geography

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geography
By Eileen

This year we have a social studies theme in our 1-2 school. Each class took a country. We will have a school wide theme day. My country was Canada. We have sent Flat Stanley to every province and Territory and hope to
get a lot of replies. We are also studying the dwelling of the various First Nations people which the kids love. The igloos of the Inuits are next. The children are making paper dolls at home of the various workers of Canada since they have no national costumes. We are also learning French which will lead to a small study of France.
We study penguins and Polar bears in January. This

gives the children an idea of the two poles and the differences in the animals that live there.

Each time we read a book from a different country we find it on our maps. We have studied Italy, Israel, Kenya, Ireland ( I'm Irish), Japan. Short unit are enough for each. This is great for the high level children who can go into more depth at a center. It is giving all the children an introdcution to the countries of our Earth.

Having little wooden puzzles of the US are great. I bought them at the dollar store and my kids use them before school. They used to do them in groups but now I see the lower ones doing them on their own. They may not know the states ( just some) but they are getting familiar with the shape of the USA.

Hope this helps.

Flat Stanley is great. I like the Teddy Bear idea too.

Eileen