Rivers of the World: Asia, Europe, and Africa

Today was a big catchup day. We decided to just do embroidery of the various rivers instead of doing an individual book exercise, then stitching. We reviewed the names of the continents and rivers we've learned so far. We had the kids work with the atlas, which they seem to be getting more familiar with. First we found Africa, and the kids quickly located the Nile. We noted the source in Uganda, that it travels through 3 countries, is the longest river in the world, and that the mouth is in the Mediterranean Sea. I had pre-threaded the needles today to help us get started faster. I was able to show them a new stitch- Whipped running, and several students used it.
We moved our hoops over to look at the continents of Asia and Europe. We sang the continents song again. We located the Volga River which sort of helps divide the continents of Europe and Asia. After they stitched the Volga we traveled across Asia to find one of the major rivers in China. We noted the location of the Yangtze, its source, and its mouth at the Sea of China. Some students were able to finish stitching the Yangtze, but others have not yet. It was time to get cleaned up and ready for the bus.

After today, to complete the project we only need to have the Yangtze and a river in Australia stitched. To review the Houses, People, Plants, Animals, etc. Cindy and I discussed just focusing on the Amazon and the Mississippi, and having the kids create a Venn diagram in their sketchbooks to compare and contrast. Some additional details can be added to their maps based on the information gathered. We're concerned with the kids' reading progress and need to find more ways to work in the literacy goals. As we'll be moving on to our river model,  I recalled seeing a grade-appropriate description of river features in Cindy's collection of materials during our planning sessions we can use next week.