Session 4 - Australia

G'day mates!  Today we visited Australia.  Judging from the "oohs and aahs" from the kids, we looked at some of the most beautiful pictures we have seen thus far in our travels.  As all things in life usually do, our discussion led us back to Disney and the movie Finding Nemo.  As we looked at beautiful pictures of the Great Barrier Reef, students made the connection that this is where Nemo lives.  They recognized the Sydney Opera House from the movie, and the dentist from the movie was a scuba diver.

We also talked about the land animals in Australia.  None of the kids knew who the crocodile hunter was. It seems like only yesterday that crazy dude was jumping on crocodiles in a khaki outfit yelling "kriky"!  We talked about the fact that Kangaroos, although cute, can pack a wicked punch with their feet and claws. For our art project today we made our own kangaroos.

Since we have had all these snow days, if you are like me, you are having trouble remembering what day of the week it is, let alone if we have reading club that night. According to my records, we have 2 sessions left. We have reading club next Thursday, Jan 30, and we will have a make-up session the following week on Feb 6 (from the snow day on Jan 9).  Hopefully, there will be no more reschedules.  Thanks for hanging in there!  Enjoy the pictures.

Session 3 - Brazil

This week we traveled south to the country of Brazil.  We learned about the rain forest, the Amazon river, soccer, and carnival!  Some interesting facts were: the giant anaconda, who lives in the amazon, can grow longer than the length of the classroom we were sitting in; when Brazil plays in the World Cup they close school so that the students and teachers can watch the game; there are schools in Brazil where they practice dances and work on their carnival costumes for a whole year leading up to the festival.

Students enjoyed looking at the pictures of the floats and bright costumes.  We also talked about the animated movie Rio that is set in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil's second largest city. It is a cute movie if you have not seen it, and if the kids watch it now, they will understand more about carnival and the rain forest from the film.

For our art project today, we made carnival masks.  My original plan was for everyone to make masks and parade around the room, but we ran out of time.  Sorry about the glitter and the feathers:)

Next week's clue on where we are traveling: we are staying in a warm climate, there is a restaurant on Lindbergh that serves its food, and its national animal stands on two legs... See you all next week.