Jimmie's Collage » geography

Teaching Geography Without Buying a Curriculum

Jimmie — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 04:01:22 +0000

I have a couple of geography resources on the shelf, but mostly we cover geography by integrating it into our other lessons. And more often than not, it is not planned.

Case in point: yesterday’s study of the Strait of Magellan.

In Sprite’s proofreading practice (Evan Moor Daily Proofreading, grade 6) she came across strait of magellan which had to be capitalized. She didn’t realize that it was a specific place. In fact, she didn’t even know what a strait was. And she had forgotten all about the explorer Magellan.

At that point I had a choice. I could simply tell her that the Strait of Magellan is a place on the tip of South America and it should be capitalized. Or I could take this natural opportunity for a mini-geography lesson.

Yesterday I chose the latter. (I don’t always, by the way. Sometimes you just have to say no to a tangent.)

We started with the atlas. Amazingly we couldn’t find Strait of Magellan in the index! I didn’t want to just tell Sprite what or where it was, so I suggested the dictionary next. She looked up the word strait and wrote down the definition. Then she looked up Magellan in the dictionary too. Based on the information she found there, she was able to figure out that to find the Strait of Magellan in the atlas we would need to look at the South America page.

To solidify her understanding, I asked Sprite to draw a simple map of the Strait of Magellan below the definitions she had looked up. And then that page went into her geography notebook. Voila! Geography lesson is done.

For more details about this style of sneaky teaching without a curriculum, see my Teaching Reference Skills series at The Homeschool Classroom.

By the way, if you do want a more direct approach, this workbook is good — World Map Skills, Grade 6. It is serving as an occasional geography supplement for our Beautiful Feet ancient history study.

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Salt Dough Map of Alabama

Jimmie — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:19:28 +0000

Somehow I managed to get through my childhood without ever making a salt dough map. Or if I did make one, it made so little impression on me that I don’t remember it at all. Well, not wanting to repeat that travesty with Sprite, we made a salt dough map this week! It was quite an entertaining project for the crafty and hands-on Sprite. To make the map, she had to study the AL outline and topography in detail. I know that from now on, she will be able to identify AL from its outline. (Why AL? I let her choose one state. She was born in AL.)

I’m such a sneaky mom. When we were nearing completion on this two day project, I said, “Well, one down! Only 49 more to go!” She looked at me in terror, “We’re making one of these for EVERY state?” I couldn’t resist having a little fun with her. Don’t you do things like that with your children?

It made a good tie in with our 50 States Notebook, and we discussed some geography as we worked on it. Yes, she thinks the Appalachian Mountains are like the Rockies “purple mountains majesty.” They were already snow capped purple mountains before I realized the misunderstanding. Oh well. Another teachable moment.

For the whole low down of the project, including the recipe for the salt dough, and step by step directions, click over to Salt Dough Map. I’ve got a new camera that’s so much fun to play with! So that new lens features a LOT of pictures of the project.

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Singing the Praises of Geography Songs

Jimmie — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:51:00 +0000

A couple of months ago, we were in a fast food restaurant in an Atlanta suburb when I let Sprite climb around in the indoor play area. A man with two small boys came in and watched them play. From his accent, I guessed he was not a native born American but an immigrant.

I tried to strike up a conversation with him about his sons. Then I asked him where he was from. His answer– “Ethiopia.” He had a weary tone of voice as he added, “It’s in Africa.” I know all too well the irritation of explaining yourself over and over as a foreigner in a foreign land. (At least everyone knows where and what America is!) This man had obviously run into quite a few Georgians who had no idea where Ethiopia was.

To reassure him, I added, “Yes, I know. It’s on the Horn of Africa, south of the Red Sea. It’s by Somalia, Eritrea, and Djibouti.” His mouth dropped open with surprise. “Have you been there!?” he asked, in amazement. “Oh, no, I haven’t,” I replied.

There was a pause. Then, I just couldn’t resist asking the next question, “Are you from Addis Ababa?” The poor man almost fainted. “Yes, I am, in fact.”

“Yeah,” I said, “I thought so since it’s the most heavily populated city in that area.”

His surprise turned into a big grin. He’d finally encountered someone who knew at least a tiny bit about his corner of the world.

Bless his heart, he had no idea that all this knowledge was thanks to Geography Songs. I already knew that Ethiopia was in Africa, but everything I told that man was learned from the “Horn of Africa” song on the CD.
Learning through songs really works! For more about learning via audio means visit my new Audio Homeschool lens.

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