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Virtrual Trip Around the World for Homeschoolers – Africa

virtual trip to africa for homeschoolers - map of Africa image

Today, we’re off to Africa. So, hop in your imaginary airplane and sing the continent song on the way! You’ll find a link to this free download on teacherspayteachers here.

virtual trip to africa for homeschoolers - the continent song lyrics

This post is designed to be used as a menu of activities. Choose the ones that best suit your child’s age and interests. Bon voyage!

Africa

Continent Facts:

  • Biggest Island: Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world.
  • Longest River: Nile (6,852metres/4,258miles). The Nile is the longest river in the world.
  • Highest Mountain: Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The highest peak, ‘Kibo Peak’, also called ‘Uhuru Peak’, reaches 5,895metres/19,340ft.
  • Biggest Lake: Lake Victoria (bordering Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya) is also the world’s second largest freshwater lake.

For more facts about Africa, take a look at this Kids-World-Travel-Guide post.

Interactive Games

For fun, interactive games to help you learn the countries and capitals of Africa, check out the Sheppard Software games website. We like the ‘click on the correct country by region’ game.

virtual trip to Africa for homeschoolers - interactive Sheppard Software game screenshot

Animal Coloring Pages for African Bush Mural

Jan Brett offers free African animal coloring pages here. You can color them, cut them out, and create a beautiful African bush mural.

virtual trip to africa for homeschoolers - elephant coloring page

Geography

For older children, check out Mr. Donn’s great free African geography PowerPoint presentations here.

South Africa

Are you ready to go on safari?

Read or sing ‘We’re Going on a Lion Hunt’ to get you in the mood. Click here to see the YouTube video of the story.

Go on a virtual safari with WildEarth’s safariLIVE. It’s an award-winning, expert hosted LIVE safari broadcast directly from the African wilderness into your home.

Here’s a WildEarth video for kids to give you a taste of what a live safari broadcast is like:

African Animal Art

If you have older children try this African Animal Sunset craft. Click on this link or the photo below for full instructions from The Taming Little Monsters website.

virtual trip to africa for homeschoolers - African animal shadow tracing art

If you have younger children, try making these cute ‘Triangle Lions’. Talk about the properties of a triangle as you cut it out.

  • How many sides does a triangle have?
  • How many vertices (corners)?

Have fun fork-painting the mane and add some pasta for style.

virtual trip to Africa for homeschoolers - triangle lion craft for young children

Younger children may also enjoy making these fork-printed lions from Crafty Morning.

fork-printed lion craft for virtual trip to Africa for homeschoolers

Egypt

Here are five fun facts about Ancient Egypt. To read more, click here.

  • Egyptian men and women wore makeup.
  • They used moldy bread to help with infections.
  • They were one of the first civilizations to invent writing.
  • The Ancient Egyptians were scientists and mathematicians.
  • Ancient Egypt plays a major role in the Bible.

Watch this video to learn 5 things you should know about Ancient Egypt:

Or, if you want to learn about Ancient Egyptian history with all the gory bits left in, check out this Horrible Histories video on the ‘Awful Egyptians’.

Write Like an Egyptian

Egyptian scribes wrote using hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs are part of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Ancient Egyptians wrote in pictures rather than words. This system is 5,000 years old!

The Penn Museum has a fun interactive hieroglyphic generator. Simply type in your first name and they’ll translate it into hieroglyphics. Try it out here.

If you’d like to have your children write their name in hieroglyphs, use this downloadable hieroglyphic alphabet by Miles Kelly Publishing.

virtual trip to Africa for homeschoolers - hieroglyphic alphabet image

Canopic Jars

Make your own canopic jars. What are canopic jars? Canopic Jars were jars used to hold mummified remains – the organs of the body. A person’s liver, intestines, lungs and stomach were placed in these urns. This way, when a person entered the afterlife, the body would be complete. Here’s a great post on how to make easy canopic jars and what to put inside them.

virtual trip to africa for homeschoolers - canopic jars craft

Zambia and Zimbabwe

Victoria Falls

virtual trip to Africa for homeschoolers, Victoria Falls photo

Victoria Falls, discovered in 1855, is a waterfall system that is situated between the two African countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is the largest waterfall system in the world, and became an official UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989.” – https://kidskonnect.com/geography/victoria-falls/

Victoria Falls Activity

Design a travel brochure for Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Check out this kidsconnect post for facts to include in your brochure.

Layers-of-learning offers a free printable travel brochure template here.

virtual trip to Africa for homeschoolers - travel brochure template

African Dance

Here is a small taste of African dance. Watch the amazing choreography and incredible energy of these Zulu dancers.

African Food

Try this recipe for making Chin Chin, a West African pastry, from Immaculate Bites. It looks delicious!

virtual trip to Africa for homeschoolers - chin chin

Conclusion

This was only a taste of Africa. Hopefully, you’ll be able to travel there one day and see it for yourself. If you missed our virtual trip to Europe, Asia, and South America posts, click on the images below.

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