Saturday, August 13, 2011

Geography/History

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I was thrilled when I unpacked this little book, Heritage Studies 1, which is a first grade History book. As I thumbed through it I knew the material in it was exactly what I was looking for as we move forward in our school. We skipped the first lesson since it was a repeat of last year when we discussed puddles, high and low lands, islands and such. The second lesson dealt with direction.

I began by asking Selena some simple questions and got a kick out of her answers:

  1. Which direction is North? Selena, “Up?”
  2. Which direction is South? Selena, “Uh I don’t know.”
  3. Which direction to we see the sun come up in the mornings? Selena “Out the window?”
  4. Which direction do we see the sun set in the evenings? Selena “Down?”

We then made a sun from yellow construction paper, which I displayed on the East wall of our dinning room.

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I asked her to show me her right hand which she obliged, and we talked about East being on the right. West being on the left, North is where we face, and South behind us. We also looked at a map to see the directional compass.

I then taught Selena a little dance that we sat to our own tune which we will practice everyday.  First make sure your child is facing North.

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With a small step and pointing one or two hands forward, shout North.

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With a step back have the child point behind herself with a thumb and shout South.

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Step to the side, of course Selena style is to have one hand on the hip, point with the right arm and shout East.

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Then point with the left arm and shout West.

I remember doing this every morning in elementary, and so this is one little dance I want to truly share with Selena. Hope you have fun trying this with your children.

Phyllis at All Things Beautiful has so graciously stepped up and offered to take over the Geography/History meme. I know anyone who has seen all that she does with her children in Geography/History will agree with me, that she is the perfect person to host this meme. I had fun hosting it, and I encourage all of you to head over to All Things Beautiful and continue to join us over there.

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8 comments:

  1. This sounds like an excellent way to teach directions. Love the pictures!

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  2. It seems like this book was a great find!

    I am really glad that Phyllis is able to take over your meme. She is an excellent candidate for the job :)

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  3. That is a Bob Jones book, right? Thank you for all your kind words about our blog. I am honored to take over the meme. We will be posting on Thursdays.

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  4. Phyllis will do a great job.

    It's bad, but I'm still not great with directions. I'm great on a map, but once you go off the map, forget it.

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  5. I think I have that book in a pile of stuff handed down to us. I'll have to pull it out and give it another look for C.

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  6. Thanks so much for sharing this lesson with us.

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  7. I like that you put the sun there as a reminder. Very hands-on and fun!

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