Russia, First Co-op

I know I placed the second co-op pictures up, but the babushki were so cute I couldn't resist. This was actually our first Russian co-op.

To understand how large Russia is, we first had to take a look at the entire globe. As a review for Glenna and Rachel, we had them turn their classmates into human globes.

On Elise's forehead is her North Pole sticker. The line of blue painter's tape is the prime meridian.
The post-its on her arms show the directions of east and west.




The belt around Jordan's waist is of course the equator. His North Pole seems to have slipped to his nose. You can see the South Pole on his shoe.


Josh's necklace is the Arctic Circle. I think the International Date Line going down his back may be causing him fits.

Here's all three globes! I'm not sure why they're holding their arms out like that, unless they were wanting to look round like a globe.

We discovered Russia has ten time zones! (Some sources say eleven.) We also took a look at the different types of land in Russia; tundra, taiga, and steppes.
To remember these, we placed tree leaves in one bowl for forests (taiga), and ice in another bowl for tundra (frozen). You can barely see the ice in front of Rachel.

A third bowl had grass for the steppe.
We then passed the bowls around in a circle rapidly. When I said, "Stop!" everyone had to say whether they had the tundra, taiga, or steppe. For the rest of the week, the children were to learn about different vegetation and animals for each area.

There's no co-op today because of a school meeting, which is disappointing! Next up: Vikings!