Expedition Earth- Japan

We finished Japan last week.  I'm a bit behind in posting but will get caught up soon!


This is what we did for Japan:

*Located Japan on the map and found the capital city
*Mapping worksheet
*Flag worksheet
*Learned about Zen gardens and created our own tabletop Zen garden
*Learned about the Children's Festival (boy's festival) and The Doll's festival (girl's festival)
* Made a Samurai Warrior doll and a Japanese Lady doll
*Watched Discovering Asia- Japan DVD
*Learned some origami
*Had Yakitori and Japanese sponge cake for dinner
*Read several stories about Japan and read Flat Stanley's World Adventures- The Ninja Surprise.

Our Zen garden.  I purchased everything at the Dollar Tree for a total of $3.  We made a little rake out of cardboard but it didn't work too well.  When we were at the dollar store again today we found a Zen garden kit complete with rake for only $1! 

Samurai Warrior doll for The Children's festival.

Our Origami duck.  Construction paper isn't the best paper to use for origami!!

This is what the origami ducks were supposed to be like.  Ours were close :)

Yakitori- Skewered grilled chicken with a sweet sauce and green onions.  This isn't my picture.  I forgot to take a picture of ours and we ate it before I realized I was supposed to take a picture!

Japanese sponge cake made with eggs, sugar, honey and flour.  Very simple and yummy!

Japanese Sake (rice wine as it is sometimes referred to in the states).  It tasted like a cross between wine and vodka.  It was used in the sauce of the yakitori.

Finally we made a Kimono pin for our souvenir suitcase!

National Novel Writing Month- The young writers program

Just found out about this great site!  November is National Novel Writing Month and this site http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/ teaches kids (and adults!) how to write a novel in 30 days.  They will even publish your book for free!   The lesson plans look pretty good.  I just skimmed a few, but I think I will be adding these to our curriculum.

This info is from freelyeducate.com :

For Young Writers: Free Workbooks, Free Snail Mail Goodies, and Free Publishing of Your Novel!

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) has a Young Writers Program for students 17 years old and younger.  Even better, they have a lot of great freebies (virtual and physical ones) to give away to all of us.

What is NaNoWriMo?

"It is a fun, seat-of-your-pants novel writing event where the challenge is to write an entire novel in just 30 days. That means participants begin writing November 1 and must finish by midnight, November 30. The word-count goal for our adult program is 50,000 words, but our Young Writers Program allows participants who are 17 years old and younger to set reasonable, yet challenging, word-count goals."

Ready for the challenge?  Start with these freebies:
Free Workbooks (digital download):
Before NaNoWriMo, if you would like to teach your students what a novel is all about and how to write one, download one of the three "non-lame" workbooks .  (I downloaded all three books: elementary, middle school and high school safely)
Free Classroom Noveling Kit (in your snail mail!)

On the Educators' Page you'll find free lesson plans and other resources, but be sure to notice the free classroom noveling kit for classes of ten or more students.  The classroom noveling kit contains buttons, stickers, and a progress report.  It will be shipped to your mailing address.
Free Publishing
On this page, you'll see a couple of offers of "free publishing" to children with completed manuscripts.
How to Get this Freebie:  Visit the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program site to learn more.
Limited Time Offer:  Remember, NaNoWriMo begins November 1st!

Expedition Earth- South Korea

Annyeong!  (hello!)  This week we traveled to Korea!  Here is what we did this week!



*Located Korea on the map and the capital
*Completed a mapping activity and flag worksheet
*Listened to Korean Folk music
*Read about a day in the life of an average Korean kid
*Lapbook activities
*Talked about some animals in Korea
*Read about the Finless porpoise and watched videos on them
*Played Kawi Pawi Po (Scissors, rock, paper)
*Celebrated Korean Lunar New Year- Sul, did the traditional bows and received Bokjumoni (gift purse with money and sweets).
*Learned names and words in Korean
*Learned about the women divers of Jeju island.
*Made our souvenir pins
*Ended with a traditional Korean dinner

Playing Kawi Pawi Po (Scissors, rock, Paper)  Korean children use this game when walking home from school.  The loser has to carry everyone's books and backpacks!

We learned our names in Korean as well as some other words- hello, goodbye, please and thank you.

These are the traditional bows done by children to their elders during Sul, The Korean Lunar New Year.  The children honor their elders with a bow then are given Bokjumoni (gift purse) filled with money and candy.

This is our Bokjumoni.  Each bag had $1 and mini marshmallows in it.  I forgot to buy candy and this is what we had in the pantry! :)


To end our journey to Korea, we ate Bulgogi- Korean BBQ beef.  We also had some Korean cookies and dessert.

The green cup on the left is filled with chocolate filled squares, the little mushrooms are cookies with a chocolate top, on the right are sweetened puffed rice rolls, on top left is drinkable yogurt and Aloe Vera juice.  It sounds weird but was actually really good!  It was just Aloe vera juice, aloe vera pulp and sugar.  It tasted very fruity!

This is the drinkable yogurt.  These are used mostly as a dessert.  They are only about  3 inches tall.  Very yummy!

 Our souvenir pins for our suitcases are clay vases with bamboo.

Next stop on our global journey is Japan!