— Pierre De Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games
Where did I find find this fun fact to stuff in your noodle?
A quick search lead me to this great link to a whole packet of Olympic Activies, including great links, and printables such as an Olympic scavenger hunt (pg 23)!
*Disclaimer: I have not read every page of this file yet, therefore I don’t want to give the impression that I share whatever views may be found therein. But then, I might. I just won’t know till I look at the whole thing. See?
YEY! Did you know that January 26th is Australia Day! Get ready to party!
(Yes, I know today’s date. I’m giving you a heads up so you can prepare!)
Here are some fun activities to help you celebrate. Alternately, you may want to incorporate some of these into your lesson plans for a unit study on Australia if you do one at home or in a co-op class.
First of all, did you know that although Aussies speak English, you may not actually understand them? For instance, if I told you, “Hey Bloke, I’m feeling peckish. Let’s go to Macca’s and get some tucka”, would you know what I was saying?
Another Australian phrase is “Fred Nerk”. Basically Fred Nerk is like “John Doe” or “Mr. Nobody”. Whatever happens on Australia Day, you can use this to get off the hook–
“FRED NERK DID IT!”
-Two players throw a ball back and forth.
-When 1 of the players drops the ball, both, say down, down, down.
-After that, the player who dropped the ball gets down on 1 knee, elbow,or chin, etc.
-The game continues on like this until one of the players cannot go “down” anymore.
Next it’s time for a little art—check out this great Aboriginal Australian dot art, and try some of your own. For EVEN MORE fun- grab some face paint and use each other as canvases! 🙂
Now for the sounds of Australia:
The Kookaburra is a funny Australian bird who “laughs”. Listen to him here:
The Didgeridoo is a fun instrument to listen to (you already got a small taste when watching the art vid). Check out this music!
Make your own “didgeridoo” out of paper rolls by following these plans: Paper Tube Didgeridoo
Check out some books from your library. Try these:
Are we there yet? : a journey around Australia is a great book that follows a family on vacation & describes all of the different and diverse places you can find in the land down under!
Aboriginal Australians is an informative book about the indigenous people of Australia, and I like it mainly for the pictures.
If all this fun is making you hungry, try this recipe for ANZAC Biscuits. (If you took the quiz above, you know that biscuit does NOT mean biscuit.) ANZAC is the name of Australia and New Zealand’s Army Corp, and rumor has it that these were invented so that folks back home could send the troops a treat that wouldn’t easily go stale. I wouldn’t know. When we made them, there wasn’t an opportunity to see if they’d go stale…I don’t even like coconut and frankly the batter hardly made it to the cookie sheet…YUMMY!
While you are in the mood for taste-testing, you may want to make a run to a place like World Market or other international food store to pick up some VEGEMITE! (You can also order it online.) This is another Australian favorite, but unlike the ANZACs…it is…less than tasty. Much less. However, it’s fun to try. Use caution and spread only a THIN layer on a piece of toast.
Unfortunately, you can only complete this last step if you visit or live in the state of Kentucky…
Visit Kentucky Down under where you can actually PET A KANGAROO (I know, how cool is that?!), watch some border collies and their sheep-herding action, laugh out loud with a Kookaburra, and see and hear a didgeridoo up close. It’s a little expensive, but sometimes they run great specials on sites like Groupon. They also have a good discount during some months if you simply show them proof that you homeschool. With the discount, KDU is WELL WORTH IT!Check out their website: http://www.kdu.com/
This should get you started. If you come up with some other activities, please feel free to leave them in the comments section.
Three Cornered Hug 