Week 31 Day 1

Book choices for today:

Australia ABC’s   Sarah Heiman
Wonderful Animals of Australia   John Sibbick
Over in Australia: Amazing Animals Down Under   Marianne Berkes
Diary of a Wombat   Jackie French

Geography: (first circle)

Need for lesson – Montessori Map of Australia or other map of the continent, and items for the continent table or tray that represent Australia.

Geography 48
We are going to talk about our last continent, which one is left? Australia. Australia has much the same kinds of city life, industries, and offices that modern nations around the world do. It also has large ranches, called stations, where sheep and cattle are raised. Farms and orchards can be found in out in the country where fresh fruits grow like apples. The language in Australia is English. Even though they speak English, some of the words they use for some things is different than the words we use. It is like the word they use for a ranch is a station. It is the same thing but we use different names for it. Some other things that have a different name are french fries, they call them chips. A barbecue is called a barbie, a cookie is called a biscuit, the country is called the bush, a diaper for a baby is called a nappy in Australia. What we call candy here they call lollies. Who has played the game Candyland? If they call candy lollies in Australia, what do you think they call the game Candyland? Lollieland! Raise your hand if you are a boy? Boys are considered males here. In Australia they call males, blokes. Girls, or females are called sheilas. To say hello, it is “g’day.”
A common tree in Australia is the eucalyptus, or gum tree. Kookaburra birds like to sit in the gum trees. They roost in these trees. Two favorite animals in Australia are kangaroos and koalas. We talked about the kind of animal that carries their babies in a pouch a long time ago. Kangaroos and koalas are this kind of animal, they are called marsupials. Koalas spend almost all their lives eating leaves of the eucalyptus tree, and only come down to the ground when they need to change trees. We talked about how we get medicines from plants. Well, the eucalyptus tree is one of those plants that give us medicine. Some cough drops have eucalyptus in them. Another animal found in Australia is the platypus. What do we know about a platypus?

Additional Work:

Animals of Australia

Art:

Kangaroo Art – Children can color and glue a kangaroo with a joey.

Platypus – This is made using a brown paper bag.

Songs/Poems:

Five Baby Emus by Elaine Harrod
Five baby emus, wishing they could soar.
One went to try and that left four.
Four baby emus hungry as can be.
One went to eat and that left three.
Three baby emus go off to the zoo.
Only one ran away and that left two.
Two baby emus were looking for some fun.
One found a playmate and that left one.
One baby emu playing in the sun.
Then all were gone and that left none.

Botany: (second circle)

Need for lesson – Samples of some herbs fresh and dried, Herb Matching cards or Herb Vocabulary cards, and a basil plant or leaves for the children to smell and also on a plate or tray have some washed basil leaves that the children can taste. Plant some herb seeds!

Botany 29
We have learned many things about plants. We talked about seeds and the parts of a plant. We found out that plants make their own food through photosynthesis. We also talked about the many different kinds of plants like vegetables, trees, grasses, and flowers. Today we are going to look at another kind of plant. They are called herbs. Herbs are plants with leaves, seeds or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume. If they are used for medicine, different parts of the plant might be used for it, including the roots. Many people use herbs when cooking. We talked a little about spices. Spices are seasonings obtained from the bark, roots, stems, fruit, and buds of various plants and trees. Herbs, on the other hand, usually come from the leafy part of a plant. They can be used fresh growing on the plant like this or can be dried and used in cooking like these. Many people like to grow herbs in their garden. Sometimes if one doesn’t have a lot of space for a garden, herbs can be grown in pots. Some people like to just grow an herb garden. The names of some herbs are basil, rosemary, thyme, sage, and cilantro.
We can just pick the leaf off of this basil plant and eat it. It smells so good. Let’s pass some basil around to smell. We can taste some if you would like after we smell it. This tray has some washed leaves that are for tasting.
We are going to plant some of these seeds. They are…(which ever herbs you would like to grow)