Learning about Italy part 1

We are learning about Italy this week. I figured I'd better make one or two big posts about it just to keep all activities in one place.

Monday:

We took out globe and atlas and found Europe, then Italy ("it looks like a shoe!" ), looked how far it is from out town and vowed to go there someday ("mommy, can we go tomorrow?" ). D. demanded to know if there are any volcanoes, we found two and he was satisfied. We talked a little bit about Pompeii too. We looked where the major cities are situated, what is the capital and learned some Italian words.
Then we made a card that will go to our "destinations" folder. On a sheet of white construction paper D. wrote Italy in English and Russian, capital, language and drew the flag. Then the fun started- we have a huge pile of old National Geographic magazines at home and we looked through them for some pictures. The pictures  and tiny maps that we found we then glued on the sheet. I wrote few Italian words on the back of the sheet- D. loved the idea of learning a new language.  D. was absolutely thrilled when he found this ad "look mama, it says ITALIAN!"  he even did a little dance around the room. :)

Tuesday:

We read " Strega Nona: her story" by  Tomie de Paola  and learn more words. D.'s favorite was "aglio selvatico" :). D. loved the book and the little rhyme in it. Then he drew a picture of Strega Nona he tried but the tile roof was a challenge for him I must say.

Then we listened to some songs (Stella stellina, Volevo un gatto nero- kids songs and couple of my personal favorites Una poesia anche per te by Elisa, Nell'azzurita by Eros Ramazzotti)  and opera pieces ("O soave fanciulla", "O sole mio", "O mio babbino caro"). I translated for him "O mio babbino caro" and he was very serious while he listened to it. After it was over he turned to me and asked "So where is the daddy , isn't he coming on stage?" :)

Wednesday:

It turned out a very busy day for me, so we did only a fraction of what was really planned. We looked through "Anno's Italy", it is a great book with very detailed pictures. It doesn't have any text so it was fun to imagine what people on the pictures were doing and thinking. He loved poppies on the pictures about Tuscany.
We talked about the leaning tower of Pisa and did this project. We deviated a bit from the instructions and merely bended our pipe cleaners, D. wasn't up to scrupulous work that day.

Thursday:

Today we learned about Venice. We read "Olivia goes to Venice" by Ian Falconer. Now I'm not sure if I liked the story in this book very much especially towards the end of the book , but pictures are great and D. enjoyed it. The final part where the bell tower breaks had him frowning and we had to look some pictures up in order to assure him that the tower was indeed fine.:)
After that we did a great art project Venetian Architecture that we borrowed from laugh, paint, create 
We outlined palazzi using crayons and painted over with watercolors. D. loved the idea of painting reflections and he drew his gondola after I showed him how. I love his colors as always, so bright.

So here we are, 3 more days to go. I'm still thinking if it should be one country every month or one country per two weeks. Every week is going to be too much- D. is only 5 after all and no way I can prepare the material and organize it for every week :) So yeah, I will post part 2 on Sunday I think :)

Fall reading-Graeme Base

     I want to write a little bit about "The Legend of the Golden Snail"- a new book by a wonderful author/illustrator Graeme Base.
 Graeme's books are always beautiful, but most of the time they are a bit complicated for D., since he's only 5 and (being raised bi-lingual) only just catching up on his English. It's a bit early for "Animalia" and "The Discovery of Dragons", we can only admire illustrations at this point. However when I saw "The Legend of the Golden Snail" in a bookstore (and quickly took advantage of this educator's discount :)) I knew that it was just the book for us. The story  tells about a boy named Wilbur who sails to find a magical Golden Snail and turn her into a "Snailing Ship", but when he does find it he pities the Snail and sets it free. The story is engaging and emphasizes the importance of being adventurous and  kind. Illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, magical. (Samples of illustrations can be found on the MARS Gallery web site)
Each page is complete with little details such as the cool cross bone symbol (an interactive game of finding these symbols can be played on Graeme's web site).
We read this book over and over again, D. absolutely adores it and so do all of us.