Saturday, October 22, 2011

Geography Month

Our H.E.A.R.T. Homeschool Group meets every month at the park. This year, we decided to try something new and have each family choose a different country to study. Every month has been assigned a specific topic. The month of October was Geography Month.
The five countries represented this year are Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and France. Each family brought information, handouts, project boards, and more!
This family dressed as German children and taught us about the different landmarks. They also shared some information about the first day of school, and passed around little paper cones filled with treats, which is a tradition in Germany!
Our family shared basic geographical information about Portugal, and then each of our children created a specific individual project. My girls made project boards on the cities of Porto and Aveiro, and our little boy made a 3 dimensional project highlighting all the different geographical features of Portugal. We also had a lot of manipulatives to pass around such as cork, ceramics, and even a Happy Meal box from the McDonald's that is written in Portuguese! Then our kids passed around euros and chocolate umbrellas brought back from our trip,  for each friend to have.
This family's project was on Switzerland and they displayed the flag, which we learned was one of only two flags in the world that are square! We also learned that Switzerland has a very small population of people, and that St. Bernard dogs are very common in their country and are used to rescue people in the snow.
Next was Canada, where we all sat and learned about the different territories, hockey teams, and main languages. The family representing Canada even drew the map of the country on the sidewalk for everyone to see!
Last but not least, these young ladies gave their presentation on France. Each family received a darling little French box with a puzzle in it and some different facts about the country. We learned about the Eifel Tower and that cycling is the number one sport in France.

These monthly themed park days are so nice and the kids are learning so much! November is History Month, so stick around and see what exciting projects the children come up with!



2 comments:

  1. What a great way to spend your time at the park. I could tell each family put so much time into their country and I'm sure the kids will never forget the things they learned.

    ~Vicki~ shadycreekacademy.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a great idea! I nominated you for a versatile blogger award today on my blog! Congrats and thanks for visiting me so much!

    ReplyDelete