Asia Unit Study

Here
is another almost finished ideal unit study for our first month of
school.  It was hard finding stuff online for Asia, and I need to
make another run to the library for a few more books for
ideas.   But this is a good start.    I'm
nervous and afraid at the same time to start - it will be nice to see
how this plays out in reality, and where I'll need to tweak it. 
Not to mention how this will work with a 2 year old running around

Look at Asia and Great Wall of China on Google Earth
Coloring map of Asia
Lots of maps I converted these to black and white with the photocopy option in Photoshop.

Animals to study:
Panda Bears
Tigers - coloring page
King cobra - coloring page
Yak - coloring page
Snow Leopard - coloring page


Math
Color the snake with patterns

Go on a pattern hunt.   Walk around the house, finding things that have a pattern on them.


Science

Have her cut out pictures of Asian people and animals from magazines
and glue to paper.  Talk about how God made different kinds of
people.

Wild Thing
Pour
powdered Plaster of Paris into a ziploc bag - add a little water. 
Close tightly.  Have them squeeze and twist the bag into a 'wild
thing'.  Let dry, remove from bag.   Paint.  
Talk about what happened to the liquid and the dry, what it felt like,
etc.  Experiment with other wet/dry mixtures - wet sand - what
happens to the liquid?  Evaporation/condensation

Reading

These are very good books:
China: the people / Bobbie Kalman J 951 KAL
China: the culture/ Bobbie Kalman J 951 KAL
China : the land / Bobbie Kalman J 951 KAL
Japan: the people / Bobbie Kalman
Japan: the culture / Bobbie Kalman
Japan: the land / Bobbie Kalman

Ancient China / Judith Simpson J 931 A
Tiki-tiki-tembo
How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have?
Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak
Asia / Malcolm Porter and Keith Lye JR 950 POR
Are tigers ticklish? : see God's character in His creation /  Debby Anderson E A
The kids' wildlife book / by Warner Shedd J 591 S
Scary animals / by Jean de Sart J 591 S
Japan / Adele Richardson J 952 R
Into wild Nepal / John Woodward J 591.95 INT

Crafts
Panda craft  Page 2

Make a snake

What you will need: Old ties, polyfil stuffing, wiggly eyes, glue, wire (from a hanger)

What to do:
1.
If you would like your snake to be bendable, straighten out a wire
hanger or use some other type of wire. Make sure you fold down the ends
of the wire with some needle nose pliers so that the edges are very
smooth. Insert the hanger into the tie.
2.   Stuff the tie with polyfil from each end of the snake.
3. Glue or sew the tail end of the snake closed.
4. Push some stuffing up into the point of the snakes head (the wider
end of the tie).  Glue the end closed and glue on some wiggly eyes
to finish.

Potato prints - make patterns with them.

Make a cobra out of clay

Build the Great Wall of China
Mix 4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and 1 1/2 cups of water. 
Knead it and shape it into bricks that are 2x3 inches, and about 1 1/2
inches thick.  Bake in a 300 degree oven for 30 min.  Then
stack, and build.

Make a tiger puppet with paper plate and
popsicle stick - decoupage orange tissue paper onto plate, paint on
black stripes and face.

Rice Paper
Fold a white piece of tissue paper in half.  Open the paper up and
lay it on top of smoothed out plastic wrap.  Arrange pressed
flowers and leaves on one half of the tissue.  Fold the other half
of the paper on top.  Use a paintbrush and coat the entire piece
with a 50/50 mix of glue and water.  Let paper completely dry,
then peel off the plastic.
Food/Cooking
Japanese lunch
Ramen Noodles
Matchstick Carrots
Pea Pods
Shredded Lettuce
Chopped Onion
Sliced Mushroom

Heat 2 TBL oil in wok or lg frying pan. Stir in all veggies and cooked
meat stirring constantly. Fry for aprox 2-3 minutes. Add the flavor
pkts from the Ramen, sugar and boilingwater. Make a well in the middle
of the veggies and meat and place noodles in the liquid. Cover and
simmer 2 minutes. Stir and cook additional minute.  Sit on pillows
on the floor and eat with chopsticks.

Canton Corn Soup
Mix
3 c. Chicken Broth, 16 oz creamstyle corn, 3 TB apple juice and 2 TB
soy sauce in pan.  Bring to boil.  Mix 2 TB cornstarch with
1/4 c. watr and add to soup.  Separate 2 eggs.  Lightly beat
whites.  Remove soup from heat, and add whites slowly, swirling
with fork.  Season with salt and pepper.


Misc. Activities

Practice picking up cotton balls with chopsticks.
Paint a Japanese Flag
Go to an authentic asian restuarant

Music
Chinese Children Songs mp3
Chinese Music
Helpful Links
Learn how to use chopsticks
Unit Study Planning Sheet

Books I used
Instant Science for Primary Grades by Sam Ed Brown