Posted in Galloping the Globe
After the bounty of potential options for studying North America, South America seems to be a stretch for many people. There are some great suggestions in the text, but so much depends on what is available from your library.We have heavily depended on a series of books in our library called Welcome to My Country." My daughter finally made it clear that these were her least favorite part of *all* of our studies, including math! Of course, they are the closest thing to a textbook
that she has encountered thus far.
Admittedly, however, without the addition of stories and other types of literature, these Welcome to books can be a bit repetitive and seem dry. Unfortunately, these were about all that our library had, or could get in for us, about the South American countries.
So, we spent the majority of our time studying Brazil and the rainforest. It was actually quite relaxing and we enjoyed our in-depth look at the astounding biome of the rainforest.
Here are some of the things we did outside of the GTG recommended resources:
Readers (for those just beginning to read independently):
- South America - Allan Fowler. A "Rookie Read-About" book
- South America - Mary Fox. A "First Library" book
Literature:
- The Magic Tree House: Afternoon on the Amazon - Mary Pope Osborne
- The Beginning of the Armadillos - Rudyard Kipling. Kipling is so well-known for his stories set in India, but this is a great one in similar style.
- The Great Kapok Tree - Lynne Cherry. The animals living in a rainforest tree convince a man not to chop it down.
- Amazon Diary - Hudson Talbott. A terrific fictional adventure story about a young boy's temporary stay with the Yanomami tribe of the Amazon. Begins with a plane crash (both passengers survive) and the eventual rescue of the
passengers, but not before they rescue a member of the tribe! - The Thunder God's Son (from Ecuador) - Ariane Dewey. A nice morality tale about kindness with bright stylized illustrations.
Science:
- The Magic Schoolbus Rainforest video. A wonderful review of the "web of life."
- We began a tropical terrarium, but have had difficulty finding the right types of plants, in the correct sizes, for our container.
Art and Extras:
- Patagonia: Life at the End of the Earth (Argentina) - video. An excellent video about the unexpected harshness of animal life in the region east of the Andes and west of the Atlantic.
- Dover has several booklets of animal stickers, including some from the rain forest. We created a rainforest "scene" using construction paper and these stickers to illustrate the variety of animals and habitats found therein.
- Be sure to enjoy some really fine chocolate, preferably with at least 55% cocoa content to get the "real" flavor.
