Brazil Unit Study

 

We have thoroughly enjoyed another virtual trip to the other side of the world! For the last four weeks we have been studying Brazil and various themes connected to it. The children started by locating Brazil on our map of the world, discovered its capital city and made its flag.

 

 

We got out a big pile of books from the library on the subject of Brazil and read them together. In them we found out lots of information about the different sights and landmarks and after this the children stuck pictures of the different tourist attractions on a map of Brazil. We "visited" the landmarks on our Google Earth app! Using tissue paper, the children collaged flags of Brazil and found out what the different colours and symbols represent.

 

 

Nathanael did some writing on Brazil's tourist attractions.

 

 

We found out about the foods they eat in Brazil and had fun making and eating Brigadeiro, a chocolate sweet like a truffle.  

 

 

The children wrote simple sentences about the weather in Brazil

 

 

and drew pictures of Samba dancers and percussion players. We watched some videos of Samba and tried to dance the box step!

 

 

One of our favourite parts of the project was finding out about the Rainforest. We started by making some rainforest jigsaws.

 

 

We discovered the different layers of the rainforest and the creatures that live in them.

 

 

We were amazed at all the different animals that live in the rainforest, some of which we had never heard of before. We watched various YouTube videos about them.

 

 

The children were especially interested in all the beautiful varieties of birds, so vastly different and unique. We decided to design our own birds to live in the rainforest!

 

 

 We looked at some of Henri Rousseau's jungle paintings and the children created their own rainforest artwork in his style using oil pastels.

 

 

The children were interested to find out that chocolate and rubber come from the rainforest! After watching this video on how chocolate is made they made a flow chart, documenting the process. They then thought of all the different things that were made of rubber after watching this video on how rubber is made.

 

As a writing activity the children pretended they were rainforest guides and used what they had found out to describe to visitors what they might see, hear and experience in the rainforest. They also wrote acrostic poems using the word Brazil.



 For other ideas on things to do for Brazil, here is the link to my pinterest board.

Easter School!

To complete Tabitha and Abigail's current project on farm animals, we visited our local farm.

 

 

Nathanael and Tabitha attended a felt making workshop at the Hat Works in Stockport.

We made Easter cards,

 



 

Easter bonnets

 

 

and chocolate nest cakes!

 



The weather has been delightful, so we have made the most of it and spent a lot of time outdoors at parks,

 



den building in the woods

 



and we even got the paddling pools out in the garden!

 





Even though the children enjoy eating their Easter eggs and taking part in crafts and activities, we hope that they understand the true meaning of why we remember this time of year. In our Bible time, we have been using a devotional book, taking us through the Biblical account of the crucifixion and resurrection. One of our favourite hymns we like to sing together is Low in the Grave He Lay by Robert Lowry.

 Low in the grave He lay—

  Jesus my Saviour!

Waiting the coming day—

Jesus my Lord!

 

Up from the grave He arose,

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes

He arose a Victor from the dark domain,

And He lives forever with His saints to reign.

He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

 

Vainly they watch His bed

Jesus, my Saviour!

Vainly they seal the dead—

Jesus my Lord!

 

Death cannot keep his prey—

 Jesus, my Saviour!

He tore the bars away—

 Jesus my Lord!

 

Hope you all have an enjoyable Resurrection Sunday. 

 

 

Ireland Week!

After the success of our Wales week, we decided to virtually visit another country, this time Ireland.

 

We located Ireland on the map, coloured in its flag and found out some facts. We also located Northern Ireland, coloured in its flag and discovered some of the differences between the two countries.

 

 

 After reading a book we got out from the library on Ireland, Nathanael, Tabitha and Abigail made collages on the country in the shape of a shamrock.

 



 

They really enjoyed seeing the beauty of God's creation in this video of Ireland from above

...breath taking!

 

 

 

For some reading practise, I wrote down a few words associated with Ireland and the children drew pictures to go with them.

 

 

In history with Daddy the children learnt about the Potato Famine, the Easter uprising of 1916 and how the history of both provinces has been preserved in the music and art of Ireland.

 

Nathanael used Microsoft Word to type up some Ireland facts

 



 

and we spent time discussing the similarities and differences between England and Ireland.

 

We all had a go at Irish dancing and made soda bread which we enjoyed eating with jam and butter!

 

Delicious!

Scotland Day!

Every year on Burns Night, we have a Scotland day.

 

 

Baking Scottish Shortbread with Granny.

 

 

Our Scotland lapbook.

 

 

Both my Mum and Dad are Scottish, so we looked up their family tartan online and then the children designed their own tartan using watercolours.

 

 

We had a Burns Night Supper, with haggis, neeps and tatties and the children also got to try Irn Bru and Scottish tablet. We sewed Paddington a kilt for the occasion!

 

 

Granny read us a poem by Burns, Nathanael told us some facts he had learnt about him, we sang Scottish songs and prayed for the people of Scotland.

 

Some helpful videos-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Our Week

Our Bible play this week was the story of King Solomon making the wise decision about the baby in

1 Kings Chapter 3.

 

This week some of our educational activities have been spelling games,

 

 

writing letters

 

 

(with a royal stamp of approval) 

 

 

and large scale drawing on rolls of paper on the kitchen table.

 

Tabitha's town.

 

Nathanael's town.

 

To tie in with our current project on Houses, we carried out a scientific investigation to find the strongest way to build brick buildings. We tried building two different bonds (patterns of building the bricks) with Duplo and then threw a ball at each wall in turn. 

We discovered that buildings with overlapping bricks were much stronger than ones with bricks placed on top of each other without an overlap.

 

 

In History this week the children studied the Battle of Culloden.

Tabitha dressed as a Scottish Highlander.

 We created a playdoh cake shop

 

 

and baked some real biscuits on baking day.