainly so that I can moderate some of the content).

Tuesday

• read about Bob Pierce (missionary)
• did our Children Just Like me sheet
• independent reading {see carousel below}

Wednesday

• toured Korea via a kid's website (links are below), and learned a little more about Buddhism and different Korean temples
• tryied out orgami and making panda bear faces...a little something we didn't have time to fit in last week.

Thursday

• talked about Buddhism
• looked at different Korean temples

Web Resources

Here are some great links for Korea:

• The Wedding of Kaz and Ilsu - this site documents the wedding of the site author (Kaz) and his trip to Korea for his wedding and honeymoon. There are some great photos on the site to look at various Korean temples and culture shots.
• World Heritage Tour - provides 360 degree pics and views of different Korean temples and sites.
• Our Place - pictures of the Sokkuram Groto and Pulguksa Temple.
• Korea for Kids - has a virtual "tour" of South Korea and includes some fun printable activities for kids (Hahoe mask drama, acrostic poems and kimchi pots).
• South Korea Unit Study - Knowledge Quest has some great ideas posted at this link for South Korea also.

Books We Used

 
Next week we are continuing on in South Korea by looking at Korean currency, Kimchi pots, Hahoe mask drama, making a yummy meal of beef tips and rice, and studying Korean numbers as well as making our own acrostic.

 

Our Panda Lapbooks - the video version

Our panda lapbook from Homeschool Share was a great way to wrap up our study of China. The girls wanted to have themselves videotaped showing off their lapbooks this time, so that's what we did! Laurianna shows off her lapbook in the first video and then McKenna shares a litte bit of hers.

Some great Panda Resources

Studying Pandas

This week we wrapped up our study of China with a unit/lapbook on giant pandas from Homeschool Share, using the book Giant Pandas by Gail Gibbons. If you haven't checked out this great resource, hop on over and visit because there is a little something for most topics you might be studying.

One of the most exciting parts of our week was having two of our monarchs emerge from their chrysalis'. We had both a male and female butterfly, and let both of them go outside. Can you tell if this one is the male or the female?



Our kids love the hands-on part of lapbooking (admittedly they don't always like to write a bunch of stuff), but love cutting/pasting and they DO love to show them off to everyone. You can see their video explanation of their Panda lapbooks in our panda lapbook post.

To go along with the Giant Panda unit the girls also learned how to draw pandas using Draw Write Now - and I cannot say enough about these books. I even had fun following along and drawing one too (not too shabby, I'm thinking!).


Some great Panda Resources:

 

Studying China: Week 2

We've wrapped up our tour around China and we're getting ready to study pandas next week and work on another lapbook together. Here is what we did together this week in our study of China. 

Monday

• Review from previous week
• Write our names in Chinese
• read about Jeanette Li {10 Girls Who Changed History}
• reviewed Asia geography song {Geography Songs}

Tuesday

• Talked about the Great Wall of China
• read about Eric Liddell
• reviewed Asia geography song
• Talked about Chinese currency {click on image for pdf file}
  

Wednesday

• talked about Mt. Everest
• read about Hudson Taylor
• reviewed Asia geography song

Thursday

• put our goegraphy notebooking pages in our notebook
• stamped our passports
• Made egg drop soup
• reviewed the Asia geography song

Great Links/Resources

• Mission Friends ~ learning about China
• Knowledge Quest ~ unit on China
• China Provinces map puzzle
• Jimmie’s lapbook on Ancient China
• Ancient China unit study

Books We Used


 
 

Studying China: Week 1

This past week we started studying China. A highlight of the week for the kids was having Chinese food for dinner: dumplings, egg rolls, and best of all - using chopsticks! Laurianna has enjoyed it so much that she has insisted on using them every meal since then. We're still working on a few parts of our Olympic lapbook while waiting for some competitions to finish and we'll post pictures of that later too.

Here’s a look at our first week studying China

Monday

• locate and map China
• use atlas to learn more about China and geographical features
• color/label map of China
• learn Asia song from Geography Songs

Tuesday

• learn about the Chinese flag {click on image to download pdf}
• read Children just like me and complete notebooking page
• read about Gladys Aylward {10 Girls Who Changed the World}
  
  

Wednesday

• talk about rivers and label the rivers of China
• read about Lottie Moon {10 Girls Who Made History}
• finished up our Olympic lapbook

Thursday

• read the Story of Ping
• use Draw Write Now to make a duck
• write our names in Chinese
• read about Isobel Kuhn {10 Girls Who Changed the World}

After we read the Story of Ping (to talk about the Yangtze River) each girl illustrated their summary of the book. We're using Draw Write Now for art this year and they are having so much fun with it! Here is what McKenna wrote about it:

  Books We Used

Next week we are continuing on in our studies of China: making egg drop soup, studying other missionaries: Eric Liddell, Jeanette Li, and Hudson Taylor, learning about the Great Wall of China, and also Mt. Everest.

 
 

Traveling to China

Well...not technically. But we are starting our third week of school and after our two week intro to maps and geography we are going to study China.


The girls have also been learning about the Olympics, and this last week had great fun making paper dolls we printed off from Making Friends. And no picture session would be complete without some sort of silly faces.

Up for our first week:

• locating and mapping China
  
• talking about rivers (Yangtze River)
  
• studying the flag of China
• reading the Story of Ping and drawing ducks
• learning about several missionaries: Gladys Alward, Lottie Moon, and Isobel Kuhn
  
• learning a few words in Chinese {yes & no, hi & bye, counting to 10}