Learning about Algeria for Kids

Our next stop on our nations of the world tour is Algeria. The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria is located in northern Africa.

Algeria Basics

Albania is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea and the nations of Tunisia, Libya, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Western Sahara and Morocco. It is the largest nation in Africa and the tenth largest in the world by area, covering 919,595 square miles, or 2,381,741 square kilometers. It is more than 200 times larger than the smallest country in Africa! (Which is Gambia, by the way.)

At 44 million residents it is only the tenth most populous nation in Africa. The capitol is Algiers, and the languages spoken there are mostly Algerian Arabic and Berber. The country has 58 provinces.

Algeria was a colony of France from 1830 until it gained independence in 1962. Read more about Algerian history at Britannica Kids. Because of the French influence, that language is still spoken a lot in Algeria, but it is not an official language of the country.

National Symbols

The Algerian flag is half green and half white, with a red crescent and star in the middle. These represent Islam, which is the religion of most people in the country. Green is also a symbol of Islam, and red represents the blood spilled in the struggle for independence, while white is for purity and peace gained through independence.

The national motto is “By the people and for the people,” and the national anthem is called “We Pledge.”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-CBPYBA_Qc?si=CN_2ZDMc3ywm64Dq]

The national currency is the dinar.

Algeria Activities for Kids

Learn more about Algeria and download the worksheets from KidsKonnect to test your knowledge.

Algeria has seven UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the kasbah (ancient walled city) in Algiers. You can learn more about the site and check out photos and videos at the UNESCO site.

Another heritage site is Tassili N’Ajjer National Park, which features amazing prehistoric rock art. Read more at National Geographic.

Other than this Reddit post I couldn’t find much on traditional games in Algeria, so if you know about them let me know in the comments!

Couscous is a popular dish in Algeria, which I saw referred to as the unofficial national dish. This recipe from Halal Home Cooking uses lamb, but you can use other meats if you prefer, or just try it with vegetables. And check out this post from Very Hungry Nomads to learn about other popular dishes from Algeria.

Read more about Algeria with the book My First Book: Algeria, or check out this Algeria coloring book that also includes facts about the nation.

[Algeria map via Encyclopaedia Britannica]

Did you know that October is Squirrel Awareness Month? I didn’t know we needed more awareness of these little creatures, but let’s take it as a sign to learn more about squirrels!

Let’s start with some fun facts via Kids Konnect: did you know there are five subfamilies and more that 280 species of squirrels? The smallest are pygmy squirrels and the largest, the Bhutan giant flying squirrel, can be longer that 4 feet (1.2 meters).

Tree squirrels can climb down trees so fast because their ankles can rotate 180 degrees, allowing them to grab the tree bark as they go down. While most squirrels don’t survive their first year of life, they can live five to 10 years in the wild and squirrels have been known to live up to 20 years in captivity!

Rhythms of Play has more fun facts and tips for observing squirrels if you want to add some real life nature to your nature study.

We always like to start these collections with life cycle and parts of the animal printables, so let’s grab the squirrel life cycle an parts of a squirrel worksheets from Montessori Nature. (It doesn’t look like these are free any more but they have a whole unit study on squirrels you can buy that includes life cycle and parts activities, characteristics of different kinds of squirrels, a printable poster, information about predators and more.)

Grab the squirrel lapbook printable (free with email address) from Homeschool Share to learn the parts of a squirrel, where they live, what they eat, whether they hibernate and more. There’s also a nut taste test printable, a place for making observations about squirrels, life cycle of an oak tree, games and more.

Simple Everyday Mom has some cute squirrel themed worksheets including tracing the letter s, labeling the parts of a squirrel and a letter s maze. She also has more activity pages with a squirrel theme, including matching, a more traditional maze and a counting and graphing activity.

Work on letter recognition with this squirrel and acorn game printable from Teaching Mama. I love the idea of hiding the letters in a fall themed sensory bin for kids to find, identify and match to the letter on the worksheet.

For older kids you can do this “if I were a squirrel” writing prompt from Lesson Planet.

And throw in a little counting with these squirrel and acorn tens frame printables from JDaniel4’s Mom, which you can use to count real acorns or any other little fall themed thing you have handy.

Algeria Basics

National Symbols

Algeria Activities for Kids

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