Fifty Nifty – Projects about the 50 States

We have spent the last few weeks working on projects and activities related to the United States.

Objectives:

1. all three of the girls will become familiar with the states
2. the two older girls will be able to find and label all 50 states on a map
3. the oldest girl will be able to match up states and their capitals
4. all of the girls will have some knowledge of what makes each state unique
5. all of the girls will have some knowledge of the differences between states
6. all of the girls will learn about the United States of America

These are the objectives that were in my head as I began finding resources and creating activities for this unit study.

Resources:

Hands On Resources

1. Book – Best of the Best from America Cookbook by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley
2. Book – ABC USA illustrated by Martin Jarrie
3. Book – United States of America: Enchantment of the World by Michael Burgan
4. Book – Our 50 United States and Other U.S. Lands by the editors of TIME For Kids
5. Book – Don’t Know Much About The 50 States by Kenneth C. Davis
6. Workbook  – The Complete Book of Maps & Geography
7. Workbook – States Activities Book
8. Flash Cards – Let’s Grow Smart’s United States flash cards
9. Coloring Book – State Birds and Flowers by Annika Bernhard
10. Money – 50 States Quarters book (collection of the state quarters)
11. Money – printed information of the state quarters collection from the US Mint
12. Dry erase board with a US map
13. Window cling of the US map
14. several puzzles of the US map
15. tablecloth with the US map
16. Mayborn Museum‘s Weebles Coast to Coast exhibit

On The Web Resources

1. Website – 50states.com – we used printable maps from here
2. Word search puzzle from Word Game World
3. Animaniacs video of states and capitals from YouTube
4. States and Capitals video by Musical Stew on YouTube
5. online place the states game by Ben’s Guide
6. Stack the States game app

They have already done a lot. They have cooked using recipes from various states. They have created postcards about different states. They have colored and labeled maps. They have worked several puzzles. They have examined a tablecloth that has pictures of resources from each of the states. They have colored pictures with the birds and flowers. They have written poems or descriptions. We have visited the Mayborn Museum and their current exhibit Weebles Coast to Coast. (There will be a separate post on this field trip.) They have done so much! I feel very confident that they have met the objectives that I had in mind when we began this project. All in all, it has been a tremendous success. We are continuing our unit because there are several more activities that I want the girls to do. Our final project is a cookie map of the US. I got the idea from Almost Unschoolers and this post on the states unit they did.

 

Some pictures from the project:

   

 

 

 

I want to offer a thank you from the many folks who contributed to our project by describing their state in a word so that we could label our map. It came out fantastic and the girls stop by it (it is hanging on the wall) ever once in a while and just look, so I know they are still absorbing more information about the states from it.

At Home.

Tagged: art, books, history, homeschool