Australia is on my and my husband’s bucket list and since I don’t see us taking any super long flights yet with young kids, a virtual field trip to the “Land Down Under” was perfect! To give the kids (and this mama) a break, we spent just two days in Australia this past week.
Day 1 - Australia Introduction and Sydney Opera House
- Read – We started our trip by reading “Explore Australia” on the Epic app and used some of the facts in the book to fill out a Country Research worksheet. Even though this is a video of the Sydney Opera House, I read it like a book with pausing between text. There were tons of fun facts and a bit of a history lesson too.
- Watch – Nat Geo Kids created this great 3-minute video showcasing the land, animals, and famous locations in Australia. Speaking of iconic landmarks, I next showed this short video of kids climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge and my son can’t wait to do it when he’s old enough! We loved this 360-degree tour of the Sydney Opera House. We didn’t watch it straight through but just skipped until the scenery changed and my kiddos loved being “in charge” with moving the computer mouse around to explore the 360-degree view. Music was a huge part of my life growing up and this video by the Sydney Opera House Archive follows an adorable little boy named George who meets an orchestra for the first time! A really well-done video!
- Learn – To remember what we learned in that last video, both kids made their own little orchestra booklet using this printable (scroll down to download). Aside from coloring the instruments, the kids learned how to spell by tracing the letters and we also practiced saying the new vocabulary. Since my oldest finished his booklet first and my daughter was still coloring, we decided to learn about a famous composer named Mozart. This free download includes informational text and a research page. Next we learned about rhythm, which is great for my daughter who is starting to identify the number of syllables in words. This Summer Rhythms matching game was a fun learning activity for both my kids.
- Draw – My son started taking piano lessons last year so I found this color-by-musical note worksheet a fun drawing activity to reinforce his music theory.
- Craft – After becoming musical experts, we did some fun and easy crafting and recreated the Sydney Opera House using white paper plates!
Day 2 - Koalas and Kangaroos
There are so many neat Australian animals but we wanted to focus on two popular ones, koalas and kangaroos. We started with the cute furry wombat relative – the koala. Note: You could break up this day into two shorter days since I’ve written it in two sections.
Koala
- Read – This pre-reader book by Nat Geo Kids was a great intro book that wasn’t too overwhelming for my preshcooler. We also read “Koala Joeys” that’s good for kids ages 4-7.
- Watch – We watched this read aloud called “Koala Who Could,” a fictional book with a message about handling change in a positive way.
- Learn – As a follow-up to the “Koala Who Could” book, my son practiced writing with this free writing prompt printable. A great quiet activity for older kids is this code-breaker word puzzle. If your child wants more word puzzles, check these out. My daughter who is learning to count beyond 10 enjoyed this connect-the-dots worksheet. Then, we practiced writing lowercase letters (you can do uppercase) with this printable. In the past, we’ve done various six-letter words. For today, we used “k-o-a-l-a-s.” She thinks this is a fun game versus schoolwork so that’s a parenting win!
- Draw – We learned how to draw a koala following this directed drawing video by Art for Kids Hub
Kangaroo
- Watch – As a SciShow Kids fan, we watched this 3-minute video to learn why kangaroos have pouches. Another video we watched was a fun one from one of my kids’ favorite TV shows, Wild Kratts.
- Read – This Read-to-Me book provided a great introduction to the hopping animal. “Pouch” is an adorable fictional story with beautiful illustrations that both my kids enjoyed. Last book we read together was about Cami Kangaroo, a little kangaroo who had too many sweets.
- Write – For our last day in Australia, I had my son write a postcard to a friend. This was a distance learning activity his teacher did back in April that he really loved. Simply cut a letter-size paper in half so that you have a top half and bottom half. The postcard will only use one half, so save the other half for another destination. One side is for writing and other side is for drawing. I gave my son a writing prompt (“If I could pick a koala or kangaroo for a pet, I would pick…”). You (or your child) can totally make up your own prompt! While he was writing, my youngest practiced her own writing with this tracing letter worksheet. We also downloaded the “Find the Letters” PDF from this website (scroll down) for letter recognition practice. You can use Do-A-Dot markers or color in with crayons.
- Play – We played a simple game around the house looking for words that started with the letter K. Some ideas: ketchup, key, king, keyboard, kite, kitchen, kettle, krazy glue, kettle corn, etc.
- Draw – Since we drew a koala, we also drew a kangaroo! Kids nowadays are so lucky to have directed drawing videos to watch and learn from!
Freebie!
The Australian Aboriginal rainstick is the perfect craft for our aspiring musicians. Supplies needed: free printable, empty paper towel roll, scissors, glue, construction paper, rubberbands, uncooked rice or dried beans, and something to color with.
Step 1 – Kids color the printable however they want.
Step 2 – Cut out the bands and glue them wherever on the paper towel roll.
Step 3 – Cut out two 4-in circles using construction paper.
Step 4 – Put glue on one end of the roll and place it centered on one of the 4-in circles. Wrap and glue the edges of the circle around the roll.
Step 5 – Fill the tube with rice or beans about 1/4 of the way.
Step 6 – Repeat Step 4 for the other end of the roll. Once the glue on both ends have dried, secure each paper “cap” tightly with a rubber band.
Tip: You can insert “filler material” inside the paper tube so that the rice/beans move more slowly when the paper tube is tipped.
Well, that’s a wrap from the land down under! Feel free to stamp your passports with whatever you’d like from each destination. We drew a simplified Sydney Opera House for ours. Rest up, little jetsetters as we’ve got a long flight to our next destination that is in Europe! ✈️