Hello Expedition Earth friends! I'm sorry I've been so remiss in keeping up this blog. I hereby resolve to do better as we finish out the semester. :) So let's get caught up!
Week 3: We visited Italy. My husband and I went to Florence, Pisa, and Rome on our honeymoon so I brought in some of our souvenirs. We learned about the amazing artists of Italy and why the leaning tower of Pisa is leaning, ate gelato, and played "Rota", the ancient Roman version of Tic Tac Toe.
Week 4: South Africa. We learned about apartheid and Nelson Mandela. We ate some homemade chakalaka (kind of salsa with a can of baked beans in it!) and then we made our own Ndebele (pronounced un-duh-BEE-lee) houses. The paintings on the walls of these houses were used to communicate with neighbors how many people were living inside and their current state (e.g. a pregnant female, baby boy, little girl, healthy/sick, etc).
Week 5: Egypt. We watched a couple of videos about how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids and about the process of mummification. The kids wrote their names in ancient hieroglyphics and got directions and a game board for a game called Senet that they could play at home. We also ate aish baladi, which is in Egyptian flatbread. Many Mediterranean countries eat pita bread or something similar, but in Egypt, it is made exclusively with whole wheat flour and is eaten with most meals.
Week 6: Nigeria. We had a guest speaker visit us today, James Bingham, who worked for Boeing for many years as an airplane inspector. He traveled all over the world as part of his job and visited Nigeria several times. He showed us lots of pictures of the houses, the food, and a GIANT ant hill. We realized how blessed we are to have so much food to eat, clothes to wear, and toys to play with. Jim also showed us a hand-carved bow, and the string on it was made from cowhide that they would chew into a pulp and stretch out (some of the kids didn't want to touch the string...). We also handed out another game board to be used at home called Derrah.
Week 7: Israel. Teacher Beth took over for me today as I was home sick. We learned about the religious history of Israel and all the Biblical landmarks that still exist (e.g. the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, the mount of olives, and a brief explanation of the Dome of the Rock and how the temple mount changed religious "hands". We watched a travel video about the country in general (it's so beautiful!), and Beth brought some snacks that she described as "like cheese puffs but peanut flavored". Apparently, they were a big hit!
Week 8: Russia. We learned about how MASSIVE Russia is geographically and how diverse the climate and people are. We also did a brief timeline of the history of Russia and introduced the concept of communism, its strengths and weaknesses. We read the book "The Noisy Paint Box" about Wassily Kandinsky and learned about the birth of abstract art (it's a picture book, but parents if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it!). We started to do a collaborative grid drawing of St. Basil's cathedral, but it must have been a full moon that night or something because we were a little out of sorts. :) So we cut the grid apart and made a puzzle of the cathedral instead.
Week 9: China. I didn't bring any food from Russia the week before and believe me, I heard about it! So I made it up to them yesterday, found a Russian bakery near my house (who knew?) and brought in a delicious pastry called trubochka. We started out on China learning about the huge population, the Mandarin language and how important tone is when speaking it, and again, a little about communism (Mao, the one child policy, and restrictions on religious freedom). We ate sliced bamboo shoots (or most of us did)! Then the kids had a choice of making a Chinese New Year dragon puppet or making paper. Most of the kids chose the paper so we tore up some white paper, put in a blender with some water, poured the pulp into a big tub of water, and used a window screen to sift it out. We then carefully pressed it dry with some towels and sandwiched it between 2 pieces of felt. It has to dry overnight so hopefully it made it home unscathed! It was a pretty cool, if more than a little messy, project.
I really hope your kids are enjoying this class! Beth and I enjoy teaching it,
and thank you for the opportunity.
