Geography Fair Prep for Mexico

Elijah (who appears a tad bit loco in the photo above) chose Mexico for the Geography Fair this year and Simon tagged along.

The very first project he completed was a salt dough map. Simon helped mix up the dough. I traced an outline of Mexico on to the cardboard. Elijah took over after that.

Elijah used the instructions in Mexico from Teacher Created Resources to build a model of an Ancient Aztec Village. He added details with some Sculpey Clay.

We learned about metal tooling in Mexico and created some art of our own.

Both of the boys crafted Mexican Bird Rattles which is a New Year's tradition. The instructions were in Mexico from Teacher Created Resources Elijah wrote a paragraph about the tradition. Unfortunately, I can't find pictures of the bird rattle making process. Just think about tissue paper, glue, paper mache', and feathers. All in a frenzy. You'll have a good idea of what it was like.

Elijah painted the flag of Mexico and wrote an explanation of the Aztec legend that accompanies the symbol on the flag.

We read about Omar in Children Just Like Me and Elijah painted this Mexican boy and wrote a summary of what he learned about Omar. The template for the boy from Mexico is from Writing Forms: Tops & Bottoms. (We love this writing forms book!)

He found a Mexican Tissue Paper Flower craft in one of the books he read, and he made some of those. He asked if people could make them at his table at the geography fair. I made this part a reality for him. While he worked on Mexico each day, I cut tissue paper, folded tissue paper, and strung pipe cleaners around tissue paper. He helped people unfold the flowers at the fair.

He watched a video about making Ojo de Dios and caught right on (I was left in the dust!). He made a ton of these. We put the best one on his display board. He also taught many children how to make these at the fair. 

 Elijah's Mayan pyramid of LEGO

Simon made the Mexican Wedding Cookies. I think he needs more powdered sugar!

I helped Elijah bake a King's Cake, and he wrote a small paragraph about the holiday of Three King's Day and the tradition of the cake.

 

Of course, no unit study around here would be complete without a lapbook. Here is a slideshow of Elijah's Mexico Notebook.

Resources Used for this Project

Non-fiction Books

• Look What Came from Mexico by Miles Harvey
   
• Mexico ABCs by Sarah Heiman
   
• Children Just Like Me (DK Publishing)

Learning Resources

• Mexico (Teacher Created Resources) *If you like hands-on projects, do not miss this book!
   
• Mexico Lapbook from Homeschool Share
   
• Download N Go Expedition Mexico

Fiction Books

• The Corn Grows Ripe by Dorothy Rhoades
   
• Hill of Fire by Thomas P. Lewis
   
• The Old Man and His Door by Gary Soto

 

Check out my Geography Fairs Page for posts on:

• How to Start a Geography Fair
• Geography Fair Research and Project Ideas
• and More!