Continents Boxes Blog Hop - Day 7 - South America

Day 7 of the Blog Hop is here! Today is all about South America!
We received some nice swap items from Melanie for our South America continents boxes, but also have some things from former students, as I used to teach at a Spanish partial immersion school, as well as a boarding school and had students from South America.
So, that is how we have managed to have a nice collection of items for our South America boxes.
Melanie sent us some nice swap items and some of them are featured in these photos, so thanks to her. 
Here are the items we have to help us explore South America:

This doll was given to us by our neighbors in Virginia who had been on a trip to South America. Thanks Barb and Bob.

Book about South American animals from the Target Dollar spot.

Photo cards that tell how to say hello in Portuguese and Spanish.

Paper dolls from South America.

Peruvian painting.

Post Cards from South America from some of our pen pals....

This is a good luck doll from Bolivia.

This is a llama from Bolivia.

This is a handmade wooden letter box from South America (I am pretty sure it is from South America, but not 100% sure, as I found it at Goodwill. Could be from Central America, which would make it part of the continent of North America...but for now, until I research it, it is staying in the South America box. If anyone has an idea, please let me know so that I can better explain its origin to my sons)...

Hand knit puppets from Peru...

Clay figurines from Peru...

Hand woven bowl from Uruguay and home trinket from Bolivia. 

Thanks to swapmate, Melanie, for this lovely hand knit bag that is to represent South America...

Thanks to swapmate, Melanie, for this cute handmade drawstring bag that is to represent South America. There are wooden beads and string that go with this bag, but they kept rolling around on the table so I could not get a clear shot of them...

Nice Montessori color coded, laminated outline of South America. Thanks to Melanie for this...

Also, I am going to post the continents boxes contents for North America soon, but cannot post them tomorrow as part of the blog hop. Hope that  you will stop back to see this post sometime in the next few days, but just not tomorrow:)

Continents Boxes Blog Hop - Day 6 - Antarctica

Today is the day to explore Antarctica.

Honey from Mondorfment sent some great swap items for Antarctica.

In addition to what is in the photos, Honey sent us some awesome cards and files to go with Antarctica, but they are not in these photos...

Then, another Honey, Honey from Sunflower Schoolhouse, made a whole collection of penguin math games and I was the lucky winner who won her adorable penguin themed activities.
So, a great deal of thanks to two Honeys.

Recently, we started to explore Antarctica, not so much from the standpoint of the geographical features of Antarctica, but more about the four different species of penguins that live in Antarctica, as the boys wanted to learn about penguins.

We will go back and revisit Antarctica  in the future months to explore more about the continent itself, the other animals who live there, and a bit about the research that takes place in Antarctica.

One thing that I learned as we started to study penguins is that there are so many misconceptions about penguins and Antarctica. You cannot even imagine how many picture books I found while compiling resources that had penguins and polar bears living side by side! These are published books for children!
While it is certainly possible that a penguin and a polar bear could be neighbors at the zoo, they would never bump into each other in the wild, as penguins only live in the Southern Hemisphere and Polar Bears only live in the Arctic Circle.

It wasn't so bad when it was a nonfiction picture book that clearly discussed the "Polar Regions", but it is such a disservice to do to children to have a children's picture book that makes it seem like the animals live near each other. Another thing is that while exploring penguins, we found out that there are actually 17 different species of penguins, and that only four of the 17 actually live in Antarctica. So, again, some misinformation, as some books for children make it seem as if nearly every kind of penguin lives there.

What it taught me is that there is much to learn about Antarctica and we have only begun to scratch the surface.  We will definitely revisit Antarctica in the future and explore life there beyond the four species of penguins who call it home.

Just be sure to keep your eyes peeled if you plan to study Antarctica as far as the books you use.

If you have nonfiction selections that compare and contrast the "Polar Regions", as long as that is laid out to child, it could work...but not if the book makes it appear as if the animals are pals on the ice.
Honey from Mondorfment made us the most adorable felted polar bear that I have ever seen.

When we get into doing the Arctic Circle, I will showour adorable little polar bear off in many of the posts for that...it is just so precious and it was so nice of her to take on doing both Polar Regions for the wonderful swap she organized.

Well, here is what we have so far for Antarctica...

These three part cards may have come from some nice materials that Stephanie sent us a while ago...not sure, but thanks to whomever gave us these...these could be blown up, duplicated, and made into three part cards. Have not gotten around to doing that just yet.

More cards about Antarctica, along with a card about Orcas. The Orca card has information on the back side of the card, too.

Cute image of a penguin in a ribbon trimmed frame from our swap with Honey. Thanks Honey.

This is the packet made by the very creative Honey Brown of Sunflower Schoolhouse. I was lucky enough to win this as a blog prize giveaway so thanks to Honey and Sunflower Schoolhouse. Think that the drawing was through Hip Homeschool Moms so thanks to them as well for having the drawing.

An adorable little penguin given to us by the fabulous Honey R at Mondorfment.

This pile of penguins is a mix of some little ones we had and some that Honey sent to us as part of the swap. For activities to go with these, they work great as math counters in conjunction with the math packet from the other Honey. they also work as a sorting activity, where the boys can sort based upon either species of penguin or else " lives in Antarctica" and " Does not live in Antarctica"...

Cute bag that Honey scoped out for her swapmates. this bag worked great, as we kept some of the paper pieces for the penguin lapbook components in the bag as we did the penguin lapbooks.. I will take some shots of the lapbooks next week...

Awesome book about Antarctica. The illustrations are just so beautiful.

Great informational picture book with lovely illustrations to boot.

This awesome resource was given to us as a present by Jody and her family. Thanks to our friends for this great book. Lots of excellent info. about Antarctica as well as the various species of penguins.

Nice wooden egg from our recent swap with Honey. Little Bro loved holding this. We tried to replicate the Emperor penguin daddy thing of the boys holding the egg on their feet, but Little Bro preferred to snuggle with the egg with his hands...

this nice book is from the dollar spot at Target...it is a great little book and lays out animals from both poles, but makes it clear that there are animals from the Arctic Circle and from the Antarctic Circle too...

Cool money from Antarctica. Honey got this for her swapmates. the boys have decided that they would prefer to see animals on our money here in the US too...

Antarctic money...thanks again, Honey...

This is an absolutely awesome work made by Honey for the swap. It features a calendar of the penguin's year. Basically, walks you through what is going on in the penguin's life each month. There is a control of error card so that a child can check his or her work. This is by far one of Big Bro's favorite works of the year!

View of Antarctica from space. Has four activities on the back side of this card. 

Happy Friday!

Continents Boxes Blog Hop - Day 5 - Australia

Today is Day 5 of the Continents Swap - Blog Hop. 

Once again, my swapmates came through and made some awesome contributions to our continents boxes. 

Have actually participated in two swaps to get some neat items for Australia. 

Thanks to Amber Melody and her family for the items they sent to us a while ago...here is a link to her blog, Adventures of a Rainbow Mama. Amber has also sent us some chocolates and some Vegemite and crackers to try, but we ate those a while back. She sent us two dried leaves, but they have become too fragile to really get a good shot of these. Amber really went out of her way to send some nice info. on Australia and for that, I am so thankful. She also sent us a recipe for a treat called Lamingtons, which I guess are usually birthday treats. We have not tried to make Lamingtons yet, as I am the only fan of coconut in our home...but if we get some company who likes coconut, I will have to try to make some at that time...

Another more recent swapmate, Tommie, and her family also sent us some items to go in our Australia continents box. 
She made a really adorable foam replica of a Vegemite jar, but my camera would not let me zoom in to get a close up of how cute it is for you...


Plus, then, The Grands went Down Under for a vacation so the got us some neat things, too. 
we are so blessed that they love to travel and bring us neat souvenirs from where we visit.
Here is the remaining schedule for the blog hop:

Today: Thursday, October 7 -- Australia

Friday, October 8 -- Antarctica

Saturday, October 9 -- South America

Sunday, October 10 -- North America

So, without further ado, here's what we have in our box for Australia...

A Genuine Returning Boomerang. Thanks to the Bancks family for this.

This is a neat ceramic mug. Has the logo of Air New Zealand on it, but your can't tell by this photo. One of my Fabulous Finds from Goodwill.

Aboriginal doll and boomerang that a child can paint. We have not painted ours yet. Thanks, Tommie.

Australian paper doll and a little of the boomerang showing, too.

Neat stickers from Down Under. Thanks Tommie.

Tommie made this nice informational sheet about a Bullroarer. Has drawings on the one side, info. on the back, and then, she also made a sample one that you could have children make as a cultural project / craft.  Plus she also included a necktie  / scarf from Down Under.

This is an Aussie style hat...tried to get the Vegemite close-up here, too, but no such luck...trust me on how cute it is though...hopefully, one of my swapmates is more skilled at photography and got a better photo of the neat swap item from Tommie.

Some animals from Australia. Thanks to The Grands.

Sticker book of Australian animals. Thanks to Tommie.

A nice coin from Amber. Thanks...

Nice magazine for children about Australia.

Aussie stickers.

Aussie play money...

Some books from Australia. Some books are from the Grands and some are from Amber.

More lovely books.

More books. All of these Steve Parish picture books have great photos of Australian animals.

Landmark and animal cards...

Recipe for Lamingtons  from Amber.

Post cards and a Christmas card from Australia.

Additional post cards. Some of the post cards were from pen pals.

Aborigines.

 Well, hope that you like the photos, even though they are not like the ones Dear Hubby helps me shoot. He is my go-to guy for nice photos, but he had to get going to work so I was on my own this morning, trying to do the best with a camera that is above my beginner camera skills. 

As far as additional resources, please check out the following links:
National Geographic Kids - Australia 
Activity Village - Australia Day
Steve Parish - Early Childhood 
Steve Parish - Children
Oz for Kids
Lamingtons recipe link from the Joy of Baking
Aboriginal art newsletter from Kids Craft Weekly 

If any of you read this and live in Australia or New Zealand, or any other place in the region, we would love to do a swap for additional items with you, as although we have some very nice things, we would love to learn more about your part of the world. We would be happy to send you some lovely things from the USA in exchange for some things from where you live. We could do an electronic exchange or a mail exchange, whatever would work best for you.

G'Day to all of you!