Disney World Curriculum - Day 4 - Asia and Ocean Life

Wow, isn't it amazing how quickly time flies when you're busy?  I'm so glad that we decided to take a break from our regular curriculum this week.  It's given me more time to prep for our trip (which, somehow, there's still so much more to buy/do/plan than what we've already completed) and learn new things to prepare us for our trip.

You'll notice that almost all of our curriculum has been based around World Showcase, and there's a reason for that.  The least stimulating parts (for young children) of WDW include World Showcase and Animal Kingdom (more on that tomorrow).

So, today, we focused on China, Japan, and Ocean Life (Epcot's aquarium is pretty cool!).

We started in Japan.

Japan

• National Geographic Website
• Japan by: David F. Marx
• We also had rice for lunch, tea with our snack, and talked about Hello Kitty (Little Lou's favorite!), also, since Japan is an island nation, we decided that it would be a good intro to ocean life.

Ocean Life

• Ocean by: Cassie Mayer
• Coral Reef - this book mysteriously went missing as I was typing this
• Tell Time with Turtles by: Melissa McDonnell
• Out and About at the Aquarium by: Amy Rechner

China

• National Geographic Website
• Postcards from China by: Zoe Dawson
• Chinese New Year by: Nancy Dickmann
• The Emperor's Silent Army by: Jane O'Connor (we looked at the pictures and discussed each one)
• Watched Mulan - prior to our last trip, I hadn't ever seen this movie - I was really missing out.  Mulan has a wonderful message about loyalty, friendship, and bravery.  Plus, it empowers women, which I think is refreshing.

Over the past few days, we've also done a few supplemental (FUN!) activities.  We've gone on long walks to prepare them for the walking they'll be doing, we've played "Just Dance: Disney" as PE, we've talked about our must-see attractions, we've worked on reading maps, made some iron-on shirts for our trip, and we've watched some videos (only a few).

Tomorrow, we'll be learning about Morocco and African animals (AK safari!).  Stay tuned :)