Geograph-ood

At the end of our Unit 3 Celebration, Grandma asked, "Where are we going next?"
"Ancient Rome," I said.  "I think we are going to do cookie dough maps next week."
"Why not do pizza dough maps instead?" Nana suggested.
And that's how ideas are born.

 I used gluten-free pizza crust mix, but not just because everyone could eat it that way.  It made sense to use it because the dough doesn't rise and have to be rolled out- GF dough just gets plopped on/out and spread.  This is much easier when making a map!
(in case you're curious, I used GF Bisquick, but I also like Gluten Free Pantry mix.)  I do like scratch baking but haven't done much of it gluten-free yet.

Older girls sculpted the basic shape here- see the boot? (It's Italy, by the way.)  The crust was baked 15 minutes.  Then sauce was spread and the geographical details were added.  That means, they put pineapple on the mountains and mushrooms on Sicily.  Then they covered the location of Pompeii with chili powder (for the volcano!)  We baked it again to melt the cheese.  When we ate it, no one wanted the volcano, but Daddy ate it when he got home.

The next food-related lesson this week was to make mosaics.  We learned about the way the Etruscans (early inhabitants of Italic Peninsula) used them to decorate tombs.  Our were much more fun.

We made royal icing using powdered egg white- that was our mortar.  For the base, older kids used graham crackers and younger kids used chocolate rice cakes (my younger two are the gluten free ones).  The "tiles" were mini M& M's.  Of course, being the focused planner that I am, I bought the M & M's weeks ago during a trip to Wal-mart, but when Thursday afternoon rolled around (Thursday is project day each week~ usually) I didn't have either the powdered sugar for the icing or the bases.  Argh.  Quick trip to the store, where I was inspired by the rice cakes (as if the project didn't have enough sugar in it already!). 

Everyone got in on this project - of course!  It was fun and messy, and involved eating sugar.  We even saved a couple to display at our Unit Celebration in a few weeks.

We are nearing the end of our first year using Tapestry of Grace.  I already bought my Year 2 when we got our tax return, and never once thought about doing something different next year.  The unit study approach has been a lifesaver for our homeschool. And fun, too!