Posts Tagged ‘geography’

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Rainforest at Cannon Beach

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014

rainforest-at-cannon-beachWe hiked through a rainforest at Cannon Beach, and it was beautiful! We were at Ecola State Park, where we could see breathtaking views from the side of the mountain. The park is right beside the beach itself. The air is humid, and the greenery from the moss and ferns is so vibrant! Take a look at this massive tree with lots of greenery growing on top of its huge branches!

rainforest-2The sunlight shone through the trees to give the path an almost green glow. We saw a fallen tree with moss growing on it. Some of the trees were hundreds of years old.

rainforestWe parked our car in one of the two parking lots and hiked up to the lighthouse lookout, where the lighthouse was still quite far away. The trail was two miles, so the entire hike was four miles. The scenery was beautiful the whole time. You could look down over Cannon Beach for a while until you were around the side of the mountain.

rainforest-cannon-beachIf I had been alone with some paper and a pencil, I might have sat down and written some poetry. Look at this path… Doesn’t it make you feel inspired?

forest-pathMy daughter and I began counting rings on the tree trunk to see how old the tree was when it fell. This gave us an indication for how old the thicker trees were.

tree-ringsWe found lots of mushrooms during our walk. Mushrooms thrive in damp environments, so I was not surprised. These mushrooms looked almost cartoon-like!

mushroom-1Some of the varieties I had never seen before. I would have brought a mushroom guide if I had known we were going to see so many varieties of mushroom.

mushroom-2Some were growing straight out of the tree trunks. These are called shelf mushrooms.

mushroom-3This shelf mushroom looks like blackened lava from a volcano!

mushroom-4My husband took this picture from a low angle so that you can see how small you feel among such tall trees.

forestSo many beautiful scenes presented themselves as we climbed the mountain. Here is a scene from Cannon Beach that includes Haystack Rock.

views-from-cannon-beach-rainforestThen you see partial views of the ocean and seashore through the trees .

view-of-cannon-beachMany rocks jut out of the water. One of the larger rocks has a hole through it.

rocks-in-waterWe thoroughly enjoyed hiking through the rainforest at Cannon Beach!

Find out what else we did while we were at Cannon Beach: Our Cannon Beach Vacation

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Posted in Family Life, Geography | 9 Comments »

The Earth: Hands-on Activities

Monday, February 3rd, 2014

the-earth-hands-on-activitiesArticle contains affiliate links. I was compensated for my work in writing this post.

We are starting a study of Earth and Space by Bright Ideas Press. This book was an answer to prayer because my youngest son specifically asked to study rocks and minerals, the weather, and outer space. Who knew I would find them all in one book, with tons of hands-on activities and printables for notebooking, and that I would be compensated for blogging about our homeschooling adventures! Those of you who have heard my finances testimony and understand my prayer life will know how I’m glorifying the Lord right now for embarking on this fun science adventure with my kids!
earth-and-space-bright-ideas-press

The first two chapters are about Earth and its structure. We colored a picture of creation and glued it onto black card stock paper. We wrote the title on the black page in silver permanent marker, before sliding it into the front of our notebook binders.

earth-and-space-creation

We located the continents and oceans on our maps and on the globe. We talked about the earth’s rotation (spinning), and we dramatized the revolution of the earth around the sun. You can watch these activities in our video demonstration:

layers-of-the-earth

Another hands-on activity was to stab a ball of Play-doh with a toothpick, to show how the earth spins on its axis.

layer-sheetUsing one of the printables, we colored and cut out the different layers of the earth, gluing them on top of each other. Then we created a model of the earth layers out of clay. We had trouble cutting the clay with dental floss, so we used a table knife. This caused the layers of the earth to mix slightly, as you can see from the picture at the top of this page. I almost wish the clay was edible, because it looks good enough to eat!

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Posted in Science | 10 Comments »

Make Your Own State Puzzle

Wednesday, January 29th, 2014

make-your-own-state-puzzle

You can make your own state puzzle by cutting out each state from a wall map, gluing the pieces onto poster board, and cutting them out again. The pieces are then more durable, and your kids can put the puzzle together over and over until they learn the location of each of the states. The fun thing about this puzzle is that it’s like a floor puzzle–it’s so large. You can store the pieces in a Ziplock bag.

make-your-own-state-puzzle-2

Other geography activities you can do with this puzzle:

  • Hold up a state, and the child has to name the state from the shape.
  • Name the capital of the state you are holding up.
  • Blindfold the child and hand the child a state. See if the child can figure out which state it is.
  • Hold up a state and name the bordering states.
  • Time yourself to see how fast you can put together the puzzle. Hold races between children to see who can put the puzzle together the fastest.
  • Hold up a state and have the child say the two-letter abbreviation for the state.
  • Grab a slide projector or an overhead projector. Hold up each piece and look at the silhouette. Name the state.

Take a look at how you can make your own state puzzle:

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Posted in Geography | 6 Comments »

Orange Globe

Wednesday, December 11th, 2013

orange-globe

orange-globe-2When I was a little girl, I saw this orange globe activity in many books. Recently my daughter read about it in a McGuffey reader, and I decided to make this fun orange globe to understand why flat maps are distorted on the top and the bottom of the maps.

First you will need an orange, a black Sharpie marker, and a knife. Draw a globe on the orange, using a real globe or a picture of a globe to draw the outlines of the continents. Then fill in the continents so that they are solid black.

If you have more than one orange, you can show your children the equator by slicing the orange in half right at the middle. The top part of the orange is the Northern Hemisphere, and the bottom part of the orange is the Southern Hemisphere. You can talk about lines of latitude and longitude.

But if you only have one orange, you will want to cut it into quarters from top to bottom. Scoop the juicy orange out of the peel, being careful not to smudge the marker. Then flatten the pieces of orange on a piece of black card stock paper. Now you will be able to compare this to a flat map of the world. Your kids will laugh at how stretched out the flat maps are, compared to the orange segments.

orange-globe-3

Since the earth is round, a flat map must be distorted in order to show the globe. This is why globes are a more accurate representation of the continents than flat maps. However, flat maps are more useful for many practical reasons, including trying to find your flight at the airport, to find the most direct route to your destination. To see the entire earth at one time, we must make the map flat.

Here is a short video showing how to make this orange globe:

If you enjoyed making this orange globe, you will love Living Geography: Travel the World from your Living Room.

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Posted in Geography | 12 Comments »

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