Mavi can’t get enough of these facts cards from my Nutshell Geography series! He wants us to play this when in the car, or when we're walking home. I would ask him a questions based on the facts and he’s going to tell me the continent or the country it’s connected to. We developed a scheme of giving him 3 clues (mostly letters from the answers) and I am PROBIHIBITED to give the answer. It’s amazing how both Mavi and I enjoyed it. So happy that we found a new way to use these cards!
These cards are from:
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And this is the last part of our European Study series. You can read Part I and Part II here.
So first we had Major Rivers of Europe. We used this printable Major Rivers of the World to look at the longest rivers in Europe, traced how long they are and how does it affect the economy of the people.
Here Mavi is plotting the location of the rivers. We are also identifying the countries that some of these rivers flow through. The map seen on the picture was randomly "googled".
We also talked about the active volcanoes in Europe. My son was really really interested on this one as they were having lessons about it in school too. To avail the FREE file of Volcanoes in Europe please click the image below.
We used a map again to plot the location of the volcanoes. He discovered that were a number of active volcanoes in Italy and got a little bit scared that we used to live near it.
We also did a few math activities one of which is relating Euro to Montessori Golden Beads. We talked about how each Euro bill corresponds to Golden Beads and using the currency we played pretend shopping :) Of course the little guy was the cashier to practice simple mathematics like addition.
Here he is counting the total cost of Mommy's purchases.
And lastly, the subject that I've been wanting to revisit for the longest time, Artist Study. Using the books and cards that we have we talked about the famous painters in Europe. We did a couple of Artist Study a few years back and worked on Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Picasso and Degas.
I've always wanted to try Monet. My initial plan was to bring him to the park so we could paint the flowers there in the field, but lately the weather has been really really bad so I guess that has to wait. Instead, we painted the Poppy Fields of Monet using a picture card as a guide.
I told him that Monet is an impressionist, that his paintings look like blobs or blurry and that it doesn't give you an exact detail of the subject but just an impression.
And here's our first try of painting like Monet :)
And here's Mavi's rendition of Monet's The Poppy Field. What do you think?
And that concludes our Europe Study series. Hope all of the series of post I have for this lesson have given you enough idea to start your Europe Study as well.
For more FREEbies and learning aids, please check The Pinay Homeschooler Shop and Downloads.
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History and Geography
My son has specifically requested that we have Europe Study this month. I guess the interest was brought about by the celebration of St. Patrick's Day this month in which they created the Irish flag in school and were plotting Ireland in the Europe map.
WARNING, this post is flooded with photos, as I would rather describe the activities we did in pictures rather than writing a novel about :)
Before anything else, if you are interested to read about our 2013 Europe Unit Study, please click this link.
For the resources and materials:
- Flags of Europe (includes all materials used here except the puzzle flags)
- European countries outline / solid black
Now for this years unit we started working with mapping and flags. I printed the large flag from here. The site allows you to print the maps in different sizes you. I chose a bigger version so we can label the countries clearly.
Oh and Mavi has an audience while working :)
Next we work on the flags. Here on the pictures below Mavi is identifying the countries and their flags. 
I also created these flag puzzles for Mavi to worked on. I just printed these flags in big sizes and cut them to pieces for him to assemble.
Of course, the 3 part cards of the European flags is a must :)
Mavi also worked on these flag matching activity. Here he's matching the flag to the name of the country and the capital city.
Identifying the country's flag was a breeze but he is still new to identifying the capital city (except for the countries we've visited and stayed). We'll be working on this a little more.
And last activity for the flag works is assembling European flags using pre-cut craft papers. Early on I selected a few flags that he will work with. I cut out the pieces needed and mix them together. The challenge here is for him to look for the pieces that goes together to assemble a certain flag. So you can see in the picture below he was able to make the flag of Ireland and Spain, and about to assemble the flag of Germany.
More activities coming up next!
For more FREEbies and learning aids, please check The Pinay Homeschooler Shop and Downloads.
Linking to:
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Home + School = Afterschool!
Natural Homeschool's Montessori Linky
Greetings!
We're revisiting our Europe Study this month and I've been a little bit busy adding more materials to our study. Last year, I published these learning materials for a Europe Study Unit and now I came up with new ones that we can use to have a better understanding of this continent.
I have here the 43 European countries in their territorial map outlines/contours. There are two files available: map in outlines and map in solid black (click the image for the link).
These materials aim to help Mavi identify the countries of Europe by just looking at the contour of a specific country. I remember when I was in high school we would do this in History class but of course, it only involves Asian countries.
My son definitely loves this. He enjoys matching the cards to our Europe Puzzle Map. I have to say though that some contours can really be challenging to match!
If you don't own a wooden puzzle map, you can still use the file as this is a 3-part card which means it includes picture cards and labels as well.
By the way, I printed out the ones with the outlines only as I am saving black ink :) But I find the solid black ones so pretty!
I have a few more materials to publish in the next few days. I can't wait to share it with you!
Oh, for other references please read about our 2013 Europe Study here and here.
Thank you!
For more FREEbies and learning aids, please check The Pinay Homeschooler Shop and Downloads.
Hello everyone!! It's been a productive week so far :) I'm so excited to share with you our little adventure to Australia, the homeschooling way. 90% of the ideas here comes from my son, so I am just giving him what he wants. For him, this is just play pretend but little does he know that he's also learning!
So to start with, here's what I made and prepared for him: 'My Adventure Book (Australia/New Zealand)' which I will launch tomorrow, so please watch out for it :) and his pretend passport. The passport is not that fancy. I simply printed a cover page out of the coat of arms of our country and put titles on it. I used maroon cardstock as a cover because it is the color of our passport. The information page is also based on our passport and the rest of the pages are just blank. Sorry if I have to distort the information to keep my son's privacy :)
And since we need VISA for Australia, I made Visa and immigration stamps (entry and exit) to make our little adventure more "believable". These are included in My Adventure Book package.
I made a map... just the outline and printed it in a brown cardstock. This way, Mavi will be familiar of the shape of Australia and the flag was just from a random Google search. The figures are from Safari Toob, and I included a coral and scuba diver to represent the Great Barrier Reef.
Before setting out for an adventure, we talk about Australia in general. I have that in My Adventure Book which includes important facts and information about Australia, the flag, the state map and biomes map.
Okay, I so made him prepare his luggage / backpack for this trip :) Made sure that he has his book in his back including his passport. Promise to next time, take a photo of him with his "paraphernalia" :)
Set-up: On the first day of his adventure, upon his arrival in Australia (reference to his My Adventure Book) first thing is to travel across the country to see the famous landmarks. So I place the cards (see Landmarks of Australia/Oceania) around the house for him to "pretend" that he's visiting the different places. The exact location of these landmarks are included in My Adventure Book.
(Click the picture for the link)
As he discover the cards of the landmarks around the house we discuss what is so special about the place and the activities that we can do there (like in Great Barrier Reef we pretend to go scuba diving). I made sure that before we embark to another landmark, we review it's location on the map so that he'll be aware of how far these landmarks are from each other.
We got so tired after this activity so I told him that it's time to "fill up some forms" regarding his trip and he'll do the rest of the activities the next day. In reality, I wanted him to work on the activity sheets LOL.
Example of the sheets that's included in the book are:
Landmark locations. Mavi here is identifying the locations of the landmark. I only have 5 landmarks in the activity sheet as I don't want to overwhelm him. If you want more, you can use the Landmarks of Australia/Oceania Nomenclature Cards for further study of the other places.
Favorite Place. Out of the 5 landmarks, he has to pick his favorite place, draw them and explain why he likes it.
The flag. And of course, there's the flag. We discuss the meaning of the country's flag and its colors. You can also check my Australia/Oceania Pin Map and Nomenclature Cards for further study of the other flag in the Australia/Oceania continent (not just Australia).
(Click the picture for the link)
And lastly, while we rest, we watched a couple of Youtube videos about Australia and the places we've learned so far. Here are the links:
Sydney Opera House
Uluru/Ayers Rock (in the Outback)
Great Barrier Reef
The Pinnacles
Kangaroo Island
I have to say that at the end of the day, my son has absorbed all the things that he has learned on this 'pretend' adventure. He can name 5 landmarks, describe what is Australia, its flag and the colors and the biomes (though we still have to dig deeper on this). Learning about a country is so much fun if you play pretend of really going on an adventure on that place :)
Next we'll do animals, biomes, food and famous people and crafts/paintings of the Aborigines. And please do come again tomorrow or follow me on Facebook for the link of My Adventure Book (Australia and New Zealand)... just one of the many series I'm going to publish before the year ends :)
Thank you!
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All Things Beautiful: History and Geography
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