Molly's Summer Project

My daughter Molly, who will turn 7 this summer, dreams of being a photographer for National Geographic when she grows up. She loves reading the magazines, both the adult and kids version. For her summer learning project I put together a book that will take her to 7 different countries. This is how it works:
First I made this book for her to keep all of her activities in:


For each country she receives a packet. The packet starts with a letter from her boss welcoming her to whatever country. The first country is Madagascar. The letter explains she has to start by learning about the country so she doesn’t get lost!

First she reads a packet about the country. In the book she will mark important cities/landmarks on the map.

She will color where the country is on the world map.

She can then write interesting and important facts about the country in the fold out book.

After she has learned about the country, she can start on the animals! Each country has a packet of 10 animal information sheets (printed from enchantedlearning.com) She reads about each animal, then makes an animal fact card for each one. She writes about the animal on one side and draws a picture on the other. Tonight she made cards for the Aye-Aye and the Ploughshare Tortoise.

Next she needs to choose 3 animals she thinks should be included in the new National Geographic Zoo. For each of these animals she needs to write why she thinks they should be included in the zoo.

Then she needs to write a letter home telling her family about her trip to this country.


After each country, we will take her to the zoo to get real photographs of the animals she has learned about! There are pages in the back of the book for her photographs.

I gave Molly her book tonight. Her eyes lit up and she started working on her first animal cards right away. At bedtime she begged to stay up and work “just a little bit longer!” I love seeing her so excited to learn!