Geography Travels: Egypt

When my oldest was in 3rd grade, he did a lapbook on Egypt instead of a regular geography unit.  Follow the link if you’d like to see his lapbook!

Here’s what my daughter did for her Egypt unit (which did not include a lapbook):

Week 1

Located Egypt on world map and globe, capital and largest cities; stamped passport

“North Africa” song from Geography Songs

Bold Believers in Egypt—A Christian resource for kids, mostly related to persecuted Christians.  It includes stories, fun facts, and activities.  (You can download this resource for free, if you register.)

The Not-for-Parents Travel Book entry on Egypt

Labeled a map of Egypt (Mapping Egypt, Homeschool Creations)

Week 2

Colored the flag of Egypt (from Galloping the Globe)

Read the book Look What Came From Egypt to discuss inventions.

Discussed history, government, culture, currency, languages, and religion of Egypt

Children Just Like Me and notebook page (page from Homeschool Creations)

Week 3

Geography from A to Z—desert, river, isthmus, sea, sand dune, oasis, coast, delta

Sahara Desert and Nile River, Famous Places book (Sahara Desert and Aswan High Dam)

The YouTube videos we watched are gone now, but here’s one on Ancient Egypt and the Nile (video with music, not narrated):

The Bible and Egypt (Joseph, Moses, plagues, Israelites, Mary and Joseph); color page from Bold Believers

Week 4

Pyramids/Sphinx, King Tut, mummies, Famous Places (Pyramids)

Discussed vocabulary words and animals; played a game called Seega (from Bold Believers)

Did notebook page (Country Fact Sheet, Homeschool Creations)

Prayed for Egypt

More Websites for Egypt:

Homeschool Creations (Egypt)—follow links for lesson plans

National Geographic Kids

Books we Read:

Geography Travels: Iraq

I did this unit with my daughter last school year (3rd grade).  While most of the geography units we did were repeats of the ones I had done 3 years earlier with my son, a few of them were new (including this one).  Last year, we did our geography scheduling differently.  Instead of 2-week units, we did 3 days a week for 4 weeks.  Rather than write out our schedule in this post, I’ll just list everything we did for our Iraq studies.

We began by locating Iraq on our world map and globe, and we found its capital (Baghdad) and largest cities in an atlas.  Then she pasted the flag in her passport and date-stamped it.

We listened to the “Middle East Song” (Geography Songs).

We began reading selections from Bold Believers in Iraq (Kids of Courage—you can download this book for free if you register).  This Christian resource gives lots of fun facts about Iraq, some activities to do, and stories of Christian children in Iraq.

She labeled a map of Iraq (Enchanted Learning map outline) and watched some videos on YouTube (here’s one we watched).

She colored the flag of Iraq, and we discussed Iraq’s history, government, culture, currency, languages, and religion.

We learned about ziggurats: Mesopotamia: Ziggurats

We discussed some important things that came from Iraq:  the wheel, writing, law, time divisions, recorded history, schools, an accurate calendar, and maps.

We read about deserts, mountains, marshes, rivers, plains, and deltas in the book Geography from A to Z.

Using YouTube, we watched videos on Iraqi music and sandstorms.

We discussed Biblical places in Iraq (Babylon, Ur, Nimrud, Nineveh) and their history.

We played an Iraqi game mentioned in Bold Believers.

She worked on her notebook page (Country Fact Sheet from Homeschool Creations) and prayed for Iraq.

See these resources for more on Iraq:

National Geographic Kids: Iraq

Wartgames: Iraq

World Heritage Sites: Iraq

Kids Konnect: Iraq

Interesting Facts About Iraq

Random Facts: Iraq

I'm linking this post to "History and Geography" hosted this month by Adventures in Mommydom.