We did a mini unit on Australia thanks to the monthly Little Passports mailing. We covered their letter and worksheet and then spent a couple days finding some interesting facts from the books I requested from our local library. The big one for me was that there are CAMELS in Australia. Not something I was aware of! We have not done our usual full out unit as we covered Australia when we did our in depth unit on the VERY interesting Platypus. You can find ALL our resources on that HERE.

Our book list is relatively short but interesting:

• Welcome to Australia by Mary Berendes HERE
• Australia by Ann Heinrichs HERE
• Destination Australia by Jonathon Grupper HERE
• Australia by Katie Bagley HERE
• A Year in the Life of Bindi by Bindi Irwin HERE

There was a neat scratch paper craft that instead of making your own pictures you can make the shapes they have printed on the black covering. The boys took turns exposing the colours underneath.

I found two fun print outs about Australia on the Activity Village site. They actually have a lovely list of activities, print outs and such there but I specifically printed out two for the kids:

• Australia Fact Page HERE
• Dictionary of Aussie Slang HERE

We watched a tourist video on youTube thanks to ellacottandewing.

We definitely enjoyed our brief foray back into the Down Under!

This is our first year learning about Independence day… so we are going rather topical and trying to see a broad picture and get a handle on a holiday that is 100% new to us! We had 3 different files we used… Currclick has a great speedy lapbook from homeschool bits HERE. It is just 1.00. We also used Gift of Curiosity’s site HERE. The Simple Homeschool also has a file we found a while ago. You can access their site HERE. Lulu Marketplace also has a freebie HERE.

Helpful printables:

• Activity Village has a selection of printables etc on their site HERE.
• Lots of great stuff on Lapbook Lessons HERE.
• Mini book with DLTK HERE.
• I have a collection on Education.com for Independence Day HERE. I will rate all the ones I use before  the end of our unit.
• A free file from 2 Teaching Mommies HERE.
• LapbookLessons is also very helpful HERE.
• Maps on Free US and World Maps.com HERE.
• Cute journalling pages thanks to Education to the Core HERE.

Crafts:

• The Little Sewing Shop has a way to make your own firework like thing HERE.
• We made flag fans by decorating paper and then doing an accordion fold before stapling the base.
• I cannot find the instructions anymore, but we made fireworks on paper using paint, a plastic lid and a hammer… you put globs of paint on the paper (we used poster board), place a plastic lid on top of it and smack it with a hammer… SPLAT firework!
• We made patriotic shakers (well they would have been if the kids had stuck with red white and blue)… two plastic cups, with beads inside, use a coloured masking tape to tape them together and decorate with stickers. Thanks to Lakeshore Learning store for that free craft! (HERE is the store site)

Books:

• Independence Day by Helen Frost HERE
• Independence Day by Marc Tyler Nobleman HERE
• Red, White, and Boom! by Lee Wardlaw HERE
• Celebrate Independence Day by Deborah Heiligman HERE
• Independence Day by Elaine Landau HERE
• Independence Day by Ann Heinrichs HERE
• Calendar Mysteries: July Critters by Ron Roy HERE
• Independence Day Crafts by Mary Berendes and Jean Eick HERE

As has become customary with our bigger topics it is time for another resource page… We lucked out with a coupon at the time but you can purchase the lapbook we are using with Live and Learn Press HERE. “It Takes Someone Special to Be a Dad” Live and Learn Folder. Our secondary printable resource was from HomeschoolNotebooking.com, though it was a gift from a friend a year or 3 back. You can find their site HERE. Our file was called Father’s Day Notebooking Pages.

Now for our book list:

• Father’s Day by Anne Rockwell HERE
• Father’s Day by Ann Heinrichs HERE
• The Best Father’s Day Present Ever by Christine Loomis HERE
• A Wild Father’s Day by Sean Callahan HERE
• A Father’s Day Thank You by Janet Nolan HERE
• Froggy’s Day With Dad by Jonathon London HERE
• Hooray for Father’s Day! by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat HERE
• The Berenstain Bears and the Papa’s Day Surprise by Stan & Jan Berenstain HERE

Links of interest:

• Our song is from the list on DLTK HERE
• How is Father’s Day date decided (the link in the lapbook is a deadlink) with VPCalendar.net HERE
• Hallmark and their statistics for Father’s Day cards sales is interesting HERE
• You can find a variety of things on the Activity Village page HERE set up for Father’s Day. I have linked (below) the specific things we used this time round!

Worksheets:

• Father’s Day wordsearch with Activity Village HERE
• Father’s Day mazes with Activity Village HERE
• World’s Greatest Dad diploma with Activity Village HERE
• Father’s Day Jokes with Activity Village HERE
• Colouring by numbers with Activity Village HERE
• Colouring page with Activity Village HERE
• Learn to write a letter to Dad… HERE and HERE with Education.com
• K level book about Daddy (though it may straddle first grade if you want them to write their own answers) with Education.com HERE

DVD:

• Dora’s Butterfly Ball, it included two bonus episodes with our themed one – Feliz Dia de los Padres HERE

A silly song to bop around to thanks to Songdrops.