Learning about Australia. Post 1

This month we are learning about Australia.
We started out a little bit late,so I think we will continue into first weeks of April.
This week we have read:
Australia by Mary Virgina Fox (Continents series)

This book gave us basic information about geography and culture.

Another great read:
Are we there yet? A journey around Australia by Alison Lester

This book talked about one family's roadtrip around Australia, named main attractions. It was very interesting. D. and I agreed that it would be super awesome to take a trip like that one day.
Third book which we all enjoyed very much was Possum Magic by Mem Fox

This book is a  funny tale about invisible little possum and a quest around Australia in search of a magic ingredient that would turn her visible again. This book also names main Australian cities and a local food for each. We are now curious to try vegemite (although I hear it's quite different from what we are used to here in U.S.).

For our science project we talked about Great Barrier Reef and D. did a little art activity: he painted ocean background on wet watercolor paper, on a separate sheet he painted fishes. Fished were cut out and pasted on the "scene".

D. also wrote a letter to a little girl from Brisbane and he is excited for a letter from her as well.

Got some interesting things planned for next week.

Chameleon art :)

Chameleons are awesome.:)
D. is a huge fan of Disney's Pascal from "Tangled" movie. (By the way I just got a concept art book in the mail and it's incredible)

So yesterday afternoon we dedicated to creating chameleon painting of our own.
Our lesson was inspired by an awesome lesson from Deep Space Sparkle

"A color of his own" art lesson 
and this one too 
Watercolor Chameleon Art Lesson

We also read a book by Leo Lionni, sweet story, colorful illustrations.

We outlined a chameleon on a watercolor paper using crayons (I showed step by step how to draw one on a dry erase board and D. and his friend did their best to follow ).
Kids picked colors and painted their chameleons.
While chameleons were drying, we created an environment for them (talking a little bit about camouflage too). My only request was to have at least one "chameleon's color" on the scene. D. picked a "beach scene" with some splashes of purple from spray bottle.
While backgrounds were drying we cut out chameleons. Then we "introduced" chameleons to their new homes and voila:

D. is very very proud of his chameleon's curly-springy tail :)