Today we started our ‘travels’ around Australia with the aid of Downunder’s Australian Book Traveler. An easy picture book tour of our nation.
The first core Travel book is The Australia Book by Eve Pownall. This is a meaty book chock full of Australian history, we used it earlier in the year for our history studies. It contains so much information we never finished. To be totally honest I thought it too long for our travel needs. So instead we substituted with Possum Magic by Mem Fox.
Possum Magic tells the story of Hush and Grandma Poss. The travel Australia in search of the magic to make Hush visible again. “They ate Anzac biscuits in Adelaide, mornay and minties in Melbourne, steak and salad in Sydney and pumpkin scones in Brisbane.”
Using the map from Downunder we traced their travels. Also I googled coloring images for an outline of a possum and an Australian map. The children enjoyed coloring the possum and tracing the journey from capital city to capital city.
Michelangelo was so enthused he took the idea further. Using the larger map he photocopied each state and cut them out to make a puzzle map. I love it when the children become enthusiastic:)