Eastern Hemisphere: Antarctica

Welcome to the frigid South Pole!

We studied penguins, explorers, the concept of a frozen desert, and more penguins, lots of penguins. Since we spent so much time with the birds, let's start there.

 Penguins:
We used the book, Penguin Chick, as our jumping of point. To this we added Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater, and the movies March of the Penguins and Blue Planet: Polar Regions. This was plenty of penguin information!

The big kids wrote penguin facts and the little ones colored and played with penguins. I set up a tray with small plastic penguins from Wild Republic, hunks of Styrofoam, and blue and white silks. There were lots of scenes of tobogganing penguins with leopard seals chasing them down.

We did penguin art with our handy Draw-Write-Now #4, Polar Regions. To add a little specialness to their work, I gave them pastels. The colors are beautiful.

 Potato print penguins from That Artist Woman were a big hit. Even I sat down and made a picture.

Explorers:

Stories about the early expeditions to Antarctica are fascinating! Everyone learned a tremendous amount about Robert Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton, and Admiral Byrd. The whole family enjoyed these exciting and informative picture books.

 Race to the South Pole by Gare Thompson

Animals Robert Scott Saw by Sandra Markle

Trapped by the Ice! by Michael McCurdy

Trial by Ice by K.M. Kostyal

Black Whiteness by Robert Burleigh

Movie: The Endurance

This rounded out the information from the books. It was much more revealing as to the harshness of Antarctica and hardiness of the men. We came away with a great respect for Shackleton. However, after watching this documentary, they decided to forgo  90 Degrees South, which is about Robert Scott's doomed expedition. The big kids didn't want the gritty details.

General Resources:

Maps, 3 part cards, flags, and pictures are crucial to our studies, of course. Montessori for Everyone has wonderful materials. The little girls loved quizzing each other about the flags from countries that have claimed Antarctica. I really don't know why this caught their fancy so much but they are now experts! 

A for Antarctica provoked many giggles and questions as the photographer/author obviously enjoyed his work. In one photo he is outside in his long underwear building a snowman- for U, of course. Everyone then drew four pictures of their choice from the book as a form of narration.

Also, the little ones did a lot of copy work from Draw-Write-Now #4. This had age appropriate facts that tied in perfectly with the readings and movies.

A Note of Caution:
On the last day, I let everyone play with Insta Snow. I thought it would be fun with the penguins, ships, and explorers. Oh, and it was! However, after the clean-up, my husband told me that it was never to enter our house again.

Next stop: Japan!