Geography Co-op: South America

In November, we had our second Geography co-op meeting. This time, we ventured into South America, exploring the jungles of the Amazon and the sunny skies of Mexico! For those of you that are interested, here's what we did in greater detail:

• Read This is the Way We Go To School
  
  

• Show large pictures of the different continents. Discuss the different ways students went to school in each country. Put pictures of the kids on the continents that they’re from.
  
  
• Play “Continent Bingo” - each student gets a bingo board and matches colored continents on their board to the pictures held up by the instructor. (If you're interested in the Bingo board, e-mail me and I'll send it to you. I had to create my own as I couldn't find any!)
  
  
• Read Over in the Jungle: A Rainforest Rhyme and do the actions
  
  
  
  
• Divide into 2 teams and play “Who Am I?”charades with animals from the book
  
  
• Talk about how the Amazon Rainforest is the largest on earth and the Amazon River is the second largest river in the world. Learn how to say “Bon Jia” and “Obrigado (a)” in Porteguese
   
• Cycle through several craft stations: Thumbprint Monkeys and Mexican Bean Bracelets
  
  
• Games: Play “Mexican Jumping Beans”:
  When the music is playing, everyone jumps up and down. But when the music stops, everyone must freeze! Anyone still moving is out.
  
• Play “Red Pepper Relay”:
  Divide into two teams. Give each team a long red balloon. The teams will stand in a line and pass the balloon under the first player's legs, over the second player's head, under the third player's legs, etc, until the balloon reaches the end of the line. The very last player will run to the head of the line where the cycle will begin all over again. The first team to rotate through all its players wins!
  
  
• Snack: We ate chocolate cupcakes in honor of the South American Cacoa bean!