Landforms & Water Features: Week Two

Some quick notes from our second week of this whole group main lesson block. This block blends Physical Geography & Freehand Geometric Drawing.

You can find the complete list of landforms & water features on my website.

Monday, September 9

• read Queen of the Falls by Chris Van Allsburg
• review Waterfall, add to classroom display, add to MLB
• draw and color Island / Lake as opposites of one another
  (draw the same closed shape in the middle of the paper, color one green with blue all around, color the other blue with green all around)
• look at the Great Lakes on a map of the United States
• do Form Drawing inspired by the idea of mirrored forms -- ie. island is land surrounded by water; lake is water surrounded by land -- (symmetry and mirroring: above and below on the top of page 49 of Creative Form Drawing with Children Aged 6-10 Years)

Tuesday, September 10

• review Island / Lake, add to classroom display, add to MLB
• draw and color Mountain / Valley as opposites of one another
• look at National Geographic maps (Mount Everest, The Alps, The Great Rift Valley, Arctic Ocean Floor, Indian Ocean Floor)
• do Form Drawing inspired by the idea of mirrored forms (symmetry and mirroring: above and below on the middle of page 49 of Creative Form Drawing with Children Aged 6-10 Years)

Thursday, September 12

• review Mountain / Valley, add to classroom display, add to MLB
• draw and color Isthmus / Strait as opposites of one another
• break into three teams and look at World maps to find examples of isthmus (Panama) and strait (they loved this and each group was constantly calling me over to show me what they found on their maps: Strait of Magellan, "Gate of Tears" at the Red Sea, Strait of Malacca, Bass Strait, Hudson Strait, Strait of Gibraltar)
• play mirroring game (mirror angles game from page 41 of Creative Form Drawing with Children Aged 6-10 Years)

Friday, September 13

• review Isthmus / Strait
• discuss and find the Bering Strait on a globe, explore the Bradshaw Foundation's interactive map Journey of Mankind (based on genetic evidence and archaeological evidence such as rock art)
• draw and color Peninsula / Gulf as opposites of one another
• locate India, Florida, Italy, and the Gulf of Mexico on a World map

We continued with Handwork, finishing up braiding and moving into making our own homemade knitting needles this week. We learned that finger knitting one wingspan of yarn makes a bracelet; finger knitting and braiding two wingspans of yarn makes a necklace; finger knitting and braiding three wingspans of yarn makes a belt. We have also continued with our read aloud story, Abel's Island. The children are deeply entranced by this story and look forward to hearing it every day after lunch and before recess.

For the first two weeks of school, we worked on memorizing "A Promise" by Barbara Dawson Betteridge. We are now working on a new poem in Speech & Recitation: "The Kind Mousie" by Natalie Joan.

One-on-one and small group Montessori lesosns on the Grammar & Word Study, Science, Geography, and Mathematics materials continue, as children plan their own individual courses of study during the morning Choice Time.

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!