Adley "journeyed" to both Asia and South America in the new year through our country studies. In January, we learned about China to align with the Chinese New Year. Here are the activities we did:
CHINA
As usual, Adley started off by making her China travel book page.
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Adley was especially excited about painting these Chinese lanterns. I didn't give her any directions for this-- simply free painting-- and the project turned out so cute!
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Next, we watched a little video about pandas and even viewed some pandas on a live panda-cam at an American zoo.
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The panda craft Adley made involved coloring a panda and painting some bamboo.
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What a fun project!
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Then, in celebration of the Chinese New Year, Adley decorated a beautiful Chinese dragon.
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She decorated some paper to fold into Oriental fans.
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The accordian-style folding was a tricky skill to learn, but she got the hang of it!
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Another day, Adley made a pellet (or rattle) drum and decorated it with Chinese calligraphy characters. Adley chose to write "fun" and "music" on the two sides of her drum.
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Here is Adley demonstrating how to use the drum.
We've done some lantern-making before, so Adley was a pro at these Chinese lanterns. She quickly made three of them, which made for a festive decoration for fireplace mantle.
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Adley practiced drawing her own stars (with the help of some connect-the-dots drawn by Mommy) for the Chinese flag.
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Next, we watched some beautiful Chinese ribbon dancing on youtube. The music was so peaceful and the dancers so graceful. Adley was mezmorized!
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After watching, we made a fancy ribbon wand for Adley using craft sticks and multiple layers of ribbon so she could practice some ribbon dancing techniques too! This made-for-kids video gave her some very basic ribbon moves to try while flipping through some great Chinese landmarks and scenery in the background. It was perfect!
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This Chinese strategy game was called Pong Hau K'i. It was a bit tricky figuring out how one could win, but Adley enjoyed trying out the game.
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Our final Chinese cultural acivities included eating Chinese dumplings, reading LOTS of Chinese books, and watching the Disney movie Mulan.
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What a wonderful country "visit!" Next, Adley and I journeyed to...
CHILE
It had been a while since we looked at a country in South America! Adley learned that the Andes mountains run through part of Chile and that these mountains are home to llamas. So, we kicked off our Chile studies by reading several llama books and doing a couple llama-related activities. Adley practiced some weaving with this first craft.
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Then, Adley and I competed in this cute Roll-A-Llama game.
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We also learned that Easter Island belongs to Chile, even though the island is over 2,000 miles west of the country. This island is famous for its 800+ giant stone statues, also known as moai. We read a couple books about the moai and watched a brief youtube video as well. Adley enjoyed painting this paper representation of the famous statues.
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When we made Chile's flag, Adley commented right away that the flag "looks just like ours!" Sure enough, the Texan flag is nearly identical to the Chilean flag! The only difference is the shorter blue stripe.
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I was interested to learn that two Nobel Prize poets came from Chile: Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral. Adley and I read a couple books about these poets and then played a rhyming dice game.
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Next, we tried dancing the cueca, the national dance of Chile. It was a little difficult to master, so we mainly just watched the dancers on the video!
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Because the country of Chile is so very long, it contains quite the extreme of landscapes-- cold mountains and hot, dry deserts. Apparently, the rainstick most likely originated from indigenous people in the deserts of northern Chile. Adley and I followed directions to make our own rainstick by snaking aluminum foil inside a cardboard tube and filling it with rice. It actually sounded fairly good! Adley enjoyed decorating the outside.
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Our last project was creating an arpillera, a brightly colored patchwork picture. These beautiful scenes are often made with bits of fabric, but we used paper and a bit of yarn for Adley's design.
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The Chilean dish we tried was pastel de choclo, a beef and corn casserole. It was actually not too bad!
Here is the literature we found related to Chile.
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Another fun cultural adventure!
Adley is quite the world traveler! She has learned so much. Way to go, Mom!
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