Monday, August 31, 2015

Around the World in Ten Weeks: Egypt

Egypt was one of my favorite Geography days this summer! 
We used the kinetic sand that the girls already had for dinosaur play. I took some little Egypt landmarks from a TOOB set and buried them in the sand. 
The girls had to play archaeologist and dig them out. 
(This was especially fun for Maddy because as of right now that is what she wants to be when she grows up!)
 


A few of our supplies. 


The girls colored paper pyramids which they later cut out and taped into pyramid shapes. 


Then we used some dolls (similar to Barbie but from the dollar store) and made some papier mache to make the dolls into mummies. 


This is the only shot I have of Abi making them because she did a few strips and then was done. 
She hates feeling slimy things. So I had to finish hers.


Maddy really enjoyed it. 


The finished wrapped mummies. It took a few days for them to dry. 


That afternoon we used some hieroglyph pages to figure out codes, make cartouches, and make up our own languages with pictures. 








We read a story. 


We colored some pictures. 


These are some of our books that were used...


For a snack we made some Egyptian cookies. I got the recipe on Pinterest. 
These looked good. But they really weren't. 
They tasted like a bite of flour with a cashew in it. 


Thursday, August 27, 2015

Around the World in 10 Weeks: Introduction to Africa

I'm going to lump some of our week activities together here. Before going to the zoo we did our introduction to Africa. 
This is looking into the Africa Continent Box...
 

We talked about South Africa and Kenya and a few other countries were mentioned. 
We did a lot with safari animals. 
Matching...



Coloring the Kenya flag...


Africa mazes...


Coloring wooden safari animals...


Learning about Nelson Mandela...


The girls made safari dioramas. 


We played a little hangman. 
That is my really pathetic attempt at a hippo. 


Here is our board after Russia and these parts of Africa.... 


Their cute dioramas...


Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Around the World in Ten Weeks: Russia

Our Russia day was really fun! 
First, here is a picture of the book that I got from the library and used all summer long. 
This book has so many stories from so many different countries. It was a really great resource. 
 

We started out our day with a flag game. It is a lot like Spot it. 


We learned about Russia and colored in the flag. 


They colored some Boris Bear coloring pages. 


The story we read from the above book...


They colored some nesting dolls. 


And for most of the time we were listening to Tchaikovsky on YouTube.


We had some Russian nesting doll jewelry boxes that they painted. 





For dinner that night I made a recipe I found online. 
It was basically dough with a meat mixture inside. 
I just blanked on the name of it but I will add it when I remember. 
It was really good. 
We ended the day watching Anastasia. 


Before I changed the bulletin board to put up our Russia stuff I got this picture of our Japan day things. 


Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Zoo videos

Here are the videos from our time at the zoo that I mentioned in the last post. 









Hogle Zoo

We were beginning our studies of Africa in Geography and were talking about safari animals so I thought it would be a fun time to take a day and go to the Hogle Zoo. 
This zoo used to be the worst. 
They have been steadily improving it for years now and it is amazing what a difference it has made. There is still work to do so I am excited to see what it will be like when they completely finish. 

The girls next to the new statues near the entrance. 

Checking out the real giraffe


There was a dinosaur theme going on at the zoo this summer too. 
The girls really liked seeing the big dino statues!


There were a lot of cool new interactive exhibits. 









Abi really liked this window area where part of it jutted out so I could take a picture out of one window and get her on the other side. 







When we were over by the elephant area, Maddy had so much fun playing some instruments with these guys!








There is a new splash pad area and they had a ball in there. I let them get soaking wet in their clothes because it was really hot. 
There were a lot of kids in swimsuits but I had no idea it existed until we were there. Maybe next year we will be more prepared... or maybe they will just get their clothes soaked again. 
















Posing as eagles..




One of my favorite areas... 














We stopped in the Asia area and my mom treated the girls to ice cream and herself and me to sodas. 








We rode the carousel of course. 







Time to ride the train!





At this point my mom had to leave. We walked her to the gate where she went to meet my dad and the girls and I went to the cafe for lunch. 
In hindsight I wish we would have just done a few more things and then left and gone to lunch somewhere else, but I thought it would be fun. 
Their food is not that great and it is really expensive. 



After lunch they wanted to go back to the splash pad and play for awhile and then we hung out in the gift shop. 


It was a very fun day!
I will post some videos in the next post! The dinosaurs really moved so it was pretty cool.