Playdough Mat Maps and Furry Distractions

Getting ready to head into two different novels set in Canadian provinces, Farley Mowat's Owls in the Family, in Saskatchewan...

...and Margaret Craven's I Heard the Owl Call My Name, which takes place in British Columbia...

...it seemed like a good time to throw in a quick country study.  We normally begin our country studies with a sugar cookie map project.  This morning though, noting from a number of posts in my blog reader, that it was play dough appreciation day, and seeing at the same time a couple of interesting mapping ideas from Die fantastischen 5, and angelicscalliwags  I decided to take an easier route, and follow the crowd.

Before the children got up this morning, I printed out a couple of maps of North America, one with the provinces, and states colored and labeled, and another that was just a blank outline.  I slipped the maps into plastic page protectors, and placed them on the breakfast table with a couple of cans of Play-Doh.

C (age 8) took right off covering the provinces, and a few states that matter to her, with Play-Doh...

...while E (age 9) began covering all of Canada with a single color of dough.

I had great plans for having them mark capital cities, and add major rivers, and such, until I spotted the baby bunny trapped in one of our basement egress window wells, and all thoughts of Canada were forgotten, in favor of a full scale rescue mission.

Which is not in anyway to say Canada is boring, or even the least bit uninteresting.  But, really how could any country compete with so much cuteness?

I had my hands full convincing the children, that unlike Farley Mowat's heroes, they could not keep their rescued "pet", and that wild animals, no matter how soft and cuddly, belong in the wild.  Thankfully for my cause, the only owls we've seen since moving into the neighborhood have been either on the pages of our books, or the walls of our dining room, or I'm quite certain we'd have a stowaway rabbit being "kept safe" in somebody's closet tonight.