Homeschool Geography Fair

The kids participated in a geography fair with our homeschool group earlier this month. We almost passed on the event only because I had just enough time to finish our regular curriculum by the end of the month and didn't want to get behind. But in the end, I opted to throw the schedule out the window in favor of a (virtual) trip around the world.

It turned out to be a great decision, because this ended up being one of our favorite projects of the year! Noah opted to learn about France, while Ava chose to study Morocco. Here's what we did . . . 

Our first project was to make a flag for each country, and I found this fun collage art project. Here's how they turned out:

Noah's Flag of France:

 

Ava's Flag of Morocco:

 

Next, we moved on to making a salt dough map of each country. This took a few days, during which I heard the sentence "This is the best day of school ever!" quite often. I have to admit, it was a super-fun project!!! I'm going to do a separate post on the process, but here are the results:

Map of France:

  

Map of Morocco:

 

Next, we started working on our display boards. Here's what they included:

France: collage flag, facts about the flag, Tour de France info & pictures, detailed map and location on world map, fun facts about France, French landmarks, French products, French language and pictures of the geographic diversity of France. My mom is a photographer and has traveled extensively throughout France, so it was cool to be able to use so many of her original photos to show France's geography.

 Morocco: collage flag, facts about the flag, fun facts about Morocco, detailed map, location on world map and map of Africa, info on the Strait of Gibraltar (including a picture of Ava's dad sailing through it!), her interview with a friend who is from Morocco, the Arabic alphabet (and the phrase "Ava welcomes you to Morocco" written in both English and Arabic) and some pictures from our visit to Casablanca.

Noah loves to build, so he found tiny building kits for the Eiffel Tower and Mont Saint-Michel. I promised to buy them as long as he wrote a paragraph about each landmark. Once that was complete, he selected one of Grandma's photos of each, and I Photoshopped his paragraph onto it. We printed them out and displayed them next to the models he built.

Eiffel Tower:

 

Mont Saint-Michel:

 

A few days before the fair, we took a trip to EPCOT so each of the kids could visit their countries. They each introduced themselves to a cast member (Noah used his tiny bit of French) and asked a few questions about that country. Noah bought himself a beret, and Ava joined in with the bellydancer to show off her shimmy.

Noah in France:

Ava in Morocco:

 

 Finally, the kids each made a dish of food from their country to share at the fair. Noah became quite the pro with the crepe pan, and Ava loved her couscous:

French crepes:

 

Moroccan couscous:

The day of the fair, the kids dressed the part! 

France: Noah wore the Tour de France T-shirt Grandma brought back when she caught the last stage of the tour in 2010 (along with his EPCOT beret). 

 Morocco: Ava wore a bellydance costume from her most recent performance:

At the fair, the kids shared what they learned and took a "trip around the world", getting stamps in their passports from each of the other countries represented. 

Currently, they are both already planning for next year's fair!!!