James Audubon | amberdover

The 1800’s Week 2: South America, Mexico, & James Audubon May 27, 2014

Filed under: Crafty Mondays,Fun Food,Geography/History,Kid's crafts,Language Arts,Lapbooks for Homeschool,Parties,Story of the World — amberdover @ 10:44 pm
Tags: Amber Dover, art, birds, blogging, coconuts, crafts, Crafty Monday, fruit, grass hut craft, homeschool, jaguar, James Audubon, jungle, lapbooks, Mexico, Ocean, paper flowers, pinata, rainforest, robin, South America, the 1800's, toucan, tree frog, tropical, waterfall craft, yarn painting

In this post: We continue our study of the 1800’s. Come have a fiesta! Then take a trip to the rainforest! Crafts, food, and fun!

Hello dear ones, I pray you’ve had a nice day. For part 2 of our study of the 1800’s we were able to learn a little bit about Belize, the country I’m about to go to for mission work. It’s in Central America but it’s very close to South America & Mexico. The most exciting part of the week was turning the homeschool room into a rainforest. Here’s how we learned:

South America

We read about the South Americans’ freedom from the Spanish in Story of the World book 3.
We did lapbooks on South America and the rainforest.
We read South American Nursery rhymes in the old book set that belonged to my Dad.
We made a hut over the reading pool, using hawaiian grass skirts. I hung up toucan decorations. Our “fiesta” flowers became jungle flowers.
I used an ocean table cloth on one side and we added sea creatures and a fishing net. These also came from the Dollar Tree.
Our bookshelf became a jungle waterfall. Michael colored the tree frog and the jaguar. I used tissue paper and brown wrapping paper.
I hung door decor of a parrot and a toucan.
We read The Great Kapok Tree. It’s a lovely story about the animals in the rainforest.
We tried tropical fruit and we had a tropical drink (coconut water with pineapple juice, gingerale, and sherbert).
Michael watched Rio. Michael played online games about the rainforest. We watched videos about the dance and music of the Garifuna people of Belize. We listened to sounds of the rainforest.
We read Hands of the Maya.

Mexico

We read about Mexico’s independence from Spain in Story of the World book 3.
We read Mexican nursery rhymes.
We bought a cactus :).
We made big “fiesta” flowers out of tissue paper.
I made a cactus pinata out of a tp roll. I filled it with tropical Mike n’ Ikes. Michael just had to pull the string.
Michael made a Mexican yarn painting. Links are after the picture.
We ate tacos and Mexican hot chocolate cupcakes.

James Audubon

We read Into the Woods about James Audubon. He was a French American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He’s most known for his documenting and painting of American birds.
Michael put together a Robin lapbook.
Michael drew a picture of a robin, from his Draw Through History book.

Other

Michael finished reading Farmer Boy.
He did a composer study on Claude Debussy and I attempted to play Clair De Lune. We listened to his music.
We watched “Amazing Grace” & read about William Wilberforce’s help to end the slave trade.
Michael drew a picture of a steamboat from his drawing book.
We read poems by Tennyson and watched the scene from Anne of Green Gables where Anne pretends to be the Lady of Shalott.
We also read about the end of Napoleon, and the Zulus and Boers in Africa.
Because we just finished with Napoleon, Michael finally played his French Revolution game. It has Napoleon on it. He used a Lego for his game piece and look, it must’ve been guillotined!