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Learning About Argentina ~ Lesson Plans & Links

We’ve officially ‘landed’ in South America and our travels are starting in Argentina! Here are a few fun facts about Argentina before sharing about our time in Argentina.

Argentina is the eighth largest country in the world {and the second largest in South America ~ behind Brazil}. It is roughly the size of the U.S. east of the Mississippi River, about 1/3 the size of the United States. The border between Argentina and Chile is well-defined since the Andes Mountains provide a natural border {over 3,000 miles long!}.

The climate has extremes ranging from subtropical in the north to arid/sub-Antarctic in the far south. You can sit on warm beaches…or watch ice break off glaciers, depending on where you are visiting in the country.

You can view the other countries that we’ve studied in South America on my South America geography page.

Here’s a peek at our ‘travels’:

Week 1 Layout

Monday

  • Introduce new song about Argentina from Geography Songs {see words below}
  • Use atlas and globe to locate Argentina; read in the atlas about Argentina
  • Read one of our books from our bookshelf about Argentina

South America

Argentina, Venezuela and Colombia,

Ecuador, Peru and Chile and Bolivia,

Uruguay and Paraguay, Brazil and Guyana

and Suriname ~

These are the countries of South America.

The French have French Guiana.

The British have the Falkland Islands.

Brazil is the biggest country and

Chile is the longest.

Tuesday

  • Review geography song
  • Learn {and review} some terms: plains, pampas, mountains
  • Independent reading from bookshelf
  • Filled out the map of Argentina using our notebooking page

image

 Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Wednesday

  • Review geography song
  • Watched a LOT of video clips from World Zone Live {there are some great clips here}
  • Independent reading

Thursday

  • Review geography song
  • Children Just Like Me book {Carlitos, p.12-13} and notebooking page
  • Talked about the variety of geography features in Argentina ~ from beaches to the areas close to the South Pole; mountains to plains
  • Read book together on Argentina {from our bookshelf}

Week 2 Layout

Monday

image

Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Tuesday

  • Review geography song
  • Watched a video with the national anthem
  • Talked about some of the animals in Argentina ~ there is a huge variety of them! The mountains are home to llamas and condors, the southern part of Argentina has cougars and pudu {the world’s smallest deer}, the coast of Patagonia has elephant seals, sea lions, and penguins. The waters off the coast have dolphins, whales and orcas.
  • Read together one of books from bookshelf

 

Wednesday

Thursday

  • Review geography song
  • Summarized one of our reading books and copy summary/dication
  • Bought Dulce de Leche…because mommy was too lazy to make it. :)
  • Added our notebooking pages to our binder and stamped our passports!

Books We Used

Resources and Websites

 

 

South Africa Country Study

We have friends who visited South Africa a few years ago, so the girls remembered hearing about some of the different places that they had visited and also seeing pictures of their trip ~ making this a fun country to review and study.

Along the way we learned that South Africa is bigger than Texas and California combined, practiced a little Zulu, got confused with the three different capitals {Cape Town, Pretoria, and Bloemfontein}, and discovered that South Africa actually has another country within its borders {Lesotho}.

You can view the other countries that we’ve studied from Africa on my geography page.

Week 1 Layout

Monday

  • Introduce new song about Morocco from Geography Songs
  • Use atlas and globe to locate South Africa
  • Read one of our books from our bookshelf about South Africa

Tuesday

  • Review geography song
  • Learn {and review} some terms: grasslands, plateaus and cape
  • Independent reading from bookshelf
  • Filled out the map of South Africa using our notebooking page

 image

 Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Wednesday

Thursday

  • Review geography song
  • Time for Kids website
  • Reading together book on South Africa {from our bookshelf}

Week 2 Layout

Monday

 image

Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Tuesday

  • Review geography song
  • Read together one of books from bookshelf
  • Listened to the South African National Anthem

 

Wednesday

Thursday

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

Books We Used

 

Resources and Websites

 

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Learning About Morocco

Morocco was one of the countries that was ‘lighter’ for us, but it was nice to have a little bit of a break. We used the time to focus on several geography terms ~ strait {Strait of Gibraltar}, desert, mountains, coast, plateau, plain, valley. We also talked about the government in Morocco, read some great books about the country and made a very simple dish as our meal from Morocco.

You can view the other countries that we’ve studied from Africa on my geography page.

Week 1 Layout

Monday

  • Introduce new song about Morocco from Geography Songs
  • Use atlas and globe to locate Morocco
  • Read one of our books from our bookshelf about Morocco

Tuesday

  • Review geography song
  • Learn {and review} some terms: strait {Strait of Gibraltar}, desert, mountains, coast, plateau, plain, valley
  • Independent reading from bookshelf
  • Filled out the map of Morocco using our notebooking page

Mapping Morocco thumbnail

 Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Wednesday

  • Review geography song
  • Watched the clip below on Morocco
  • Talked about the government of Morocco {monarchy}
  • Independent reading

 

Thursday

Week 2 Layout

Monday

Flag of Morocco thumbnail

Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Tuesday

Wednesday

  • Review geography song
  • Talked about the religions of Morocco
  • Story from Around the World in 80 Tales ~ The Lion’s Dinner
  • Made a little couscous

Thursday

  • Review geography song
  • Summarized one of our reading books 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

Traveling Tanzania

Tanzania wasn’t on the list of countries for Galloping the Globe, but I was asked to help write a preschool unit for Itty Bitty Bookworm and I couldn’t pass up all the research that I had done for the unit!

We studied about Tanzania after we finished up our unit on Kenya since they are both in eastern Africa. Tanzania is the largest country in East Africa and also has the tallest mountain ~ Mt. Kilimanjaro. For our study we started with the book We All Went on Safari by Laurie Krebs looked more at the Maasai culture, learned about Mt. Kilimanjaro, tried to speak a little Swahili, and just had fun exploring a little more of Africa!

Week 1 Layout

    Monday

    • Introduce East Africa song about Tanzania from Geography Songs {see words below}
    • Use atlas and globe to locate Tanzania
    • Independent reading ~ pick a book from the shelf to read 
    • Watched this 10 minute YouTube video about Tanzania

 

Tuesday

    • Review geography song
    • Learn {and reviewed} some geography terms: Mt. Kilimanjaro, Great Rift Valley, lake, crater, and island {Zanzibar}
    • Completed our mapping activity of Tanzania

      mapping tanzania thumbnail Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

Wednesday

    • Review geography song
    • Built a Masai hut {which I cannot for the life of me find a picture of}. Laurianna gathered sticks/twigs from outside and glued them around a small can of chilies and it was very cute!
    • Learned about Mt. Kilimanjaro
    • Independent reading

Thursday

    • Review geography song
    • Story from Around the World in 80 Tales ~ The Dancing Hyena
    • Talked about similarities/differences between our culture and life in Tanzania
    • Reading together book on Tanzania {from our bookshelf}

Week 2 Layout

Monday

Flag of Tanzania GTG

Thursday

Resources and Websites

Books We Used

On Safari in Kenya ~ Our Lesson Plans

Our travels to the Eastern coast of Africa started with Kenya. We learned all about the Great Rift Valley and the heights of Mt. Kilimanjaro, figured out how to sing the chorus of Jesus Loves Me in Swahili, drew lots of fun pictures of safari animals, put together a fun diorama of a savannah, read some great books together, and visited some great websites to learn more about the great country.

    Week 1 Layout

    Monday

    • Introduce East Africa song about Kenya from Geography Songs
    • Use atlas and globe to locate Kenya
    • Talked about the size of Kenya 
    • Independent reading ~ pick a book from the shelf to read

    Tuesday

    • Review geography song
    • Learned {and reviewed} some geography terms: lake and valley, highlands, lowlands, equator,  and savannah
    • Learned about the Great Rift Valley and Mt. Kenya
    • Learned about the flag of Kenya using our notebooking page

Flag of Kenya thumbnail

     Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

    Wednesday

    • Review geography song
    • Talked about the climate of Kenya ~ on both sides of the equator, wet and dry seasons, snow on top of Mt. Kenya
    • Visited National Geographic for Kids: Kenya site
    • Independent reading

    Thursday

    • Review geography song
    • Tried to sing Jesus Loves Me in Swahili ~ well, the chorus at least!

Yes, Jesus loves me. Yesu amipenda
Yay-soo ah-nee pen-dah [3x]
The Bible tells me so. Biblia ani sema
Bee-blee-ah ah-nee she-mah

Mapping Kenya  Click on thumbnail to download pdf file

    Tuesday

    Wednesday

    • Review geography song
    • Used Draw Write Now to draw a lion and a cheetah
    • Learned about the baobab tree ~ the one that looks like it is planted upside down!
    • Independent reading

    Thursday

    • Review geography song
    • Laurianna worked on a fun diorama project of a savannah. We found some great 3D animal punch outs that she put together and then made up a ‘habitat’ for them

African Savannah diorama Africa diorama

    • Added our notebooking pages to our binder and stamped our passports!

Resources and Websites

Books We Used

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 site Time for Kids – Australia
  • 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