Canada Day – Welcome, Great Canadian Blog Bash!!!

Uh-oh… just realized I’m supposed to have a welcome post here and add my linky… whoops!

WELCOME!!!  I will be trying to do a few things of Canadian interest this week to welcome visitors from the Blog Bash Linky.

When you’re finished here, don’t forget to visit other Canadian blogs participating in the Blog Bash over here!

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Let’s start by teaching the consummate song about Canada to a new generation!!

I thought I’d start this welcome post NOT by kvetching again about Canada Post, but with some links to stuff you can print so you can learn more about Canada with your kids – kind of a “mini unit study.” 

To help you out, I am using BOLD FACE type for all Canadiana references!!!

But first of all – if you use PayPal, and live in the Toronto area, and are planning to go to Canada’s Wonderland this summer, you have a few hours left to jump over to this post and read about a very special offer from PayPal.  I don’t usually push special prices, but this was one I couldn’t pass up.

So - on with the show!

First things first – I’ve created a FREE printable PDF MiniBook with the official lyrics to “O Canada.”  Very simple.  Print, cut the pages along the dashed lines and staple down the left.  Enjoy!

Okay… now this book, Dover’s Around the World Coloring Book, isn’t Canadian (as you can tell from the spelling of “coloring” in the name), but I just bought it over the weekend and I love it.  I photocopied the Canada page out of it because there’s colouring plus some good information. 

And because of the postal strike (yay, Canada!) I was forced to buy it locally at Scholar’s Choice, who were unexpectedly helpful and friendly when I called to ask if they had it.  I felt a little embarrassed because the author’s name is Winky Adam.  It’s not MY name, but I felt embarrassed saying it.  You can peek at a preview of the book here.

While I was out, I also bought a gigantic Canada flag and Canada jigsaw puzzle at Dollarama, a Canadian chain that sells mostly Chinese junk.  Not the traditional kind of Chinese junk – the junky $1 kind.

I didn’t look at the packaging for the flag, but the puzzle says it was published by Leap Year Publishing in Andover, MA… and then there’s the ubiquitous Dollarama China at the bottom.  So there you go.  But who in Canada can possibly make puzzles for under $2???

I also bought a package of air-dry clay with the intention of making a relief map of Canada sometime this week.  We’ll see how that pans out.

Now for some more PDFs and printables!

• A nice Canada map to print and colour

From EnchantedLearning.com – you must be a member for most of these, I think:

• Canada flag  history and colouring
• Animals of Canada – I printed this small to make a cute “colouring and copywork” mini-book

More free resources:

• Whoo – fun!  A semi-addictive “Connect Four” type game played with Canuck Coinage.
• Here’s another mini-book you can make for free.  This is from homeschoolshare.com, which has a bunch of Canada country-study lapbook components you can also download.
• Canada Day colouring, a TP-roll Mountie craft, puzzles and other stuff from a British site.
• A few more printable colouring pages, emblems, etc..
• More recommendations for recipes (poutine?), song sheets, skits, printables and more.
• Grades 2-3 Unit Study with helpful links and discussion questions.
• Connect the dots Canada flag.

Speaking of flags… I kind of wish we had a more interesting flag. 

I remember as a kid being SO bored colouring Canadian flags (I guess Japanese kids have it pretty rough, too).  So I think that instead of colouring, we will cut it out of red construction paper, with a quick lesson in symmetry of the maple leaf.

Here’s a half-leaf template you can use if you want to cut out a maple leaf rather than sit for hours colouring one.  I’ve already mentioned how much Naomi loves colouring, right?  (not!)  And we ALL love symmetry!

This pattern actually comes from a plan for a Maple-Leaf Kite, which might be a great project to work on this week for a family in the right mood.

What are you doing with your kids (homeschooled or otherwise) to teach them about Canada???