Monday, April 18, 2011

Canada Unit Study for the Geography Fair

For anyone who knows us or has been reading my blog for a while, you probably aren't surprised that Canada was chosen for our geography fair project and you probably know who's idea it was. Colin wants to live in Canada, where he imagines he'd be surrounded by hockey and find outdoor ice rinks on every corner. 
Since it was our first geography fair, I thought it would be best if they just did one country together. Colin immediately said Canada, but the girls weren't too thrilled with that idea. They named other countries, but never seemed set on one so I talked them into doing Canada. I figured Colin would do more of the work since he's older and should do something he's interested in.   

We used the Download N Go (DNG) study, Expedition Canada. From this we got to watch lots of videos showing different parts of Canada. We learned about a different animal each day, some places there, inventions, history, popular sports, Canadian cities, geography, and holidays.


Some of the books we read


Caleigh made this beaver, a national symbol of Canada, and this totem pole, which were made by the First Nations peoples.





Lego Creations: Colin made the CN Tower and Caleigh made an inukshuk, both of which we learned about in the DNG study.




In addition to DNG, we also used Homeschool Share's Canada lapbook and a Canada mini lapbook from Fortunately for You for our lapbook. I think this is the first time we've ever done an actual lapbook. We usually just add the mini books to our notebooks, but I wanted something they could display at the fair this time.







We made maple cookies with real maple syrup. You can find the recipe we used here.





Kids at the geography fair. Along the bottom of the table, we taped coloring pages for each of the provinces and territories.The kids spent a lot of time coloring them.




Display board: It was Colin's idea to use black and red. Caleigh came up with using maple leaves under the letters in Canada. On the bottom right is a Mountie paper craft that Molly put together. Also on the board: map of Canada, map of North America, flag, popular sports, major industries, major crops, information about what the word Canada means, languages, holidays, animals, and Levi from Children Just Like Me.



On the right, we brought along some of the inventions from Canada. On the left toward the front of the table is a French Canadian counting book.





In this picture, you can see Colin's hockey helmet, a puck, the Lego CN Tower, and a French/English color words matching game.




I'm so glad we did the geography fair. It was lots of fun showing our display and seeing everyone else's. The girls and I weren't too excited about doing Canada since it doesn't seem as exciting as some other countries, but we did learn a lot of new things and it ended up being a good study for us.

In my previous post, I have some pictures of other projects at the fair and Molly getting a henna tatoo.

13 comments:

Grateful for Grace said...

Wow, what a very thorough study! How long did it take? I have to admit, I've never been intrigued by Canada, though I hear it's gorgeous. My favorite book is Madeleine Takes Command.

blessings!

Michelle said...

That is absolutely wonderful! It's neat that you had everything from Lego creations to lapbooking to cooking to the shirt. We've never participated in a geography fair, it looks like great fun

Linda said...

Wow! This is GREAT! What a beautifully done (and VERY thorough) project. And it looks like tons of fun too. Our co-op doesn't do a geography fair...I may have to suggest it!

Thanks for posting, glad you linked up to the hop!

Linda @ The Homeschool Apologist

Heather said...

Great study. I am from Canada and looking for ways to teach my kids more about our country. This looks like fun. By the way, your son is right. If he moved here he would be surrounded by hockey and arenas on every corner. :) Some stereotypes are based in fact.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this project. Your display looks like such fun! I will be using some of your ideas with my kindergartener during our fall break study. Great resources. Canada is such a wonderful place. This year we were able to explore a bit of Peachland and the Oakanagan, cherry and berry picking, horse back riding and the great outdoors on our visit. Loved it. Thank you from a Canadian transplant.
Blessings, Katrina

Unknown said...

Did you study some of Canadas war and military history? How about the east/ french/ anglo disputes? Very similar to the American civil war disputes. How about the connection to Europe and the french/british disputes there? Or how many Louisiana french people are former Canadians? Canadas history is actuallu very fascinating. Check out some of the crazy names for their towns: Onion Butte, Moose Jaw, Wabamun,etc. Oh you missyed so much! But it was a very good study and I look forward to adding some of this to my own childrens studies about our glorious country- the true North, strong and free!

becky@purposefulhomemaking.com said...

Thanks for all the helpful resources! Great job!
Becky
www.purposefulhomemaking.com

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Anonymous said...

This year is the 150th birthday of our grand and glorious country, Canada. It is much on my mind to teach my students about her and how our country's laws were founded on the 10 commandments. Our natural beauty is stellar from coast to coast. The Rocky Mountains in the west, Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper...our coastal towns like Victoria, British Columbia and Lunnenberg, Nova Scotia. Our natural wonders like Niagara Falls.
I love this country.
May God truly keep our land glorious and free.
Thanks for the inspiration.

3 AM Art said...

Thank you so much!! Can you imagine I don't recall ever having done a geography fair as a kiddo??! Go Public school! LOL! Thank you kindly for this post! This has been most helpful to get my own three homeschoolers some ideas on how to do this! We did do reports on geography and did pick countries to study, but nothing like this!! This is wonderful! Thanks so much!!

Unknown said...

Прекрасна идея!Благодаря за подробната информация!Канада е прекрасна страна и децата от всички страни трябва да научат за нея.Поздрави от България!

Unknown said...

I'm hoping you'll see this since your original post older. For the lapbook did you have directions on how to put it together? The link has the download but no instructions.

Anonymous said...

We usually refer to Canada from sea to sea to sea.