We had a slower start to our activities today, and that is okay, I like summer to be flexible and relaxed but we are enjoying learning more about Italy. Today it was pizza and The Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Here are a few of the finds from taday..
Italy from the Inside Blog What I loved about this blog are the videos for the kids. My kids loved watching the children saying the words in Italian, we would pause the videoblog psoting and try to repeat the words in ITaly. Such a rich source of information on such a fun level for the kids (as well as for my reading this evening.)
Italy Guides A completely interactive giude from so many areas of Italy. Today we walked around the Leaning tower of Pisa using this interactive map. Each map has a wonderful description and historical information along with the great visuals. The kids and I read from the various pages and they really oooh'd and aaaaw'd over the various sights we were able to see thanks to this virtual tool. I have to say that the internet really brings these far off lands into your home in such a different way than the books did when I was a child. Even I felt as if we were there taking a 360 degree tour around the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Stay posted for a graet idea of keeping this experience alive after the week (or unit) of study is over.
Learning Numbers in Italian since the images on the site linked are copywritten I created my own guide for you to be able to download and use for help as your children learn Italian. Similar to the color sheet we printed up yesterday, we printed this out and then I had the kids go throughout the house and find the number of objects to match the number in Italian. Then as they brought the items to me, we said the word in Italian together.
We are practicing our house words too, having those printed out and taped around the house on things like doors, tv, windows, bathroom, etc. It has been fun to hear a child here or there say the word when the are near one of those flashcards.
We made pizza today using my favorite pizza recipe, so I decided to share it here. I included photos yesterday of the mixing of the dough etc so I wont repeat those, but I will share what the finished pizza looked like..
Obviosuly this pizza was topped with fresh from the garden tomatoes, basil, some fresh mozzarella and kalamata olives. We made the sauce too, a mix of crushed tomatoes and herbs. The only problem we ran into was we didnt make enough. Here is the pizza recipe thanks to my friend Erin.
1 3/4 cups warm water (100°F to 115°F)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon teaspoons salt
1/4 cup olive oil
5 cups King Arthur All Purpose Flour
Mix warm water, sugar and yeast and let sit until yeast activates. Add 1 cup
of flour and mix. Add oil and salt. Then add as much of the addition flour
as needed to make a elastic dough (I stop when it doesn't seem to want any
more flour). Cover and let rise as long as you need. You Can use almost
immediately or later in the day or put in fridge and use later that night
(if refrigerated take out at least an hour before you want to use)
Bake at 475 on a cornmeal dusted cookie sheet for 15-18 minutes.
We also made salt clay today so we could make our own leaning tower of Pisa. It didnt quite give us the result we had wanted, but it was fun none the less. Tomorrow my oldest has asked if he could try his hand at a lego structure from Italy. Of course I was delighted, so he spent some time tonight reading through and looking over many of the historic structures in Italy and I cant wait to see what he picked and how he does with this project.
Salt Clay Recipe can be found here.
Tomorrow we head to Venice, lots of fun to be had, including making biscotti, and gelato.
Dont forget to check out my friend Maureen, over at Spell Outloud. Today she had a great post of an interview with a mutual friend Paula Gilarde. Paula talks about how to showcase memorabilia, crafts, and kids art projects in her scrapbooking pages. I know it is something that takes me some thought and time to decide what to keep and how to keep up with. So be sure to check out the great interview.
Thank you so much for sharing all this information with us! I found you through Tip Junkie and you inspired me to try something different this summer with my kids. We are trying your theme weeks, though alot less involved! THis week we did Art week and studied the great artists. So, thank you for inspiring me to do something fun and educational with my children this year! I'm going to borrow your Italian ideas for next week when we do Around the World week.
Posted by: Jill Henry | June 16, 2010 at 01:45 AM
I am inspired once again. Thanks!
Posted by: Cia Dreves | June 16, 2010 at 02:11 AM
What a wonderful post Sarah. Molly and I are attempting to do something similar (on a smaller scale!) and I love what you are doing. Looking forward to seeing what else you do!
Posted by: Paula | June 16, 2010 at 08:19 AM