Geography Club: Argentina

We packed our "bags" and headed to South America for our geography club...Argentina to be exact. After a brief look at the map to see where Argentina is in relation to our last South American country, Brazil, the Deputy's wife led the kid's in a pop quiz style trivia game.  She asked multiple choice questions about Argentina in order to see what the kids did or did not already know about the country.  She did not reveal the correct answers as she wanted to encourage the children to listen for the answers in the morning's discussion.

The vocabulary she emphasized throughout the questions were as follows:

• Pampas- the grasslands of Argentina
• Patagonia- wild, dry region in the south
• Andes- mountains range that runs through the country
• Gauchos- Argentinian cowboys in the Pampas region
• Buenos Aires- literally means "good weather" 
• Argento- literally means "silver", what Argentina is named after 

We watched a short video about Gouchos...not the pants...the cowboys!

And then, enjoyed apples dipped in Dulche de Leche, a sweet candied milk that we made from boiling a can of evaporated milk.  Here's a great tutorial including a recipe and video to make some.    

We looked at a picture of the current president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and briefly discussed the Argentinian form of government.  

Afterward, we took some time to look at the religious demographics of the country and learned about some of their immediate spiritual needs from the Christian and Missionary Alliance.  We were able to discover some specific missionaries and faith needs to pray for in the coming weeks.

We discussed elephant seals, giant seals that live off the coast of southern Argentina.  After learning that many adult males can grow as large as 20 feet long, the children were anxious to use a tape measure to see how large and long that is.  They also got to hear one roar.

They finished up their morning by coloring Argentina on our working map of South America.

Our family was able to wrap up our entire unit by enjoying some DELICIOUS Carbonada Criolla, a beef stew that has a unique blend of both savory and sweet ingredients, and Budin, a sweet bread that tastes A LOT like the cornbread muffins at Famous Dave's BBQ.  Both were such a hit that the family requested that I add them to our rotating recipes.