Help me put together a world geography curriculum including cultures, animals, and their habitats

[JRmommy]

I've looked for the perfect curriculum for my rising 2nd grader, but I don't think it is out there. So, I'm asking the Hive to help with the resources I need to to make this a successful year.

 

I want a literature based world geography curriculum that also incorporates the culture, animals and habitats. I've looked at MFW ECC, and it just seems a bit too much. I've also looked at Winter Promise's Animals and their worlds. It seems expensive for a science program, and the reviews haven't been encouraging. I am open to reconsider the above mentioned curricula (esp. MFW ECC) if you have any thoughts to share about using it with a 2nd grader who loves to read and reads very well

 

I have "Galloping the Globe" and "A Trip Around the World" that I could use as resources to put something together.

 

Has anyone ever put together a program like this? It seems like an overwhelming task. However, I know my son would LOVE it!

 

So, I'm looking for any advice you can give me. If you know of any resources that would be helpful in planning this, please let me know. If you have planned something like this and you wouldn't mind sharing, I'd be interested as well. If you know of a curriculum that meets my criteria, please share! Basically, I'm all ears to any helpful advice!!!

[TracyP]

Sassafras Science could easily be combined with GtG.

 

For more literature tied in with geography, check out this thread. LoriD's post will give you LOTS of ideas.

[LBoogie]

Here is a free resource (Teaching God's Heart for the World) that would bring in the cultures and missions aspect:

 

 

http://harvestministry.org/twghw

[LBoogie]

Plus, here are some free activity books (Bold Believers) about the people of different countries:

 

 

http://www.kidsofcourage.com/?page_id=166

[Embassy]

I've put together some of my own geography studies, but they have been mostly about the culture. I did do one on Sri Lanka that included the animals though. I've mostly done a selection of countries each year so we study a handful of countries in depth rather than a whole bunch. We've done the Arctic, Europe, and Asia so far. I put our studies on my blog so if you want to see them you will find a link in the left hand column under Geography Studies.

 

HTH.

[mazakaal]

I put together a geography study for my dd when she was in K (or maybe it was 1st... I can't remember exactly). I used A Trip Around the World and Another Trip... as a base and added readings from How People Live and Children Just Like Me and literature (short stories) from various sources. I'm pretty sure I have it as a Word file and I'm happy to e-mail it to you to give you some ideas. Our science came from the One Small Square books and slotted in to the geography study as best I could.

[Tortfeasee]

My dd loves the book, Usborne World of Animals. It's organized geographically, and has internet links for more information.

[Sue G in PA]

Just thought I'd share an idea that a friend of mine is doing next year. We live fairly close to a couple Zoos. Her plan is to choose one animal each week to study. During that week, they will learn all about that animal, including what country it is from, it's habitat, diet, lifestyle, etc. You get the idea. Books like the Zoo Guide would be helpful.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Guide-Bible-Based-Handbook/dp/160092008X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367682308&sr=8-1&keywords=zoo+guide

 

Add in some of the books from MFW ECC (I'm thinking the Missionary biographies, and the one about the different cultures...it's been a while since we've done ECC ;) ), GtG resources and maybe even some of the great FIAR books that are set in the different countries! :) Sounds like fun!

[mumto2]

Galloping the Globe recommended Considering Gods Creation by Eagles Wings back when we used it. We loved it. Some of our best science ever. Great projects. I can add more later but on my way out now.

[Cynful]

I did something like this when mine were young. We combined the One Small Step books, an animal encyclopedia organized by continent (DK I think) and all of the Children Just Like Me books (there are several of them, one on celebrations, one on stories, etc.). I made up passports and I made a sticker to put in it for each country. I added books if we found ones we liked. We also did some notebooking pages - just let them draw something they liked from each child and wrote a sentence. My son, of course, drew a picture and wrote something about each food he came across. I kept it fairly simple though. My kids still remember it all very fondly and I plan to do it again with my youngest when he's older.

 

One I do like that I might use as a spine or base mine off of next time is this:

 

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/world-geography-2

 

Good luck and have fun,

[alisoncooks]

We're doing something like this next year for K/2nd.

I basically chose a spine (atlas and animal atlas) and plan on hitting a continent a month. For each continent we will be picking a few habitats to study.

[warneral]

Did you see the winter promise animals and their worlds?

[mumto2]

We also used Draw Write Now for both geography and animal drawings. Lots of library story books. We had a full set of Zoobook magazines which we used for animal studies.

 

We put together amazing notebooks using Galloping the Globe as a base. The activities in Considering Gods Creation impressed the grandparents nicely. We also used Geography Songs with the cd so by the end they could sing the name of every country.

 

On a funny note those songs have stuck. It has been six years and we are doing a geography course again. When I set down to introduce Asia and how we were going to do it both dc's burst into "the middle east has Israel Iran Iraq...." upon learning Israel was our first in depth study!

[threeturn]

I did that this year! And when we did it, it was great. Unfortunately we were schooling through a deployment and the extras got dropped when energy ran low (which was often :sad: ). We started the year with a bang and my kids loved it. You can see how we started here. We actually did a few more countries than I managed to blog about. I also used Scienceworks Habitats for our science -- along with an animal encyclopedia. I planned out 30 countries on a spreadsheet. PM me and I would be glad to send you a copy.

 

Chelli at The Planted Trees also did something similar.

[mom31257]

I was putting together a habitat study with world geography this year, but I had to go to work part-time, so I dropped it. I plan to finish in the summer. I was using Trail Guide to World Geography. I like the recipe book, but I haven't really cared for the art book. Many are difficult for my ds to do. Here are some resources I used and will use again this summer. I wasn't making it literature based, though.

 

A Drop Around the World (picture book) and has a teacher's guide with habitat and water activities

 

National Geographic Beginner's World Atlas

 

Animal Atlas

 

Janice VanCleave's Science Around the World

 

Evan Moor Habitats

 

Scholastic's Make and Learn Animal Habitats

 

A Beka's 3rd grade science book has several chapters on different habitats

[JRmommy]

You ladies are wonderful!!!! Thank you so much for responding! I'm getting more excited about planning this.

 

I will be looking more closely at the resources suggested and PMing a few of you for more info. Again, thanks for your time. And if there are any others that have more suggestions, please share! I'm sure this thread will be helpful to more than just me.

 

[Tracy]

I put together a list of books by country. It doesn't include animals or habitats. Just countries and some cultures.

[6wildhorses]

I just recently found a great deal on a globe here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00A7TSXWG/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1367720497&sr=8-1&pi=SL75. I bought this animal atlas sticker book to go with it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0753464446/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1367720137&sr=8-1&pi=SL75. I plan on using them together as a jumping off point to start studying geography. I also have a Usborne book about children of different cultures and coloring books of maps, so I'll add those in as well. My girls (7 and 9) are excited about the globe and sticker books. For the literature component you might consider stories from different lands. There are a lot of options. We like Asian Children's Favorite Stories and Japanese Children's Favorite Stories to name a couple.

 

[skeeterbug]

I'd start with Expedition Earth from Confessions of a Homeschooler. She's got the animals supplement to go with it (actually I think that part is a free download), then just go more in depth with the animals. FWIW, I've not followed her lesson plan to do it all in a week, instead I use it as a checklist and spend 2-3 weeks on a country.

[Berley]

Another vote for Expedition Earth from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I just downloaded it for my 3rd and K kiddos for next year. It looks incredible! AND it's cheap! You already have one of the required books, and I found the others on ebay for very cheap. It looks like a lot of fun!

[JRmommy]

Thanks a bunch for linking that thread. Good info! And I like what I've seen in Sassafras Science.

 

Sassafras Science could easily be combined with GtG.

 

For more literature tied in with geography, check out this thread. LoriD's post will give you LOTS of ideas.

[JRmommy]

Thanks for the free resources!

 

Here is a free resource (Teaching God's Heart for the World) that would bring in the cultures and missions aspect:

 

 

http://harvestministry.org/twghw

[JRmommy]

Nice blog! I've bookmarked it. You did a wonderful job with Sri Lanka. Thanks for sharing!

 

I've put together some of my own geography studies, but they have been mostly about the culture. I did do one on Sri Lanka that included the animals though. I've mostly done a selection of countries each year so we study a handful of countries in depth rather than a whole bunch. We've done the Arctic, Europe, and Asia so far. I put our studies on my blog so if you want to see them you will find a link in the left hand column under Geography Studies.

 

HTH.

[JRmommy]

Thank you for your recommendation!

 

My dd loves the book, Usborne World of Animals. It's organized geographically, and has internet links for more information.

 

[JRmommy]

Zoo trips are definitely in the plans and this Zoo Guide looks great! Thanks for sharing!

 

Just thought I'd share an idea that a friend of mine is doing next year. We live fairly close to a couple Zoos. Her plan is to choose one animal each week to study. During that week, they will learn all about that animal, including what country it is from, it's habitat, diet, lifestyle, etc. You get the idea. Books like the Zoo Guide would be helpful.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Guide-Bible-Based-Handbook/dp/160092008X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367682308&sr=8-1&keywords=zoo+guide

 

Add in some of the books from MFW ECC (I'm thinking the Missionary biographies, and the one about the different cultures...it's been a while since we've done ECC ;) ), GtG resources and maybe even some of the great FIAR books that are set in the different countries! :) Sounds like fun!

 

[JRmommy]

Thanks for the link to that thread. I like it!

 

I'm working on this for next year as well (but for a 2nd and 5th grader). I found this post useful for grouping things: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/454957-any-ideas-on-how-to-make-this-animalgeography-study-mesh/page__hl__biomes#entry4719149. I do have ECC from a few years ago with my oldest, so I'll probably use some ideas from there to help me plan as well.

 

[JRmommy]

I just checked my shelf because that sounded familiar. I was given Considering God's creation a couple of years back. So excited! Thank you!

 

Galloping the Globe recommended Considering Gods Creation by Eagles Wings back when we used it. We loved it. Some of our best science ever. Great projects. I can add more later but on my way out now.

 

[JRmommy]

I have a few of those One Small square books which would be a great addition. I like the passport and notebooking ideas, too! Thanks for sharing.

 

I purchased Expedition Earth last year in a homeschooling ebook bundle and my laptop crashed and I lost it all. :( I may consider purchasing it again.

 

I did something like this when mine were young. We combined the One Small Step books, an animal encyclopedia organized by continent (DK I think) and all of the Children Just Like Me books (there are several of them, one on celebrations, one on stories, etc.). I made up passports and I made a sticker to put in it for each country. I added books if we found ones we liked. We also did some notebooking pages - just let them draw something they liked from each child and wrote a sentence. My son, of course, drew a picture and wrote something about each food he came across. I kept it fairly simple though. My kids still remember it all very fondly and I plan to do it again with my youngest when he's older.

 

One I do like that I might use as a spine or base mine off of next time is this:

 

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/world-geography-2

 

Good luck and have fun,

 

[JRmommy]

I have Draw Write Now 7 which is the animal drawings. We also have tons of zoobook magazines.

 

I plan to purchase the Geography songs. Thanks for the reminder!

 

We also used Draw Write Now for both geography and animal drawings. Lots of library story books. We had a full set of Zoobook magazines which we used for animal studies.

 

We put together amazing notebooks using Galloping the Globe as a base. The activities in Considering Gods Creation impressed the grandparents nicely. We also used Geography Songs with the cd so by the end they could sing the name of every country.

 

On a funny note those songs have stuck. It has been six years and we are doing a geography course again. When I set down to introduce Asia and how we were going to do it both dc's burst into "the middle east has Israel Iran Iraq...." upon learning Israel was our first in depth study!

 

[JRmommy]

Thank you! I'm PM'ing you now!

 

I did that this year! And when we did it, it was great. Unfortunately we were schooling through a deployment and the extras got dropped when energy ran low (which was often :sad: ). We started the year with a bang and my kids loved it. You can see how we started here. We actually did a few more countries than I managed to blog about. I also used Scienceworks Habitats for our science -- along with an animal encyclopedia. I planned out 30 countries on a spreadsheet. PM me and I would be glad to send you a copy.

 

Chelli at The Planted Trees also did something similar.

 

[JRmommy]

Do you think "Trail Guide to World Geography" would work with a 2nd grader?

 

I was putting together a habitat study with world geography this year, but I had to go to work part-time, so I dropped it. I plan to finish in the summer. I was using Trail Guide to World Geography. I like the recipe book, but I haven't really cared for the art book. Many are difficult for my ds to do. Here are some resources I used and will use again this summer. I wasn't making it literature based, though.

 

A Drop Around the World (picture book) and has a teacher's guide with habitat and water activities

 

National Geographic Beginner's World Atlas

 

Animal Atlas

 

Janice VanCleave's Science Around the World

 

Evan Moor Habitats

 

Scholastic's Make and Learn Animal Habitats

 

A Beka's 3rd grade science book has several chapters on different habitats

[teeniebeenie6]

I have a few of those One Small square books which would be a great addition. I like the passport and notebooking ideas, too! Thanks for sharing.

 

I purchased Expedition Earth last year in a homeschooling ebook bundle and my laptop crashed and I lost it all. :( I may consider purchasing it again.

 

Contact Erica about losing your Expedition Earth. If you give her the email you bought with I'm sure she will happily resend it to you. She is awesome that way! I am doing the same thing next year. I am using parts of WP Animals and their Worlds and Children Around the World, Expedition Earth, Galloping the Globe, Konos Africa +Russia and some Amanda Bennett unit studies. Amanda Bennett has some great week long studies. If you scroll down to Expeditions on this page you can see some of them. Her Passport Geography set is also great. Germany is on sale this week. She has a TON of sales during the year. I follow her facebook to find out about them. I've purchased most of her units for 40-50% off. I have bought binders and plan on making a binder per country that we are going to study with all the info I want to cover about it including animals and habitats for that area. I also bought some great lapbooks from Hands of a Child and A Journey to Learning to go with it. I am excited about the year!

[mom31257]

Do you think "Trail Guide to World Geography" would work with a 2nd grader?

 

 

I personally think there would be more fun programs out there than it. It's very good in that you learn a lot, but it's work to make it more fun than school.

[Mabelen]

I've put together some of my own geography studies, but they have been mostly about the culture. I did do one on Sri Lanka that included the animals though. I've mostly done a selection of countries each year so we study a handful of countries in depth rather than a whole bunch. We've done the Arctic, Europe, and Asia so far. I put our studies on my blog so if you want to see them you will find a link in the left hand column under Geography Studies.

 

HTH.

 

 

Thank you so much for putting the Sri Lanka study together. It is awesome!

 

[Carrousel]

Marking as this same project is on my summer to do list. Thanks to everyone who is sharing their ideas!

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

This is what we'll be studying next year, too, with a 4th grader, 2nd grader, and kindergartener. I think I'll be buying Expedition Earth and I already own the One Small Square series. The only other ideas I've had so far is to include fairy and folk tales from the countries we will be studying as well as saint stories. We'll spend 2 weeks per country.