Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Homeschool Open House - Our Geography Fair



At the last Homeschool Open House, (sponsored by Tammy of Lattes and Lollypops), I had hoped to be far enough long on our Geography Fair project to share with you. However, we were still in the research stage. This was the second year for our local homeschool group to have a Geography Fair. Last year, I was sick with mono and my mom took Joy to make her presentation and set up her exhibit. This year, all was well; I didn't have to miss out on all the fun and it was great!

Joy decided awhile back that she wanted to study the country of India. Last year, we read the book, A Little Princess (through our Sonlight curriculum), and part of it takes place in India. This book sparked the interest. And just a plug for this book, if you haven't read it to your children, it's a must-read. It is just a story that makes you want to do good, be good, and do what's right with a cheerful heart inspite of your circumstances.

But back to India, our first step was a stack of books on India. Joy and I took turns reading them aloud to each other and making notes as we went along. She decided on the parts of India she would like to present the most. With this gathered information, she and I put together an exhibit of India.

Back on our snow day (with big snowflakes falling outside our bay window), we made our salt dough map of India. This was lots of fun!



After shaping the country, Joy made the Himalaya mountains, and then painted the entire map. I made the little flags for her to put on the map. She marked the three major cities (one of them being the capital city of Delhi), Taj Mahal, and the Himalaya mountains with the little flags.



We both had lots of fun doing this and it was just a perfect afternoon for making it. (After there was enough snow on the ground, we were done with it and we went outside to play).

In addition to making the map, she made a lapbook of India. If you don't know what a lapbook is, let me explain a minute. It's a file folder folded together like a shutter.



Inside this folder are mini booklets folded in many ways, such as pop-outs, etc.., that have information accumulated from things studied about India. I found the templates for all of these on India from Homeschool Share. After cutting them out, Joy filled her booklets with all the information she learned. Then together, we worked on placing the booklets inside to fit.



We added an extra fold out sheet because she had so many little booklets.



Not only are lapbooks fun to make, they are great review tools. She can pull out her India lapbook at any time and review all the facts she accumulated about India.

Joy also did some additional research on Taj Mahal (one of the Seven Wonders of the World) , Gandhi (Political figure), Amy Carmichael (missionary to India), and Mother Teresa (Roman Catholic Nun). She made mini reports on each of these and placed all of these on her exhibit board along with photos of other interesting facts, including India's flag and Lotus Temple.



The Geography Fair was held on March 3rd. There were 12 families that participated in the fair. Others families that didn't do an exhibit, still came to enjoy and browse the fair. The idea was to set up an exhibit sharing all she had learned. She had 3-5 minutes for an oral presentation. She shared some little Indian wafer cookies with everyone that we purchased from an Indian store nearby.



After giving her oral presentation (decked out in her sari and sarong), she stamped everyone's passport with a stamp of Taj Mahal.





That was the way it worked. We moved around the gym letting each family share about their country with several of them dressed in traditional attire from the country they represented. The children ranged in ages from 4 to about 14. After they finished, they would stamp the passport of each child.



After all the presentations, were done, we walked around and browsed at each table more and the kids (and adults) sampled foods from around the world.

Here's one for my Canadian friends.....Joy's friend, Molly Grace, presented Canada. She was decked out as a Royal Mountie.



Friends from around the world....Indian girl meets Mountie....


We really had a great time! It was very educational! I can't wait until next year. Next year, our group is considering doing the United States only and every family will pick a state. I think this will be a nice change since we did countries last year. Joy presented South Korea last year and really enjoyed doing that one as the birth country of her brother!

Countries that were represented during this year's Geography Fair were: Serbia, Mexico, (Island of) Okinawa, India, Canada, Ancient Rome, Cambodia, Zimbabwe, Ancient Persia, Ukraine, Italy and Japan. Here's a snapshot taken of the kids after the fair (there could have been some kids missing but we tried to rally them all together).



I hope you enjoyed your trip around the world today! Thanks for stopping by! Next Homeschool Open House, I plan to share some of the field trips we've taken recently.

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I finally had a chance to work on a few of Goodwill finds and give them a makeover. Stop by tomorrow to take a look and with a day or so, my mom's cupboard should be completed and I'll show you how it turned out!

Have a great Tuesday! :)

28 comments:

Susan said...

What a wonderful way of teaching and learning for both the parent & the children. I so respect you home school moms.

I thought the picture and name on the outer cover to open up was so great. Loved seeing them all dressed up!!!
Susan

Zaroga said...

I enjoyed this presentation very much! The map is just great and so is the lapbook. I wish I could view each in person... I would probably spend hours going over them!

Linda - Behind My Red Door said...

What a wonderful lesson and all that hands on learning and sharing is so cool! I would have loved that kind of lesson. Joy looks adorable of course.

I am going to share this post with a freind in OH who home schools. I wish there was such an active group in her area!

Dawn said...

Joy, great presentation. The map is awsome. I love the texture of it. Very nice work! Dawn

Never So Simple said...

WOW! Joy and Tammy I am so impressed. You did a great job and loved the outfit. I wish the public schools could take the time to make learning fun again.

I can't wait to see your re-dos or your Mom's hutch. :)

Donna

CozyGirl said...

That looks like so much fun! That map is really neat and I love Joy's costume!Can't wait to see your GW redo's. Have a great day Tammy!
Janae

Betsy Banks Adams said...

What a great educational experience for Joy and all of the students. I love the lapbook.. Neat!!!! She looked so cute in her sari.

I remember participating in a Science Fair in high school. I made a Shoebox Spectrascope..Will never forget that experience. I used to get so upset seeing some of the other designs and presentations which I know had been made by the parents. That surely doesn't help the kids, does it?

Happy St. Patty's Day.
Hugs,
Betsy

Lois Christensen said...

What a wonderful teaching presentation your children put together!! Looks wonderful! Please let them know I think they did a great job. Great dressing up as well!

Linda said...

Totally awesome. The children really looked like they took pride in their learning, and had great fun with their countries.

I am looking forward to seeing the creativity with the United States next year.

Again, Bravo......Great Job Joy!

Blessings from Linda @ Kindlelight Blessings.

The Sweetest Things said...

what a wonderful way to teach the kids. & she did a great job on hers . She is such a pretty girl. I bet all the food was great
Have a great day
hugs

Sandy said...

How creative with their costumes...Loved them both. Also loved the presentations...looks like it sure would of been fun to attend. I liked the extra touch of the passport.

You both did a wonderful job, teaching and learning.

Have a great week :)

Sandy

Sharon said...

Your daughter did a great job on her project and I truly enjoyed reading all about it.
God bless.

A Bit of Colour said...

That looked like a lot of fun!You both really put alot of time and effort into the map , costume and everything that went with the country.

Tammy said...

Tammy, I just loved going to this geography fair with you today!!! Oh, wow...that map is just great! And for the longest time, I've been wanting to help one of the girls make a lapbook but for some reason, just never have...this has inspired me to help one of them do it for an upcoming book report.
Joy just looks beautiful in her India costume!!! I'm going to show my girls this post- they are just going to love it!

And let me just say that I wish our group did geography fairs...I want to join your group but it is just bit out of our way right now! ;)

Thank you once again for participating in the Open House, dear Tammy!

Hugs from the other Tammy....
(the one without geography fairs!) ;)

Debbie said...

Thank you for sharing the fair with us. I thought it was very interesting. Joy looks so cute in her outfit too!

Looking forward to seeing your GW finds.

Debbie

carolyn@simple~primitive~devotion said...

What a fabulous time! Joy looks adorable in her costume and her presentation is awesome! I know how proud you must be of her. I sure have enjoyed hearing all about it.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Anonymous said...

Hi Tammy, wonderful post about the school fair. You sure do a good job in your community of doing this the right way.

Anyway, just wanted to comment that my 3rd grade teacher was from India and one day she had all of girls try on sari's, it was cool and the material is just gorgeous.
On the other hand, I saw the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" which showed the "other" side (the horrible side) of India and it was an eye opener. If you ever get the chance to see this movie, it is worth it, but I would not recommend it for Joy.

I love the passport idea, that was very clever and nice to see the kids dressed in costume from their respective country.

Cant wait to see your redo's!!

Jill from NY

Shelley said...

I am so impressed with this Geography fair! Loved the map that Joy put together and her outfit was adorable! Seems like so much fun learning this way!!!

Paula said...

That was some wonderful displys- I can't belive all the work they put into it!

Mandy said...

What a great job Joy did on her presentation! I really like the outfits and the passports. I love it when learning and fun go together!

We've never done a lapbook but they look like a lot of fun to put together and I'm sure they are great resources to have around.

Blessings,
Mandy

green gables girl said...

Hello!
Wow! That's so neat! I wish our group did that! But my mom said we'll try to get that going next year... :) :(

I can't wait for Joy to meet my other pen-pal!

Talk to you soon!
Love, You know who! =D

Sue said...

As I have told you before...you are doing a wonderful job homeschooling. This presentation was wonderful...she looked like she could have been from India! The passport was another added bonus. GREAT JOB!!!

Joy ~ Doodlebug ~ said...

I think we should do the USA for two years, then, go back to countries for two years, then USA for two, and so on. I love your post....and you!

Love, Joy =D

retha said...

For some reason my computer or inter net does not open all the pictures on some page (?)
What I did see was lovely! And her Sari, well I am speechless. What did she say afterwards about walking and moving around whilst wearing a "Sari"
And the map got my full attention,

This is such a wonderful idea!

Blessed Beyond said...

What a wonderful way for everyone to learn about other places! I just love how you all get together and do things together like this. Joy did awesome! And she looked great too! She really did a wonderful job!
Hugs and Blessings,

Amy Ellen said...

Wow... that is some serious homeschooling. Do you mind if I ask how often you are able to complete a folderbook like the India one?

Mary said...

The geography fair looks like it was a lot of fun and I'm glad that Canada was represented. Both costumes are beautiful.

I certainly enjoyed my visit.
Blessings,
Mary

Lynn said...

I love your India study and the salt dough map.. That's great! I wish our area would have a country fair where we can talk about another country or a history fair.. it's usually only a science fair and right now my kids are in love with history.. Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a commment. Oh, I love your goodwill makeovers.. Beautiful!!