We are putting down our 4th grade “core curriculum” and taking our time notebooking our way through Europe this summer. The boy wanted to start with Portugal.
We grabbed our resource books one rainy afternoon and hit the carpet to discover the Iberian Peninsula.
We spent some time discussing Portugal’s history (had no idea it was ruled by Islamic Moors until the Knight’s of Templar kicked them out). Once he colored the flag and learned what the colors stood for we checked out some interesting facts.
Did you know Portugal leads … everyone in cork production? Cork Oaks grow more in Portugal than anywhere else! So we googled cork trees and were both amazed to learn the way they peel away the bark (do not actually cut down the trees). The bark is dried for days and then boiled (to rid of any insects). It takes nine years for the bark to grow back completely.
Portugal was greatly affected by the Black Death, which of course is fascinating to any 9yr old boy, I’m sure. We printed some country facts from National Geographic Kids.
Since hubs has work in Brazil – it was fun to learn how many South American countries were “discovered” by Portugal explorers. We printed information on Ferdinand Magellan from Super Teacher Worksheets.
Later we researched some wild animals found in Portugal and wrote down a new geography term – peninsula.
The boy glued small Portugal maps to our worksheets. Since Portugal has a rich history I thought making a basic timeline would be perfect.
*some notebooking pages from Notebooking Fairy
