Getting ready to Gallop the globe: Early exploration

This week we began our first unit in Galloping the Globe, by Loree' Pettit and Dari Mullins.We used the resources in the text to plan out a unit that included History, geography and literature. Switching between the history of exploration and an introduction to maps and reading maps, everyone learnt a lot and remained interested right until the end of the unit.
We also found the Early explorers activity book which kept Miss K busy with coloring, word searches and mazes and plenty of interesting facts about each explorer. Here are some of our notebooking pages for this unit.

Early Exploration Time line

Our explorer time line pieces came from Homeschool Share. Inside each mini book Miss K added their country of origin and where they explored/what they discovered.

Making a map of your room and The map of the world

A timeline showing images of early maps of the world. We were all amazed at how much had been 'guessed at'

The Globe from teacher file box

Learning about map directions, the compass and compass rose

Nature treasure tray

While at the park with the Kids I have taken to collecting interesting looking rocks and seed pods etc to put in a 'treasure tray'. I surprised Mini Piwi with the current collection and she spent ages looking at every little detail...

really getting a closer look!

Secret Word for American Girl Giveaway

Miss K attended an art class that was about making 'Animal palaces'. She got some inspiration from the art works around the art school campus and spent the next hour creating her 'Perry Hideout'.

Here she is putting the finishing touches on the signpost. 

We were allowed to take home another ready made Palace and Mini Piwi got to work taking it apart and rebuilding her own version.