We used to run Friday Fun at the Hub just on Facebook, but we realised it would be a bit laborious trolling through the posts on our page to find all the fun if you missed it on the day, so we thought we'd organise them into an easy to navigate (and searchable) blog series for you!
Friday Fun: National Geographic Day is the first post in our new series, we hope you enjoy it and have lots of fun on this special day!
What is National Geographic Day?
Who doesn’t have a pile of old National Geographic magazines lying around somewhere? They were once the staple for learning about all things in the natural science world and, can you believe it, they have actually been publishing for well over 100 years!
National Geographic Day is a day for us to pay tribute to this incredible magazine. Containing articles about world culture, history, geography, and science – as well as the MOST STUNNING photographs around – these magazines reserve spaces on book shelves all around the world – they’re not just a skim and throw away magazine – they are a beautiful series of reference materials!
Print + Digital
Not to mention the fact that these gorgeous magazines are now available in both print and digital versions!
Special Publications
And there are an assortment of special publications released each year that cover all sorts of topics from the human body to the pharaohs of Egypt!
Nat Geo Kids
If you’re worried that your kids aren’t quite ready for National Geographic, then there is always Nat Geo Kids; all the best of National Geographic in a kid-friendly format!
How to Celebrate National Geographic Day!
National Geographic is all about learning and creating informed and active citizens (ironically, something the Australian Curriculum aims for too! So, if you’re looking to align – here’s a fun way to do that!).
Not only is National Geographic a great way to tick curriculum boxes in a fun way, it is a fantastic reason to get out and about in our world and become explorers - connecting with nature, nurturing our inner photographer, and learning in hands-on, meaningful ways!
Using this special day as a springboard for new units, reasons to get out into nature and connect with family and friends (I'm thinking bushwalking and beach days!), and steam through those, sometimes more challenging subjects, like geography, history and science - by letting your children lead the learning - is sure to set you up for a wonderful year of homeschooling.
Some ways we will be celebrating this amazing magazine are:
READ
Leafing through some old copies on our bookshelf for inspiration for new projects and explorations. Although, we do have a tendency to get very distracted by the beautiful photos and just want to paint, draw or head outside!
WATCH
Making a playlist of National Geographic YouTube videos to keep us learning throughout the year. We're super keen to check out Ultimate Battleships, Volcanoes 101, and Vets for a Day!
PLAY
Making and playing with some Geo-Dough! There are tonnes of ways to use playdough to learn all sorts of geography (think: soil layers, landforms, and layers of the Earth for starters)!(USE OUR NO FAIL PLAYDOUGH RECIPE HERE)
CREATE
Making a Cloud Spotter (and of course, looking for funny shapes in the clouds and telling crazy stories about what we find…is that a castle in the sky? A dog? An aeroplane?). Oh, & don't forget to talk about how clouds are formed for some serious learning points!
EXPLORE
Heading out on a nature walk, with our journals and our cameras…why not create our own personal version of National Geographic in our Nature Journals! Our budding artists have fun clicking the button on the camera & identifying & practicing colours and shapes; while our more experienced artist likes perfecting shading & contouring.
REFLECT
Add all of our adventures (and photos) to our diary. (Of course there's never going to be room for everything, but we can choose our favourites & write a sentence about what we loved best)!
FREEBIES!
If you're thinking that Geo-Dough might be the way to go for National Geographic Day, then nab our No Fail Classic Playdough recipe.
If you're keen to get out and about like us, but aren't sure where to start with Nature Journaling; give our Beach & Ocean Nature Study Sample a try!
Other ways you might like to become Nat Geo explorers:
READ
Head off the library and check out some Nat Geo Levelled Readers for your beginning readers – they have the same beautiful photographs that the magazine is so well known for and simple text at appropriate levels for little learners.
Or some exciting Children’s reference and information books might be more your style. We have borrowed (and purchased) loads of these for our home library and they are firm favourites!
Or you might even nab something for yourself (there are tonnes of inspiring Nat Geo books for us big people too! Don't forget to nurture yourself and get inspired!
You could also follow Nat Geo Books on Facebook to keep up to date with new reads!
LEARN
Check out the Nat Geo Education resources. These lesson plans & supporting resources were designed for teachers in classrooms; but they are definitely useful for learning at home too! Organised into year levels, and searchable by topic - the site is super easy to navigate.
Or you might like to head on over to Nat Geo Kids for lots of fun facts, activities, games, videos and more!
These are targeted at younger kids, but the whole family can enjoy the fun on offer (and the beautiful photos of course!)
Or you might be ready to start a new unit or explore something new! We have some wonderful Wilderness Survival learning journals that would be a great start to getting your little (and big!) explorers out there into the world!
CREATE
Head on over to Montessori from the Heart for some Montessori-inspired Geography ideas; like this mapping using an orange peel activity or you might like to pop back to National Geographic Education for a more in depth lesson on cartography.
Make seed bombs. Give them as gifts, use them to rewild dead spaces in your local area (make sure you have permission first), or even chuck some into your own garden for a colourful surprise.
Create your own safari right at home with these oh so cute Egg Carton Animal Portraits. Nylah Khan is an arts teacher and her Instagram is full of inspiration!
PLAY
Head on over to National Geographic Kids: Games to play around with mazes, puzzles, fill-ins and loads of cool kid-friendly games!
Or if boardgames are more your speed; check out some of our favourites at Gameology (if you're lucky, you might even have some on your shelf already, or if your library is as fabulous as ours - you might be able to nab a copy of some of your favourites using that magical card)!
Some of our favourites: Ticket to Ride series, Wingspan series, Catan series, Parks, Ecosystem, Beez, Top Trumps series , Subatomic, Fluxx series (Anatomy & Chemistry are great)!
Or, head on outside and play in nature. It can be something as simple as climbing a tree in the backyard, lying on the grass and watching the micro-world (yep, ants do some pretty interesting things), or you might decide to explore your local nature reserve or head out to the reef!
DECORATE
Explore some Nat Geo Interesting Fact Resources (and maybe print some to decorate your homeschool space and to inspire you throughout the year!)
We love this one all about Pandas!
Make a photo collage of all your favourite nature places (this is a great opportunity to try out macro-photography too...super tricky, but totally worth the effort).
Create some nature-inspired frames and frame up all your nature finds, or artworks throughout the year. This might also be a good spot to showcase that photography from your nature walk!
FREEBIES!
If you're planning on making some seed bombs, then why not download our handy infographic to step you through the process!
If you're heading out and about to dabble in photography, why not grab a free copy of our Nature Photography Challenge to get you started!
We hope that this has given you lots of fun ways to celebrate National Geographic Day and also to bring geography, history and science into your homeschool! Friday Fun at The Hub is all about connecting homeschoolers with fun learning experiences that enrich every homeschool; and providing families with fabulous freebies to support learning, playing and growing at home!
If you've got some suggestions for other great ideas or would like to share your adventures, please visit our private group on Facebook - Little Sprouts Homeschooling and join a community of homeschoolers just like you!
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