Week 1
Monday: Stamped passport with flag sticker, located Russia on world map and globe, located capital, bordering countries and water bodies, looked up Russia in Pocket Atlas, and Family Picture Atlas, read Mission Friends (no longer on the web), pages 1-2, listened to Former USSR Song.
Tuesday: Map page (from Mission Friends), Geography from A to Z: rivers, volcanoes, steppe, mountains, lake, peninsula, tundra, forest; National Geographic Kids video on volcanoes (click on video), read Mission Friends, page 3; listened to Former USSR Song.
Wednesday: Notebook page (printable from Homeschool Creations), read Look What Came From Russia, learned about Russian currency, read Baboushka and the Three Kings, listened to Former USSR Song.
Thursday: Flag page (from Homeschool Creations), discussed Government & Religion (leaders, Communism, czar), read Mission Friends, pages 6-8; watched sections of Fiddler on the Roof, read The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, listened to Former USSR Song.
Friday: Discussed Russian music and dance (folk, ballet), watched YouTube videos, learned about Rimsky-Korsakov and listened to his Flight of the Bumblebee), learned about Tschaikovsky and listened to some of his music. Read Colors of Russia. Also colored a picture of musical instruments (from rainbowkids).
Monday: Children Just Like Me with notebook page (printable from Homeschool Creations), watched parts of “The Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake” on YouTube, listened to the “1812 Overture” and read about the history behind the song, read from Ivan and the Informer.
Thursday: Landmarks, Moscow, St. Petersburg (Youtube videos and websites), learned about Faberge eggs (another site here), designed and decorated an egg (we cut an egg shape out of cardboard), watched YouTube videos on Russian egg painting, watched VHS video clips “Summer Palace” (from Great Splendours of the World: Imperial Splendours video…British spelling intended) and “St Petersburg: The Last of the Romanovs” (from History Happened Here video), read Rechenka’s Eggs, read from Ivan and the Informer.
And his cardboard creation:
Isaac designed this himself and did nearly all the work. It was his idea to put his own head on the portrait, and he designed the outfit. I helped him choose a photo (where he was wearing a Tudor hat) and printed it for him. I had bought him some metallic markers earlier, and he used some on this egg (he loves metallic pens and markers). He also used some metallic sequins and confetti.
Friday: Played with our Russian nesting dolls (from Ukraine), Matroyshka (mah TRYO shkah)--or nesting dolls--craft from Activity Village, color page on Russian costume, read Babushka Baba Yaga, read Russian tale from Around the World in 80 Tales, finished reading Ivan and the Informer, ate Beef Stroganoff.
Other websites we visited:
Saint-Petersburg.com for a virtual tour.
Rainbow Kids on Russia.
Kids Culture Center for coloring sheets.
National Geographic Kids and Time for Kids for basic info.
The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
Fireworks display in Moscow (MSNBC)
Our resources:
I included the book The Littlest Matroyshka, although we didn’t read it at the time. I ordered a lot of books from England through Amazon.uk, and I really wanted that book, but I felt it was too expensive. However, when we got back to the US and visited my favorite used book store, we found it! So I’m going to have Isaac read it (as well as some other Russia books I found in storage) while we’re still in the US.
I'm linking this post to "History and Geography" at All Things Beautiful.
