Do you come from a land down under?? Well, we don't, but it's really fun to spend some time learning about this fascinating place. It really is like nowhere else on earth - a wealth of marsupials, opposite seasons, veggemite, dingiradoos - so much to capture the attention of my little ones. We spent two weeks talking about Australia and its neighbors.
We loved the many animals from our Draw Write Now book series that they included from this area of the globe. We chose to do the kangaroo, koala, echidna, and platypus. Each day we do a DWN drawing, we also read books that focus on that subject. I like to try and incorporate some non-fiction along with a fable, story, or picture book about the animal or element. That way, after the dry science text, my PreK student has something fun to look forward to. It's amazing how much they really learn about just by reading great books. It's not a fancy power-point presentation, but it's very effective. When the subjects are more interesting, you can get away with less creativity. It's when you're studying things that are a little boring to your child that you might have to spice things up more.
Learning about marsupials was great fun. The only thing is, beware the wealth of questions that may follow about sexual reproduction in general. They are starting to be aware of biology more and more and talking about another kind of reproduction is a sure way to bring up the subject. However scary this might be, making it a part of our everyday discussions takes a lot of the mystery out of it and hopefully will lead to great dialogue when they're older.
Some of the books we chose were WAY too focused on evolution and I edited the content for my readers quite significantly. I think it is tempting to throw the baby out with the bathwater here and I refuse to give up a well illustrated book because it's not creation-based. Instead, I just gloss over those areas and avoid some key evolutionary terms here and there.
Besides books, TV and the Internet are great sources for video of Australia's rich animal life. We saw amazing video of Tasmanian devils, kangaroos, and crocodiles. We also took some time to talk about the original Australians - the Aborigines. We learned about their very unique culture and music. We were able to watch videos on youtube of real Aborigines playing the dingeradoo. And for fun, we watched the old 80's Men At Work video for "Land Down Under." My kids LOVE 80's pop music. HA!
To round out the unit study, we are learning about coral reefs and the Great White shark. NatGeo has a great site for studying the Great Barrier Reef. It is very interactive and gave the kids a sense of being there. Well, that's all for now, G'day!
My book list:
Australia Q and A, by Nathan Olson
Amazing Animals of Australia, J599 Ama
Australian Marsupials, by Peter Crowcroft
Outside and Inside Kangaroos, by Sandra Markle
Snap!, by Marcia Vaughn
Wild Wild World of Koalas, by Liza Jacobs
A Platypus, Probably, by Sneed B. Collard III
Surprising Sharks, by Nicola Davies
This Place Is Lonely, by Vicki Cobb
Uluru, Australia's Aboriginal Heart, by Caroline Arnold
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