Mr Tony's Geography Stuff

Global study reveals huge number of children breathing toxic fumes more than six times over safe limits, while billions are affected by air pollution that exceeds guidelines

The Republican said America and Barack Obama are globally loathed, citing frosty relations with Rodrigo Duterte, just hours after criticizing the first lady

A blog about using iPads to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom, especially Primary Education.

We are always searching for ways to make our weekly memory work more engaging and fun.  One way to cement geography memory work (especially for those tactile learners!) is using a bucket of LEGO bricks. Building continents with LEGOS, and then adding features is such a simple way to make geography FUN!  As a Classical Conversations Foundations student, my son is currently memorizing the names and locations of African waters (Cycle 1, Week 16).  Each week we always trace the map and also practice finding the location on our globe.  Geography memory work is also included each day during our morning time.  As my guy was deciding on a presentation topic for the week, the idea to create Africa from LEGO bricks arose.  I love the creativity that can occur within the confines of our memory work!      He simply grabbed his geography binder (I printed maps for each week of memory work from CC connected.) and used this week's map as a guide while he was building.  He included the Zaire River, Lake Victoria, Zambezi River, and the Nile River. Large LEGO base plates, and a basic set of LEGO bricks are two very good investments for a LEGO lover.   *A note about maps -- find a source you like and stick with it.  Keeping the maps consistent during our geography studies has been very helpful.  My two favorite sources for maps are CC Connected (for Classical Conversations members only) and Notebooking Pages.   The Notebooking Pages Geography set includes labeled and unlabeled maps for each continent.  They are extremely well done!  This simple act of recreating a continent with LEGO bricks will prepare my son for Challenge A, where he will need to learn to draw Africa from memory!  As he is asked to recall African waters during memory work review he will visualize what he built to help with recall. That's it.  Simple. Easy. Effective. Just the way I like things to be in our homeschool!   Do you use LEGOS to make learning fun?   What are some things that have worked with your children? Other Posts You Might Enjoy:  A Simple Way to Learn Geography Creating a Geography Table in Your Homeschool Making LEGO Landmarks Making History Sentences Fun with LEGO    

My little guy has been struggling to learn his US geography lately, namely his states, capitals and state abbreviations.  I tried worksheets, file folder games, apps, websites – you name it, I tried it.  Then it occurred to me….Why not teach it to him using bricks?  Of course!  Why didn’t I think of this before?! So, I dug out a Continue Reading →

Editorial: It used to be a Cinderella subject. Now, in a world that increasingly values people who can work across the physical and social sciences, geography’s all the rage

Environmental artist J Henry Fair captures the beauty and destruction of industrial sites to illustrate the hidden impacts of the things we buy – the polluted air, destroyed habitats and the invisible carbon heating the planet

Low birth rate and high life expectancy ‘will lead to 5.3 million fewer inhabitants and over-65s making up 34% of total’