Virtual Destinations and Beyond! Brazil and Ecuador

Wow, we have had an excellent week in Brazil and Ecuador! I cannot believe how much there was to do and see! We started in Brazil where learned about the animals of the Amazon Rain Forest and Even took a boat ride through the Amazon waters!

We learned about the dangerous beasts that reside in the waters of the Amazon. We watched a MOVIE all about the Deadly Animals of the Amazon and learned so much more! 

After watching the movie, we went to the Shedd Aquarium to explore their Amazon exhibit. It was awesome to see them explore this exhibit after learning all we had discussed before arriving. They were able to name the names of some of the fish and also locate them in the tanks.

Next it was Carnaval time (Carnival), where we listened to SAMBA music and even took a small lesson!

In order to properly Samba during Carnaval, we needed to make our feathered masks!! We made them out of paper plates!! I will share this lesson in another post!

After we were done with creating them, we decided to have our own Carnaval at home! We listened to Samba Music and danced our hearts out! What fun we all had with this lesson! Before we knew it, it was time for a 5 hour flight to Ecuador! We were going to explore more of the rainforest, a volcano and the Galpagos islands!! 

We made Tamarin Monkey Bookmarks and Anaconda Keychains, using the colors of the Brazilian flag. We took this time to listen to sounds of the Rainforest on the radio and try to identify the animals we heard in the recording!

We studied the animals of the rainforest with a game I created, using Toob animals and a fun fact sheet I put together. (I will explain this in a future post too!) This was very popular and is still being played with often!

We toured the Andes mountains and Cotopaxi, one of the worlds most active volcanoes! OH WOW, this was so much fun! Check out my photo gallery HERE for instructions! We even put our rain forest animals on there as decoration AND made our own rain forest trees!! All around a truly memorable trip that even had us pricing tickets to Ecuador for real!!! My husband just wants to wait until the youngest is a bit older and can handle all the walking required! We cannot wait!

Today we flew for 18 hours from the Galapagos Islands off to Tanzania in Africa! WOW, what a flight! This week we will be spending in Tanzania trekking up the Highest African Mountain of Mount Kilimanjaro! Did you know that this mountain is right near the equator as well?! Just like in Ecuador! We will learn all about this mountain and the Kalahari dessert as well!

As we head on over to South Africa, we will be going on Safari!!! How exciting! We cannot wait to see what we come across!

Lesson learned will be: African Wildlife, Mountains and Mountain Climbing, Flags and languages and other various facts.

Crafts: Make a camera out of of a mac and cheese box, toilet tube binoculars for safari, Paper Beads for jewelry making and some painting of the flag will be done too!

Cooking: In the kitchen we will grill kebabs of meats! The kids have been wanting to eat food-on-a-stick for awhile now! hahaha!! Much better than corn dogs too! Yay!

Please join us on our travels!!!

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Our Summer Bucket List!!

Our Summer Bucket List!

This Summer is going to be one to remember! We have so much planned and even more unplanned! I found a blog that was talking about doing a bucket list of things that you would like to accomplish this Summer and I figured this was right up our alley! We have 93 days of Summer, so I will have a list of 93 items, even though some are ongoing and we can do multiples in one day. I just like the thought of 1 fun thing for every day of Summer Break!
1. Go Around The World!
2. Go to the Children’s Museum of Rockford
3. Children’s Museum of Chicago
4. The Zoo
5. Science and Industry
6. Petting Zoo
7. Small Town Carnival
8. Have a beachside picnic
9. Take a train ride somewhere new
10. Camp under the stars
11. Go to the Mall of America
12. Have a yard sale
13. Make a new friend
14. Field Museum
15. Planetarium
16. Spend a lazy day on a pontoon boat
17. Build a robot
18. Make a wishing tree in a local park
19. Volunteer
20. Go to the Aquarium
21. Be Super Heroes!
22. Make Smore’s over an open flame
22. Catch fireflies late at night
23. Go to the drive in
24. Make our own ice cream
25. Have a lemonade stand
26. Go on a date downtown with my husband
27. Purge each of our rooms of 50 things!
28. Go on a scavenger hunt
29. Have a huge water gun fight
30. Go Berry Picking
31. Go to a large Farmers Market
32. Make Wind Chimes
33. Join the Library Summer Reading Club
34. Take a Trolley Ride
35. Spend a day at the arboretum
36. Go Bowling
37. Play Miniature Golf
38. Go to the Children’s Theatre
39. Lego Land
40. Listen to a professional Outdoor Music Concert (ravinia)
41. Fly a kite
42. Go puddle jumping in the rain
43. Let the kids plan a full days meals
44. Make Jewelry to give to someone else
45. Fall in Love
46. Take one photo every day of our activity
47. Train Museum
48. Jelly Bean Factory Tour
49. Camp out in the living room
50. Make Soap
51. Go to an Amusement Park
52. Do a LARGE puzzle throughout the summer
53. Find Chic-Fil-A near my dads house
54. Eat every single meal outside in 1 day
55. Family Game Night
56. Make a 100 link paper chain to be ready for the first 100 days of school countdown!
57. Play with ice in a wading pool on a hot hot hot day
58. Create an entire outfit from thrift store finds (everyone picks their own)
59. Take after dinner walks
60. Go to the water park
61. Go to the splash park
62. Go to an outdoor movie at the park (not the same as drive in)
63. Go on a nature hike
64. Write letters to friends and family (at least 8)
65. Have a movie marathon on a rainy day
66. Get REAL Italian Lemonade
67. Go to the SEARS TOWER (I will always call it that)
68. Go to a baseball game
69. See a civil war re enactment
70. Play with paint
71. Play with clay
72. Bake Cupcakes and give them away! (Take to Daddy’s work)
73. Go to church every Sunday
74. Go to the Butterfly House
75. Go to a farm
76. Take a class
77. Meet friends for ice cream
78. Go for sushi
79. Read books outside
80. Play in the pool!
81. See my grandma
82. Go on a road trip
83. Watch the sunset
84. Go on a boat tour
85. Roller Skate
86. Race Go Karts
87. Race Remote Control Cars
88. Play at a new-never-been-to play ground
89. Visit the Japanese Gardens
90. Kidnap Nana and hang out with her for a day
91. Kidnap Grandpa and hang out with him for a day
92. Build a fort
93. Go on a bike ride


That’s it! We did it! I have so many more ideas! hahaha!!!
Do you have a bucket list? If so link up in the comments! I would love to read everyones!

ETA:
Okay, I just can't stop! I want to do more!
94. Build a Giant Sandcastle
95. Make Lollipops
96. Make hotdogs over a fire!
97. Have a YES DAY!
98. Make a hummingbird feeder

 Linked up with other lists here:

~Michelle!~

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