European Explorers to New Zealand 1600 - 1800

The children (and I) have been working our way through a hands on project while we look more closely at European Exlorers to New Zealand between the 1600 & 1800's.

I was wanting the exercise to be a geography based one. New Zealand geography, and so creating a map each - along with a concertina lapfold - while we read and discussed our way through this topic in history seemed like a good idea.... to me :)

Using enlarged maps of each island we blacked out the reverse side of the maps outline with a 6b sketch pencil (cellotaping the printed side of the A4 sheets to the ranchslide works as an excellent lightbox).

We then lined up each map, one after the other, with the blacked side onto the sketch paper and Bobs and Daisy proceed to 'reprint' their own maps, Bobs is working on retracing the South Island, below.Once the maps were made Bobs and Daisy have been working on detailing in key points of geography that relate to our European Explorers and New Zealand study. We are using Builders of New Zealand (OOP) as our spine - but have found some good literary sources on the internet that have made certain explorers and events surrounding them spring to life. Bobs (11 & 1/2) is able to work through this study pretty much on his own and I'm giving Daisy (9 & 1/2) the occasional hand, where needed.For anyone interested in having a look at that study you can find our pages over at hslaunch:
Hands-on-Craft & Study: European Explorers to New Zealand 1600 - 1800

And for those looking for extra NZ history books to enjoy we've listed some, in pdf format, we use and like in a link at the top of our blog.