Homeschooling with Playmobile

I was inspired by a friend who is using The Story of Canada as a back bone for a study on Canada. It has been quite a few years see we have done any Canadian history, so the timing is right. It is a book that is already part of our collection and we enjoy the narration style it follows. While the book is the back bone, we have been taking lots of detours and supplementing here and there with more in depth material.

When we started we created a map of the physical shape of Canada and then made numerous copies. As we make our way through the history we our showing the different changes on a separate dated map. It is becoming quite a collection; there is the arrival of the Aboriginal peoples and their settling across the land, the arrival of the Vikings, the Europeans and different explorers. You see what I mean. As history unfolds, the map changes. A very interesting flip book is being formed, which my visual learning is especially taking great interest in.

Fridays have become our 'retelling' or narration day. The above is picture is the kids sharing the history of the vikings coming to Vinland with a little help from some Playmobile props. They are using their vikings set to show the travels from Scandinavia, to Iceland, to Greenland and then on to the coast of now Canada. In preparation for their skit they created a village which was similar to the ones they read about. They practice until they all know what they are doing and with pride they are excited to be sharing the skit for their audience.