Geography - Mesopotamian Map Friends

Our first day at CC yesterday was TERRIFIC! We had an outstanding tutor (and she was the sub.!), a great class, and lots of fun! Today is Week 1, Day 1 for us now. My husband and I got our tri-fold board set up last night so it would be ready for memory work review this morning. So far, it's been really easy to review during meal times. Of course, I have the girls positioned so they stare at it while we're at the table, so that helps, too. Ha! Mesopotamia is the word for the week, and the girls have jumped right in! This morning, after I did our Bible reading and special timeline card for the day (6-week schedule here), the girls did some coloring. Mary colored maps of Ancient Mesopotamia and pages for our History Pocket (C1W1 plans), while Anna colored Nemo and Tangled. ;)

Above, you can see our memory board set-up. We also have our Letter of the Week pretties and AWANA crafts taped to the wall. We always leave the seats opposite the girls empty so they have an unobstructed view of the memory work. Poor things! ;) If you want to make your own tri-fold board, check out Brandy's how-to. I copied hers, although I accidentally bought the wrong-sized board. Bummer.

Now, to get to the title of this post, right. Map Friends have become a big deal at our house. Both girls absolutely LOVE them! We do a lot of pretend-play with them, moving them to this country or that ocean. Fun, fun, fun! However, I wanted to keep that excitement as we learn new places each week. So, I found a perfect map on C3 that has Weeks 1-2 Geography memory work on it, and I made our Mesopotamian Map Friends! 

To find the map on C3, the file name is Geography Cycle 1.docx by user cherylfloyd. It's under Week 1 and Cycle 1 in Geography.

And here's a little close-up of our new 'friends.' To find the images, I just googled Mesopotamian Clip Art and looked under Images. Then I printed and laminated them (can NOT live without both of those!), and then I attached the CLEAR Velcro dots. We have a Mesopotamian king, princess, warrior, and a smiling Pharaoah for fun. (Although Crete is not in our memory work this week or next, per my daughter's request, I made a Minotaur map friend. She LOVES mythology and has really latched on to the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. So, he's included in this picture, too, in case you were wondering who that monster was on the top left of the Med. Sea.) This has been a super-fun way for us to learn new places. If you have little ones who are not too jazzed about Geography, you might want to give this a try!

So far, Week 1, Day 1 is going pretty well, but I'm still trying to find our rhythm and balance. I've fallen behind in our LOTW stuff, and I still don't have all of my actual lesson plans written down for the week. But, as our CC director said yesterday at our opening assembly, FLEXIBILITY is the word for the day (or week, or month, or YEAR, as far as I'm concerned!). 

So. . . here we go!

UPDATE: This map was such a success, I went ahead and put together a whole book of maps for all of Cycle 1. Check it out here!