Australia and New Zealand (Coral Reef Biome) Unit

 This week in our Around the World Homeschool Curriculum we focused on Australia and New Zealand. We did this concurrently with studying the Coral Reef Biome. Since we did them together, I decided to make just one post with all the resources.

Books:

As always, we read many great spines on these countries, but here are some extra picture books we read:

Diary of a Wombat

Once Day in the Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus Tree

Living in Australia

Australia Page from A World of Gratitude

Poetry about Australian animals in Around the World on 80 Legs

We also looked through the Australian pages in our various atlases (you can see which ones we use here). This spread is from the Lift-The-Flap Picture Atlas

Coral Reef

The World of Coral Reefs

The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World's Coral Reefs: The Story of Ken Nedimyer and the Coral Restoration Foundation

Peek Inside a Coral Reef

Coral Reefs

One of the Great Barrier Reef pages in The Wonder Garden

Coral Pages in Life Cycles

Activities:

Flag from Little Passports

Great Barrier Reef page in Adventures Around the Globe Activity Book

Oceania pages in the Barefoot Books World Atlas Sticker Book.

Australia page from page from Beginning Geography

Page in his Flag Sticker Atlas

We played Koala Capers. He had fun looking at the pictures to guess which country each outfit was from.

Coral Reef vocabulary cards and Toob figurines.

Sydney page from Seek and Find Around the World

Maze from Around the World Mazes

Recipe:

We made both Anzac biscuits (New Zealand) and Sausage Rolls (Australia) from Global Feast cookbook.

Read Aloud:

For read aloud, I read him Race the Wild Great Reef Games. I had previously read him Greetings from Somewhere the Mystery of the Coral Reef. He also read Rainbow the Koala, which is a graphic novel, so not really a picture book but not really a read aloud.

Art:

For art, we learned about Australia aboriginal dot art through this video. Then Archer made a kangaroo.

Videos:

Bug Jar Counting Game

 

Despite my efforts to avoid it, my toddler really likes counting. However, she isn't great at understanding what those numbers mean. Now I'm making an effort to help her link the symbol, name and quantity of numbers. 

As part of that, I made this quick little bug jar counting game. I gave her a die and some little bug erasers, with the idea of her rolling the die and putting that number of erasers in. When she gets older, I will likely do these activities with dice with more numbers. For now 1-6 is fine.

Print the Bug Jar Counting sheet HERE

Tot School: Hexagons

We have been working on a shape a week, as well as doing other themed activities. This week was Hexagons and Creepy Crawlies. 

These are the shape related activities. Juniper was 21 months.

Hexagon posters from The Learning Effect, as well as her completed artwork.

Painting a hexagon. She loves watercolors, even if she isn't great at actually getting the color on the paper.

Coloring some hexagons (Printable found here).

Play dough included some fondant cutters and  a stamp. She likes using the three sizes of fondant cutters to make little "cakes."

Using her bug rollers to make a bunch of hexagons.

Practicing tracing in her dry erase center. She still needs a lot of help, but she enjoys it. (Printable found here)

Stickers on a hexagon dot page. 

Making hexagons with magnetic tiles.

 

Around the World Africa Units

 We've been working on Around the World Homeschool Curriculum . Africa was a little hard to divide, so we kind of did it in regions, but not perfectly. Here is what we did over about three weeks.

Books:

As always, we read many great spines on these countries, but here are some extra picture books we read:

Both of these books were read throughout learning about Africa.

Africa, Amazing Africa (checked out enough from the library over the years that we finally bout it)

Africa is not a Country

Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace (Kenya)

Sulwe (Kenya)

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain (Kenya)

Rhino in the House: The Story of Saving Samia (Kenya)

The Lion's Whiskers: An Ethiopian Folktale

Deep in the Sahara

The Lion and The Mouse

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale

We All Went on Safari: A Counting Journey through Tanzania

Fossil Huntress: Mary Leakey, Paleontologist

The Tortoise and the Hare

Lala Salama: A Tanzanian Lullaby

Hippo Goes Bananas

Pages from The Wild Life of Animals

 

Spread from A Place Called Home

Page from If You Lived Here

Big Picture Book of Planet Earth

Activities:

Flags from Little Passports

Maze from Around the World Mazes

Recipe:

We had Shakshuka from the Global Feast cookbook and African Yellow Rice.

Read Aloud:

During our time studying Africa, we also studied the desert biome. We read The Secret Explorers Desert Disappearance to relate to that, then we read Lions at Lunchtime and Madagascar Madness for Africa.

Art:

Archer watched an Art for Kids Hub video on how to draw a giraffe. 

He practiced mixing paint colors to make a mane, then cut out a face on construction paper to complete this lion. 

For this one, he painted the sunset, the glued on all the black pieces for the foreground. My neighbor was kind enough to cut out the animals for us with her Silhouette. 

See other Africa posts here: