Disney World Curriculum - Day 1 - North America

Next week, we'll be in my favorite place, THE Walt Disney World Resort!  We're so very excited, and since we are homeschooling, we really want to make the trip as academically rich as possible.  We've decided to take a break from our normal curriculum this week and instead focus our studies on subjects and themes that can be enriched by our experiences at WDW.

I've had a hard time finding Disney lesson plans from other homeschoolers, so I thought I'd post our resources here in case it would help another family.

Today we began in North America (or, at least, the North American countries represented in World Showcase).

North America

• We Live in North America By: Susan Ring
• Famous Places of the Word, North America By: Helen Bateman and Jayne Denshire (we kind of skimmed this one)

1 - Mexico

• History/Geography
• Mexico By: David F. Marx
• 1, 2, 3 Suddenly in Mexico: The Protective Jaguar By: Cristina Falcon Maldonado (this may be my new favorite (geographically, historically rich) book series
• Mexico's Great Pyramids - National Geographic DVD (we only watched 15-20 minutes of this as it was a little dry and talked about human sacrifice (Mexico in World Showcase looks like a Mayan Pyramid)
• Fine Motor
• Lego pyramid

• 

2 - Canada

• History/Geography
• Canada By: David F. Marx
• Niagara Falls By: Sarah De Capua
• Totem Poles By: Jennifer Frantz (Two faux and one real totem pole in World Showcase)

• Fine Motor/Art 
• Stamped totem poles onto construction paper

3 - The United States

• History/Geography
  
  • America the Beautiful - A Scholastic book
  • Florida By: Carmen Bredeson
  • Celebrating Florida By: Marion Dane Bauer
  
  
  • Landmarks
  • The White House By: Susan Ashley
  • Visit Independence Hall By: Alexander Wood (Hall of Presidents is modeled after this)
  • The Liberty Bell By: Nancy Harris (Replica in Liberty Square)
  • Biographies
  • Mark Twain By: David and Patricia Armentrout (Co-host of American Adventure, also, ties to Tom Sawyer Island)
  • The Life of Ben Franklin By: Maria Nelson (Co-host of American Adventure)
  • Walt Disney By: Joanne Mattern 
  • Read About Walt Disney By: Stephen Feinstein

• Literature
• Tiny Dreams, Sprouting Tall: Poems about the United States By: Laura Purdie Salas 
• Brer Rabbit Down the Well Retold by: Louie Stowell (Br'er Rabbit is the main character of my favorite ride - Splash Mountain)
•  Br'er Rabbit Caputred! By: Jean Cassels
• Meet Me in the Magic Kingdom By: Kathy Jakobsen

• Art
• Created Hidden Mickey's by reusing recyclables
  
  
  
  Please check back tomorrow for day two of our Disney World curriculum.  Thanks for stopping by!