Really Cool Geography Resource - Virtual Tours & Webcams

I found this really cool google map listed at ChangEd. Each blue pin will take you on a virtual tour. Now you can travel the world without leaving your home. Cool...huh? If you click on the link under the map, called Virtual Tours and Webcams, a larger map will open with all of the links listed on the left hand side.





View Virtual Tours & Webcams in a larger map

Geography: Learning About France

Alexis received her first postcards in the mail! One from Denmark and one from France. Would you like to take a peek at Alexis's postcards? You can seek a peek at Alexis World Traveler. The nice ladies that sent these postcards wrote very good messages that could relate to a young girl.

Alexis says ever since she watched the movie Ratatouille she has wanted to learn more about France. We spent some time finding France and Denmark on our big world map. Then we went to the Kids National Geographic website and looked at photos of the Eiffel Tower and Mont Blanc. Mont Blanc is Europe's tallest peak rising 15, 781 feet, within the French Alps.

Eiffel Tower

Mont Blanc

We also talked about some of the French words we know such as, bonjour, mademoiselle, oui and bon appetit. We even watched a French cartoon called Le Petit Nicolas, in English "Little Nicholas."

Alexis liked the cartoon and watched the entire episode but she said it would have been better if there were words at the bottom. (It does not have any subtitles.)

We are patiently waiting for more postcards to arrive in the mail. Would you like to send Alexis a postcard? Email me at alexisworldtraveler[at]gmail.com. We would love to receive your postcard or letter with some interesting information about yourself and the country or state you live.

Until next time...Au Revoir!

Our Geography Project

Alexis's I Am A Citizen of the World Banner

Alexis's study area we created today.

It is very important to me and my family that Alexis learn about cultural diversity. In rural Indiana we don't get many opportunities to experience different cultures so we have to be creative. We are going to travel the globe without actually leaving Indiana.

How do you experience culture without traveling? That is the tricky part...one thing we have done is join Postcrossing, a postcard exchange. I wrote a blog post about this a few days ago. The idea is that we will receive postcards from all around the world as well as send postcards all around the world.

This week we started a unit study on the continents. We bought a world map and created a comfortable study area. We talked about which continent we live on and which continent is the largest. 

Alexis is sending her first postcard to Lithuania, so we looked at Lithuania on the world map. We also looked at photographs on the internet of Lithuania and the people.

Monthly we will be doing more in depth studies of specific countries and cultures. In September we will be studying, in depth, about Native Americans. This will tie in with our current history lessons and we have two Native American events happening within an hour from us. 

For each culture we study we will also make recipes that are popular for that culture. There is a Native American Powwow in September and we will have the opportunity to eat fry bread and Native American Tacos. 

This project is going to demand a lot of organization. But we are determined to experience cultures outside of our rural area. We want Alexis to learn that no matter where you live or what color your skin is, we are all citizens of this world. We all deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and it is ok to be different.

Finding Pen Pals To Help Kids Learn Geography

Alexis's mamaw has this brilliant idea about how we could teach Alexis about other cultures.

So here is mamaw's idea:

Each month we will pick a different country and learn about their traditions and customs. We will learn each chosen country's traditions by reading books we find at the library.  During that month, we will devote one day to live according to the customs and traditions of that culture. (Ex. Preparing a meal centered around the traditional cuisine)

I just love this idea and Alexis is very excited about it. I thought if Alexis had a pen pal it would really add to the whole experience. Alexis says she wants a pen pal from London. I will have to work on that...but for now I signed us up for Postcrossing, a postcard exchange. 

We hope to get lots of postcards and we are open to receiving letters, too. Alexis will be posting some of her experiences at her new blog http://alexisworldtraveler.blogspot.com/