Around the World in 80 Days: Day Three

I was really looking forward to today as I had read ahead and seen that Fogg and Passepartout covered a lot of ground geographically speaking, which meant lots of opportunities to learn.  We were also introduced to the protagonist, Fix, an inspector who has got it into his head that Fogg is the bank robber.

We read chapters 5 and 6:

Chapter 5: In Which a New Species of Funds Unknown to the Moneyed Men Appears on the ‘Change

In this chapter we read about Fix who is an inspector intent on arresting Fogg, who he believes is the gentleman bank robber every copper in London is looking for.  He immediately decides to pursue Fogg and Passepartout around the world.

Chapter 6: In Which Fix, the Detective, Betrays a Very Natural Impatience

Phileas Fogg and Passepartout are now travelling earnestly across the Mediterranean Sea and down the Suez canal, in the steamer known as the Magnolia, before  stopping at Suez.  Here Fix is waiting impatiently for the arrival of the Magnolia and hence Fogg to formally arrest him.

The children created a couple more sheets of scrap booking:

From this the children researched the following:

British Empire in 1872

As already mentioned, we learn that a certain Inspector Fix suspects Fogg to be the perpetrator of widely discussed bank burglary.  And thus begins the humerous cat and mouse chase around the world.  I found some fun wanted posters:

Fix prepares to follow Fogg to where-ever he leads in order to arrest him once on British soil.  Great Britain was, at the time of Phileas Fogg and his around the world trip in 1872, extensive.  This meant there would be ports around the world where Fix would be able to arrest Fogg, so long as an arrest warrant had been sent.

I photocopied a map which showed the areas where Fix could legally arrest Fogg, and included a copy of an arrest warrant for fun 🙂

Route: Calais, France to Port Brindisi, Italy

The two intrepid travelers steam trained it using the Continental Railway that we had learnt about yesterday.  I had the children map  the route they would have taken:

Route: Port Brindisi, Italy to Port Said, Egypt

Fogg and his valet then boarded the Mongolia, a luxuriant steamer, which would be taking them from Brindisi, across the Mediterranean Sea to Port Said in Egypt.

Port Said was a fairly new port which was developed once the Suez canal had begun to be built.  It stands to the right of the Nile delta and signifies the beginning of the canal.  We learnt a bit about this port and mapped the route taken from London to Calais to Brindisi to Port Said.  I also found a few old pictures of how the port would have been in the 19th century:

Route: Port Said, Egypt to Suez via the Suez Canal

Whilst the girls played the Around the World in 80 Days board game, I sent Thomas off to learn all about the Suez Canal and to present his findings to me and the girls at the end of the afternoon.  We found some lovely pictures of a steamer moving down the canal, as well as a few beautifully clear maps of the length of the Suez canal:

We compared all three, making sure the children could name the different lakes along the canal of the areal picture taken:

The Suez canal was finished in 1869, and I was fortunate to find a poster/flyer announcing its opening.  It appeared to be in French.  The girls translated it.  It reads ‘The progress for the eternal remembrance unites the people!’  None of us speak French well so who knows if that is the correct translation!  We stuck it in for good measure though:

Phileas Fogg made sure he got his passport visaed at Suez so he could prove that he had traveled via Egypt.  We included a copy of the fun passport and stamped it for Suez, as well as a photo of a real passport and some extraneous passport stamps.  These can be seen in the photo above.

This was a particularly good lesson, especially after Thomas had given his presentation.  We all know more than we could possible need to know about the Suez Canal!

Other Books by Jules Verne

• Thomas continued to read 20000 leagues under the sea
• Lillie continued to plough her way reluctantly through From the Earth to the Moon & Around the Moon
• Charlotte finished Journey to the Center of the Earth and began Mysterious Island which she is enjoying a lot more than Journey to the Center of the Earth
• A7 continued with Who Was Jules Verne?

Around the World in 80 Books

The children are still enjoying the race to finish 80 books about different countries, diligently marking off the countries on their maps:

This is a fairly common sight in our house at the moment:

and the older ones have been great helping the little ones find countries on the globe:

Around the Dictionary in 80 Words

As you can see, they are doing fairly well on the vocab front.

Tomorrow we shall be moving past Suez into the Red Sea and towards Bombay.