Lewis and Clark Salt Dough Map

During our Lewis and Clark unit study we completed a salt dough map tracking their journey west. We are using Little School Smiths unit study for our lesson plans. All the instructions and labels are part of the lesson. We read What was the Lewis and Clark Expedition as our main book. 

Along with the salt dough map the boys wrote a paragraph about the Louisiana Purchase. 

We also learned about Thomas Jefferson and his role during the Louisiana Purchase and Expedition West. 

We like tying our history and language arts lessons together. We covered Cause and Effect during one of our English lessons. 

The map was helpful during our reading. It allowed the boys to visualize the main events and where they took place. 

We were also able to review map symbols and directions during this activity. 

Compass Rose

To help my boys learn about the compass rose we did some fun hands on activities. Here are some of the things we did. 

We started by reviewing the cardinal directions using 3 part cards from The Modern Montessori Guide.

 

Next we made a compass rose out of salt dough. We used a template from Kids Activities Blog.

We glued all the pieces together with hot glue.

Alberta Study

Hi guys, and welcome to our study all about the province of Alberta. For our Canada study we are using The Great Canadian Adventure. Here are some of the things we learned all about this great province.

We learned all about topography maps and contour lines. We made this beautiful one out of cardboard and painted it. For my younger kids we did a simple one out of foam sheets and playdough. 

We also learned about a great Canadian John Ware, a famous cowboy. My son put together a scrapbook page all about him. 

We also watched an animated story about John Ware on YouTube. 

We also learned a lot about weathering, erosion, and the rock cycle. We did some fun demonstrations too. 

We also learned about Dinosaurs and fossil fuel using documentaries and books. 

Dinosaur Lego building. This activity is always a favorite. Anything that involves Lego building is always a hit. 

This was a fun activity from Mystery Science. Can you out run a dinosaur?

If you love this post make sure to check out our study about British Columbia. 

Home-school Geography and Map drawing.

Hi guys, today I wanted to share with you how we incorporate map drawing/study into our home-school day.  Every year we make a goal as a family to learn to draw and label one continent. This year we have been working on Europe to go with our WWII study. The boys will spend 15-20 minutes drawing and reviewing on the white board. By the end of the year they will have mastered that continent and will make a final copy colored and labelled to store into their notebooks.

Here is my 10 year old with his completed map of Europe. He was so proud of himself and I was too. I find that small bite size chunks daily has really helped him achieve this goal.

We love this Draw (Europe, USA, Canada, etc.) books. They have funny little information and descriptions for drawing out each country. I see the boys sometimes giggling while they're drawing, which is always a plus.

So far we've covered Canada, United States and Europe, Central America, and South America. My plan is for us to practice Africa next. I'm not going in any particular order. We will go along with our history theme.

Along with map drawing we do lots of reading using living books. We also play professor noggin geography trivia games and do a lot of puzzles. Once a week they will do a map drill with me, where  I hand them a blank map and they must label as many countries as they can. That's about all the geography we do in our home-school and it's been working so far.

How do you guys incorporate geography into your home-school?