Around the World Art & Activities: Visiting the 7 Continents Through Craft Fun

This is a really wonderful book. It helps you plan a virtual field trip with your kids to the seven continents. In the beginning, they make their own "passport" and even a suitcase (from cereal box) to start their trip. The first stop is North America, where they will learn and craft about Native people from Canada and USA (making a Totem Pole), Mexico (making Papel picado), USA (making a statue of Liberty, a replica of Spirit of St. Louis plane), and other projects. Then, the next step is The Pacific Islands and Australia where kids will learn and craft about animals and art in the region. In Asia, kids will make a Japanese doll, a Chinese paper fan and an Indian elephant just to mention some things. In Africa, projects include a desert sand dune, a striped zebra and the Great Pyramid among others. In Europe, they will learn and craft about Eiffel Tower, Russian matryoshkas, castles, windmills, etc. In Central and South America, kids will learn and craft about music instruments, animals and folk crafts. In Antarctica, kids will learn about icebergs, penguins, whales. This book is not only fun for kids, but it offers many opportunities to learn. For every project, it includes a map and location of the topic studied, and it contains other useful information to share, such as scientific facts about what the kids are crafting (like in the case of animals), some easy science experiments related, suggestions of books to read around that topic, and curious facts that will amaze everyone. This book works great for Social Studies in the lower elementary grades, but it can also be used to teach science or to take ideas for reading response projects.