About a year ago, I had the brilliant idea to use horses to teach Emma geography. She loves to learn about horses (has for about 3 or so years now) so we decided to use it to our advantage.
I created some blank worksheets that we would be able to use for all different breeds. One side is dedicated to breed characteristics, the other side is dedicated to the horse's origin. Here, this is what they look like.
For this sheet, we just record the name of the horse, it's hand height, colors, purpose, temperament, and origin. We use one of the small rectangles to record our references, and we use the other rectangle to tape (or glue) a picture of the horse (so Emma has something to go off of for her drawing). The big rectangle on the bottom is for her drawings.
For the origin sheet, we record the continent, country, language (we also look up 'horse' in that language), climate, and terrain. We print up the flag and map from the horses origin and glue/tape them onto the sheet. Emma looks for the origin in the world map at the bottom then colors the area in.
At this point, the info we put on here is mostly just basic stuff. As Emma gets older, we can increase the difficulty level of the info, or use the info to write reports or what not.
Once the sheets are filled out, we add them to our Geography binder. If we have printed any information to use, we also include those pages into the binder as well. Any drawings that Emma has done of the specific breeds will also be included in the binder.
Here are the two we managed to get done last year.
Exmoore Pony
Exmoore Pony Drawing
Fellabella
As is typical with us, we lost interest after these two. I think we lost interest because I was a little too exuberant about it. This time we will take things a bit slower, and Emma is a year older so that will help as well.
Here is the first one we have done since we started back up again.
Arabian Characteristics
Arabian Origins
After starting up again, I realized that Emma was ready to learn about continents as well, so we have divided the binder up into continents. Each horse is placed into the section of it's continent.
I used this site to print up maps of the continents.
Well, that's about it. Feel free to use these worksheets (just click on the link below the picture). If you find them useful, let me know!
3 comments:
This is a brilliant idea! Im going to try and make it suitable for a 13 yr old who hates wrting,she is horse crazy, so anything horse is always a good idea.Thanks for sharing!
Jessica,
I hope this helps your daughter! I would love to hear how it works out.
Such a good idea! Easy to change to use for dogs, dinosaurs, cats, etc. Great vocab. builder too...I noticed the word "endurance" and figured that led to a conversation. I like that sometimes Emma prints in the details but sometimes you do too. Good way to keep her enthused. Mom
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