Namaste! Welcome to India!

Our first stop on our around the world journey was in India. We decided on India because not only is it a fascinating culture, our beginning to globe-trot coincided with our local India Festival at the Agricenter International. I forgot my camera for the festival, but it was a lot of fun. Coleman played some games in the kid's area, enjoyed some gulab jamun for dessert and got to see some traditional Indian clothing and dance. It was also very crowded- so it probably felt a lot like strolling the streets of Mumbai.

Field Trip
India Festival

Social Studies

• story of Seebo in Rod and Staff "Our Father's World"
• discussed arranged marraiges
• located India on map, colored outline of country and flag
• colored traditional clothing and children for India, pasted clothes on kids.
• discussed and colored Taj Mahal, pasted kids picture to Taj Mahal.
• read a variety of fiction and non-fiction stories related to India
• completed country fact sheet for India
• completed activity for "Children Just Like Me" book
• discussed Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Theresa
• watched a number of videos about India- tour video and children's video
• learned some Indian words
• discussed traditional Indian clothing and it's function
• discussed Indian festivals of Diwali and Holi

Science

• studied bengal tigers- did activity book featuring tigers, watche IMAX film about Indian tigers, Bindi Jungle Girl about tigers
• studied cobras- painted wooden cobra
• studied water buffalo, chevrotains, wild boars,
• studied peacocks- colored photo
• studied mongeese
• watched a video on the vanish lion species native to India
• discussed Mount Everest and the Himalayan mountain range (Everest is not in India, but since the range seperates India from China we covered it here.) Watched the IMAX film about Everest.

Math
Aside from our usual McRuffy math curriculum we also did some calculations with Bengal tiger weight/size and Indian elephant weight/size.

Art

• drew Bengal tiger in it's environment (using draw write now) and wrote about it
• did a lot of coloring Indian themed items
• created rangoli art Christmas ornaments

Music
We listened to some traditional Indian music and discussed the instruments used. We focused primarily on the sitar and Coleman colored a picture of one. He also wrote what he thought about it on the sheet.

Bible

• discussed Amy Carmichael and watched a video about her life and Donhaveur fellowship in modern day
• discussed William Carey and his missionary efforts to India
• discussed Hinduism and compared it to
• Christianity. Focused on life after death, redemption from sin, worship practices, gods.

Misc.

• looked at a number of websites about India
• cooked an Indian meal of raita, tandoori chicken, chickpea and rice casserole, naan, and gulab jamun

Coleman scored a 96 on his test about the things we learned, so I think it was a successful first study! I've included some photos below.


rolling gulab jamun balls



finished gulab jamun



about to eat our Indian meal



wooden cobra

Indian passport stamps

kids craft



flag sheet and tiger artwork



peacock coloring



rangoli art (these are Christmas ornaments)