Italy

Geography Kids

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Italy

Here’s a list of the resources we used, videos we watched, and activities we did in our study of Italy.

Note: I don’t feel comfortable letting my children watch movies directly on the internet, so I always download the content first, so they can watch everything offline. If you want to do this, too, I would highly recommend using HitPaw Video Converter. That’s what I use. It’s not free, but it works great. That’s what I use to download content from YouTube, so that we can watch all the content offline and not have to worry about what might “pop up” when my kids are watching the videos.

Travel Book Pages

Every time we begin our “travels” to a new country, we always do the same 5 things:

1) Find the flag sticker for the country we are going to travel to, and stick it in our Pretend Passports.

2) Set up a pretend airplane and sing our “All Around the World” song as we pretend to fly to our destination.

3) Assemble our first travel book page, with the name of the country, the flag, country outline, and the pictures of people dressed in traditional costume.

>> Italy Travel Page 01 - Country Profile Page

4) Have a fun little country themed scavenger hunt! (featured below)

5) Assemble our second travel book page. Although, this page we usually do on our LAST day of learning about the country, since the kids like to pretend that they took all these pictures while they were visiting the country, so this second page is a place for them to “scrapbook” their memories of what they did on their adventure.

>> Italy Travel Page 02 - Scrapbook Page

Italy Scavenger Hunt

Italy Scavenger Hunt. We always like to do a scavenger hunt when learning about a new country. This is the scavenger hunt we put together for Italy.

Italy for Kids (Professor Propeller’s Planet)

Italy for Kids. Fun, interesting facts for kids about Italy.

Let’s Take a Journey: Italy (Miacademy)

Let’s Take a Journey: Italy. Let’s learn about what life is like for kids in Italy.

Hogie Goes to Pisa (Hogie the Globehopper)

Hogie Goes to Pisa. Join Hogie and friends as they explore Pisa, Italy.

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>> 10 Things About Pisa | Fun Facts for Kids (Hogie the Globehopper)

Are We There Yet? | Ultimate Italian Adventure (Travel Kids)

Are We There Yet? | Ultimate Italian Adventure. Join Julian and Rosie as they travel to Italy where they train as gladiators, meet the soccer star Gennaro "Rino" Gattuso, climb the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and more!

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>> Rome with Kids (Travel with Kids TV)

Rome, Italy (Jumping Places)

Rome, Italy. Join Chris and Carol as they spend a couple days touring Rome, Italy.

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>> The Vatican | We Saw the Pope! (Jumping Places)

How to Draw a Roman Soldier (Art for Kids Hub)

How to Draw a Roman Soldier. Learn how to draw a Roman Soldier, to go with the study of Rome, Italy.

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>> How to Draw a Cartoon Chef (Art for Kids Hub)

>> How to Draw Funny Spagetti and Meatballs (Art for Kids Hub)

>> How to Draw a Funny Pizza (Art for Kids Hub)

>> How to Draw Melting Cheese Pizza with Pepperoni (Art for Kids Hub)

>> How to Draw a Heart-Shaped Pizza (Art for Kids Hub)

>> How to Draw Pizza - Preschool (Art for Kids Hub)

>> How to Draw a Cute Volcano (Art for Kids Hub)

>> How to Draw an Exploding Volcano (Art for Kids Hub)

>> How to Draw a Cute Ice Cream Cone (Art for Kids Hub)

>> How to Draw an Ice Cream Tower Folding Surprise (Art for Kids Hub)

>> How to Draw a Scooter Motorcycle (Art for Kids Hub)

Great Gondolas (Super Wings)

Great Gondolas . Jett takes a masquerade mask to Venice for Luca, who has forgotten a crucial element in planning his party. Jett sets out to help him remedy the mistake when the two end up stuck in canal traffic.

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>> There's No Place Like Rome (Super Wings)

>> Constellation Situation (Super Wings)

>> Runaway Piggy Bank (Super Wings)

>> Pisa Pasta Panic (Super Wings)

Junior Jetsetters: Italy for Kids

Junior Jetsetters: Italy for Kids. A quick, short, but fun introductory video that gives kids a great overview of the country of Italy.

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>> The Leaning Tower of Pisa for Kids (Homeschool Pop)

>> Learn Facts About Italy the Musical Way

>> The Leaning Tower of Pisa (FreeSchool)

Epicurious: The Secret History of Pizza

Epicurious: The Secret History of Pizza. A fun little video that takes you back through the years to discover where pizza came from.

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>> The Secret History of Pasta

>> The Secret History of Buitoni

Funny Fun Pizza Song (Blippi)

Funny Fun Pizza Song. Dance and sing with Blippi in this food video for kids by learning about pizza made from funny and fun foods like cereal, spaghetti, and gummy worms!

>> Blippi Learns How Pizza is Made (Blippi Wonders)

>> How to Make Pizza with Blippi (Moonbug Kids)

Dance Along With Rosie & Posie: Italian Tarantella

Dance Along With Rosie & Posie: Italian Tarantella. For a little cultural experience and a fun exercise, we added this Italian dance to our lesson on Italy. There are actually two videos to this activity. In the first video Rosie and Posie teach the different dance steps needed in order to do the Italian Tarantella. Then, once you know the dance moves, you can dance along in this video!

>> Dance Lesson with Rosie & Posie (Italian Tarantella)

>> Dance Along with Rosie & Posie (Italian Tarantella)

Tambourine Paper Plate Craft

Tambourine Paper Plate Craft. Rosie and Posie’s Italian Tarantella dance (above) uses tambourines in their dance, which can be fun little activity and craft in itself. Here’s a video on how to make a really quick and easy paper plate tambourine.

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>> Traditional Italian Music

Volcanoes

Since Italy is the home to some of the most famous volcanoes in the world, we took the opportunity to study volcanoes during our “tour” of Italy. First of all watching a few short kids’ videos about volcanoes and then made our own volcano and had fun erupting it!

Making the volcano was VERY easy! We just took a tall, glass juice bottle, and used crumpled sheets of paper and wide packing tape to make the form of the volcano around the glass jar.

Next we made a very quick, simple salt dough recipe by mixing together 1 cup water, 1 cup salt, and about 3 cups of flour (start with less flour and just keep adding and kneading the dough until it becomes a good play-dough type consistency).

We had some “sticky fun” covering our paper mountain with the salt dough. Then put our volcano outside to dry in the sun.

The next day, we painted it! Mostly brown, but a little red streaming down from the top to look like lava.

Gave it another day to dry and then came the fun part – eruption!

Again, very simple! We just poured about 2 or 3 tablespoons of baking soda into the opening of our volcano and added about 4 drops of red food coloring. Then for the actual eruption you just pour in some vinegar over the baking soda and watch it bubble up and overflow!

So much fun!!

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>> Glitter Volcano Craft and Activity (ABC Mouse)

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Volcanoes for Kids (Learn Bright)

Volcanoes for Kids. A fun and engaging way to introduce volcanoes to children. In this video kids will learn all about volcanoes and take away some fun interesting facts everyone should know.

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>> What is a Volcano? (Learn Bright)

Blippi Goes Inside a Volcano (Blippi)

Blippi Goes Inside a Volcano. Join Blippi as he visits the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii and learns all about the science of volcanoes and how they erupt. He even goes inside a real life lava tube!

>> Blippi Meets Maggie the Magma Monster (Blippi Wonders)

All About Volcanoes (SciShow Kids)

All About Volcanoes. Jessi and Squeaks explore nature’s way of letting off a little steam. Discover the exciting world of volcanoes!

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>> Dr. Binocs Show: Volcano (Peekaboo Kidz)

Leonardo da Vinci (Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum)

Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci helps Xavier realize it's ok to try many different after-school activities.

Why is the Mona Lisa so Famous? | Dr. Binocs Show (Peekaboo Kidz)

Why is the Mona Lisa so Famous? Dr. Binocs teaches kids about the history of the Mona Lisa painting and the history behind how it became the most famous painting in the world.

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>> Leonardo da Vinci for Kids (Learn Bright)

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Galileo Galilei for Kids (Learn Bright)

Galileo Galilei for Kids. When you hear the name Galileo, what do you think about? Galileo Galilei is often associated with telescopes, the universe, and being imprisoned for his discoveries. In this video, kids will learn a lot more about this amazing scientist and mathematician, and about his inventions and scientific discoveries.

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>> Italian Recipes Playlist (Peppy Kitchen)

For Older Students:

>> Italy Song for Kids (JEOGRAPHY Songs)

>> Animated History of Italy Part 1 | Part 2

>> Animated History of Venice and Genoa, Italy

>> Kids History: Let’s Learn About Italy

>> How the Mona Lisa Got So Famous | What the Past? (Colossal Cranium)

>> Leonardo da Vinci for Kids (Bedtime History)

>> Leonardo da Vinci (Happy Learning English)

>> Italy: Geography, Nature, Culture & Facts (World Facts)

>> Ancient Rome for Kids (Learn Bright)