Geography Resources: Brazil

A group of homeschool moms and I formed a geography club this year.  We were looking for a way to get together regularly for something educational but not expensive or requiring extensive planning.  We meet weekly in a room we reserve at the library, and we focus on one country for the whole month.  Each child is responsible for bringing something to share about the country–anything goes! I thought I’d share some of the resources I found and things that were shared at our club meetings.

This month the country was Brazil!

Internet Resources:

Education Place is my go-to for printable outline maps, available with and without labels.

Homeschool Share’s Brazil Lapbook page has maps and minibooks.

Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations posted about her Brazil unit and offers a free map and flag printable, along with other links and ideas.

National Geographic Kids is a terrific resource for great photos, information, and even a short video.

Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler shares about their study of Brazil.  She wrote her own “Expedition Earth” curriculum and Brazil is the country she offers as a free preview!  Her family made an amazing multilayer diorama of the rain forest.

Books:

We own a Children’s Atlas of the World (ours is no longer available on Amazon) as a reference book.  I appreciate it’s colorful pages, maps decorated with small pictures of animals, landmarks, agriculture, industries, or architecture specific to an area, and even some project ideas.  A children’s atlas is a great place to start for a quick overview of a country and to see what items may pique your children’s interest.

Magic Tree House Research Guide: Rain Forests: I love the nonfiction companion books in the Magic Tree House series (sometimes called “research guides” or “fact trackers”).  We enjoy the chapter books but usually only read them once, while the nonfiction books I enjoy adding to our library.  It’s nonfiction but still has the personality of the characters that makes it a more interesting read for kids.  This one has great information on the amazing features of rain forests.  Of course, rain forests are located in many parts of the world so this book isn’t specific to Brazil, but a study of Brazil isn’t complete without studying the Amazon Rain Forest.

Children Just Like Me:  This book gives kids a window into the lives of children around the world.  For Brazil the child is a member of the Tembe Indian tribe in the Amazon rain forest.  Considering that it isn’t a good representation of life for the children in the large, populated cities of southeastern Brazil, but certainly a very unique lifestyle.

Cultures of the World: Brazil  and Children of the World: Brazil are reference books we checked out from our library.  They’re long and full of information, so we usually do a picture walk and just read pieces of interest as we go through.

Geography Club Meetings:

Just in case you want to start a geography club of your own, or just have some fun with your own children, these are some of the activities we enjoyed and information we shared on our month-long Brazilian study.

• Brigadeiros: two of us chose to bring these chocolate treats to one of our meetings.  They are simple and rather tasty, and kids can help shape them into balls and roll them in toppings.  We used this recipe from All Recipes.  Interesting note: these are served at children’s birthday parties and are expected, much as someone in America expects a birthday cake.

• Children’s birthday parties in the larger cities are a large event requiring a rented location, hired entertainment, and lasting well past most of our children’s bedtimes.  This blog post gives a humorous look into what a huge event the parties can be.
• Sugar Loaf Mountain is a landmark as you enter the harbor for Rio de Janeiro.
• Also in the famous city of Rio is the Christ the Redeemer statue, measuring over 100 feet tall and nearly 100 feet from fingertip to fingertip.
• The rain forest is teeming with amazing creatures: we shared mini reports on two:
  • The goliath bird-eating tarantula, which is up to 12 inches long including its legs.  There is an amazing video from National Geographic, but be cautious if your children are sensitive as the large, creepy spider does catch his mouse prey:  goliath tarantula video.
  • The red-eyed tree frog, a creature that is more on the “cute” than “creepy” side.  There is great information and a video on National Geographic kids: red-eyed tree frog video.
• Speaking of the rain forest, we actually shared this rain forest felt play set in our book club last year when we read the Magic Tree House Afternoon on the Amazon.  I cut all the shapes out of felt and went over the layers of the rain forest and animals that live there using the play set.

• Our friends shared children’s games common in Brazil: “Vivo ou Morto” (dead or alive, which reminded me of a cross between Simon Says and Red Light, Green Light) and Cinco Marias (like Jacks with stones).
• We learned to say hello in Brazilian Portuguese, and also to count to 10.  We practiced this by tossing up a balloon and counting our hits aloud.
• Our soccer-loving member shared about Pele, the famous soccer (or should I say “futebol”) player from Brazil.  They had read the book Pele, King of Soccer.
• Brazilians are well known for their celebration of Carnival (a four day national holiday just before Lent).  Since Brazilians wear costumes to celebrate Carnival, our friends bought supplies to make Carnival masks for one meeting.  They brought stiff paper mask templates and things like pom poms, feathers, sequins and stickers to decorate them.

*As a side note: notebooking is one of my favorite and most-used homeschool tools.  It can work for any age, any subject!  I had my children complete notebook pages for topics we studied about Brazil, and they shared from these at our meetings.  Then we’ll include those notebook pages in our binders at home.  (Notebooking pages used were free resources from  Jimmie at the The Notebooking Fairy, Donna Young, and a coloring page found via a Google Image search.)

We all enjoyed our first month of geography club.  In addition to being able to get together regularly with friends and learning about a different country, it gave our kids a low-key way to practice public speaking.

Next month: Egypt!