The girls think it’s a great day to kickoff our European tour because their Nonno and Nonna are actually on their way to Italy today! And it’s no surprise that the kids think Italy should be the first country we focus on. We have a special Italian project planned for tomorrow, but first we will do an overview of the continent, which is a bit daunting–over 40 countries to learn about! We will have to narrow it down a bit…
Yesterday we picked out a new toy for our Europe week, a great children’s globe. It includes the route that the explorers and settlers took from Europe to North and South America which the kids find very cool. It’s a nice way to link all that we have learned about the early American settlers back to the countries in Europe that they came from.
To get an overview of Europe, we turn to the children’s Atlas of Europe, and learn a bit about the climate and terrain. Although the Northern areas of the continent are above the arctic circle, the Southern countries enjoy a very mild climate. Interestingly, the lower section of the continent stays warmer than one would expect, even though it is still quite a distance from the equator, because the seas bordering these countries trap the heat from the sun and warm the air.
We read about Europe’s largest country–Russia–and it’s smallest, the Vatican City, home to less than 1000 people. We discover that Europe has the third largest population in the world even though it is the second smallest continent. And read about some of the major cities that many of these people live in and around. The girls are especially interested in Paris, Rome and Moscow.
A fun book called Cities Then & Now allows us to flip through history and get a glimpse at how Europe’s major cities once looked. In some parts Athens in still very much the same as it was centuries ago, while Moscow has changed so much even in the last 100 years.
We have a big stack of books from the library and the girls each pick a few cities to read about on their own. After they learn some interesting facts they write a postcard or note about their destination.
CZ:
AZ:
HZ: (a self portrait!)
Globe Scouts 