After studying
The Arctic, we traveled down the tundra to our neighbors to the north - Canada. We started with a North America overview, as I always do when we study a continent for the first time. I once again attempted to use the library for great books but was somewhat disappointed at the selection. I discovered some books about Canada later that I missed because my search was mainly in the geography section. In that section, I only found one book: Canada in Pictures. It was okay but not great. One book I stumbled upon was fabulous:
A Prairie Boy's Winter. This was one of those books that was just meant to be. It has about 50 beautiful illustrations by the author (some of which are hanging in famous museums) and each illustration has a written page to go along with it. It begins at the start of winter in Canada and ends with the coming of spring. It's biographical account is true to life and very interesting. Coming from the southern United States, it can be hard for me to imagine snow drifts deep enough to almost cover the utility poles. We also loved reading about the way kids amused themselves in the bitterly cold winters there - and were amazed that they would often play outside!!
Other areas we covered were the Mounties, Moose, Caribou, Northern Forests, Hockey, Maple Trees & Syrup.
I checked out a book about making syrup that is one of my favorites,
Sugaring, by Jessie Haas. The setting is Vermont but that's just a border issue. People in Canada make maple syrup the same way we do. The story is sweet and my kids love the beautiful pictures.
Some activities for your Canada week:
- Color or make a flag of Canada
- Learn some French-Canadian expressions
- Watch a Hockey match (preferably one w/ a Canadian team)
- Play stick hockey or go ice skating
We used Draw Write Now to do pictures for the picture storybook my 1st grader is making. The pictures we chose were caribou, moose, and sledding children.
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