Our Cup of Tea: Geography Travels: Mongolia

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Geography Travels: Mongolia

Mongolia is another one of those countries rarely studied in geography units. I found this study very fascinating, and we had a lot of fun with it. Here’s what we did during our 2-week “travel” to Mongolia:

Week 1

Located Mongolia on the globe, map, atlas; discuss capital city Ulan Bator (Ulaanbaatar) and other major cities

Listened to “Asia Song” from Geography Songs

Looked at a Power Point on Mongolia and another website with great cultural information; unfortunately, both websites have been disabled. Sorry.

Colored the flag (More Coloring Pages) and listened to the national anthem on YouTube.

Watched a YouTube video on Ulan Bator

Began a vocabulary page (which I made myself) and added terms as we studied them: zud, pastoral, nomadic, steppe, arid, ger (yurts)

Read from Geography From A to Z (desert, steppes, mountains, basin, lake)

Atlai Mountains

Learned more about the Gobi Desert

Labeled a map of Mongolia (map from Enchanted Learning; I added the places to label). We used a map at About.com Geography to help us.

Learned about the government, currency, economy(herding, agriculture, mining), climate (term zud), language, religion, and food

Week 2

Children Just Like Me and notebook page (Homeschool Creations)

Animals: Bactrian camel, Przewalski’s horse, snow leopard

Colored a Bactrian camel printout from Enchanted Learning

National Geographic Kids has a nice page on the Bactrian camel. Be sure to check out the video!

Check out the videos on the Cincinnati Zoo website. A few of the videos show a baby camel being born and also the baby being examined 3 days later. The reason I included this website in the kids’ studies is because I visited this particular zoo in 1993 and actually got to ride a Bactrian camel (I’d show you the picture…but luckily I don’t have it here, ha ha). I can’t find that they do camel rides anymore. I feel privileged!

YouTube video on Przewalski’s Horses:

YouTube video--Traditional Mongolian folk song about horses:

Learned about Ghengis Khan, Kublai Khan and Marco Polo. We watched the Animated Hero Classics DVD about Marco Polo. We also learned about Xanadu.

Discussed culture, sports (Naadam), music, architecture, eagle-hunting (see Mongolian Eagle Hunting webpage). Naadam is a famous sporting event held yearly in Mongolia. The main focus is the 3 sports of Mongolia wrestling, horse racing, and archery.

Click HERE if you want to see a short YouTube video of Vice President Joe Biden watching an archery and wrestling competitions in Mongolia; also includes dancing, singing, and contortionist performances (and a speech by the Vice President at the end).

This one makes me think “Riders of Rohan” from Lord of the Rings:

Eagle Festival:

Several of the websites and videos we used are no longer available; however, I just came across this 5-part video by actress Julia Roberts, who lived with a nomadic family in Mongolia for a few weeks in 1999. The focus is on wild horses, but it has plenty of examples of Mongolian nomadic customs, food, dress, language, and more. Follow links to the other 4 parts of the video. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this!

Read the Mongolia entry in The Not for Parents Travel Book

A ger, once called yurt (the Russian word), is a moveable tent made of felt or canvas and a wooden lattice frame. This type of home is normally used by nomadic Mongolians.

To read more about the construction of a ger, visit Mongolia Street Connections (World Vision, NZ).

YouTube video on Mongolian felt making:

I made a model ger out of pipecleaners and felt and used it to make a Mongolia imaginative play set for the kids to play with. I had intended for the kids to make a ger, but it ended up being way more complicated than I had imagined. In fact, it’s taller than it ought to be!

Read story from Around the World in 80 Tales, read other Mongolian folktales online (some were on the disabled websites, but you can see one called “The Golden Pitcher” at Activated Story Theatre).

Notebook page (Homeschool Creations)

A few months after this study, we were privileged to visit the Field Museum in Chicago. Their special exhibit just happened to be on Ghengis Khan. The exhibit also included a huge collection of Mongolian artifacts and had plenty of exhibits on Mongolian culture and history. I was so excited! Unfortunately, photography was strictly banned in this particular exhibit. I did get one of the exhibit entrance, though.