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Need geography suggestions for 1st grade


Alaska Mom
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I am using the Teacher Created, "Down to Earth Geography" Grade 1. You can see it here:

 

http://www.buyteachercreated.com/estore/product/9271

 

I also considered Evan Moor's, Daily Geography Practice Grade 1. You can see it here:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Daily-Geography-Practice-Grade-1/dp/1557999708/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217342469&sr=8-1

 

 

Hope this helps.

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I'd also suggest looking at currclick.com to see what they have in regards to geography. I don't have anything specific to recommend, but they have some great resources on the site from a variety of vendors. I like that the site prices things reasonably which allows me to feel free to purchase a few different items within the same subject and sort of pick and choose what I'd like to use.

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I am working on one now. I have it mostly finished. I just have to make it fully scheduled. I am using it for first grade in a month, so I will be done with it soon. I have posted about it here, but it wasn't finished.

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forum...ad.php?t=29571

 

It involves lessons in Draw Write Now along with my own plans for using the library. Books 7 and 8 have lessons on drawing maps of the world and of continents. Then additional draw and write lessons are on animals that live in certain countries and climates. In my plan, there is an emphasis on animals/ecology/climate per continent then you study the countries in the continent with an emphasis on culture. 22 Countries are included. Let me know if you want me to send the finished product along.

 

I also had "A Trip Around the World" suggested to me when I started this. HTH

 

Draw Write Now books 7 and 8 are very inexpensive and they have a full curriculum plan included.... but their suggestions are for geography with ecology, not culture.

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We're using for K:

 

Maps and Mapping Young Discoverers Series

My World and Globe (includes inflatable globe and removable stickers)

 

I believe my children should be familiar with maps before they tackle SOTW. Then they get an introduction the world and continents through My World and Globe.

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We like The Geography Book: Activities for Exploring, Mapping, and Enjoying Your World by Caroline Arnold.

 

 

This is what's recommended in LCC, and I checked it out from our library to preview it - it looks like a lot of fun and I plan to use it after the Evan-Moor beginner titles.

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What I used for first grade geography:

 

We read from our U.S. atlas about each state, looked at it on the globe and map, and then read books about that state. As we went along, we also talked about the states in relation to each other (all the southern states, the northeastern states, etc.).

 

This the the list of books I used:

 

Alabama:

 

A Picture Book of Rosa Parks - Adler

From Plant to Blue Jeans - Hommedieu (re: cotton)

Life on a Plantation - Kalman

Plantations - Stone

Eli Whitney - Alter

 

Alaska:

 

Mama Do You Love Me?

A Child's Alaska

Mush!

Circle of Thanks

Akiak

 

Arizona:

 

Tuesday in Arizona

Cottonwood Trees - Prevost

Squirrel's Song - Wolkstein

Is My Friend at Home? Bierhorst

 

Arkansas:

 

Come Go With Me: Old Time Stories From the Southern Mountains - Thomas (re: Oachita Mountains)

 

California:

 

How Far Felipe?

Smoky Night

Condor's Egg

Striking it Rich

Nine for California

 

Colorado:

 

Fat Chance Claude

Stones, Bones and Petroglyphs - Goodman

Native Americans and Mesa Verde - Martell

 

Connecticut:

 

Solomon Grundy

Warm as Wool (or Ohio?)

 

Delaware:

 

The Legend of the Cranberry

The Light in the Forest (books on tape)

Standing in the Light (video)

 

Florida:

 

Elizabeth and Larry and Ed

A Visit to Grandma's

St. Augustine (video)

A Kid's Guide to Florida

The Great Pig Search

Freddy Goes to Florida

All Dressed up and Nowhere to Go

My Family Vacation

The Worst Goes South

Beezy

 

Georgia:

 

Georgia Music

Peach and Blue - Kilborne

A Confederate Girl - Steele

Mama and Me and the Model T

 

Hawaii:

 

The Last Princess: Ka'Iulani - Guzzetti

Haleakalala National Park - Radlander

Hawaii in Words and Pictures - Fradin

The Last Hawaiian Queen - Stanley

The Island Below the Star

Dear Katie, the Volcano is a Girl - George

Punia and the King of Sharks

Luka's Quilt

 

Idaho:

 

Mailing May

Wolf: Return of a Legend (video re: Sawtooth Mountains)

One Potato - Porter

Sunday Potatoes, Monday Potatoes - Shiefman

More Potatoes - Belsam

Potato - Watts

The Enormous Potato - Davis

Potato: A Tale From the Great Depression - Leid

 

Illinois:

 

The Journey

Joshua's Westward Journal

 

Indiana:

 

The Floating House

Story of Johnny Appleseed - Aliki

True Tale of Johnny Appleseed - Hodges

Johnny Appleseed: A Tall Tale - Steven Kellogg

Johnny Appleseed: The Story of a Legend - Will Moses

A Place Called Freedom

 

Iowa:

 

Eve and Smithy

Story of Paul Bunyan - Emberly

 

Kansas:

 

Wagon Wheels

The Loudest, Fastest, Best Drummer in Kansas

Climbing Kansas Mountains

The Van Gogh Cafe

 

Kentucky:

 

Your Best Friend, Kate

Daniel Boone

Just in Time for Christmas

Kentucky Troll: Mysteries Underground (nat. geo. video on Mammoth Cave, et al)

'B' is for Bluegrass

Kentucky in Words and Pictures

 

Louisiana:

 

Why Lapin's Ears are Long

All the "Clovis Crawfish" books

Mimi and Jean Paul's Cajun Mardi Gras

Cajun Through and Through

Feydra Leroux: A Cajun Tall-Tale

 

Maine:

 

Blueberries for Sal

One Morning in Maine

Miss Rumphius

Grandpappy

Grandmother Bryant's Pocket

Time of Wonder

 

Maryland:

 

Molly Bannaky

 

Massachusetts:

 

Make Way for Ducklings

Cranberry Thanksgiving

She's Wearing a Dead Bird on her Head

A Picture Book of Paul Revere

Plimoth Plantation (video)

Across the Wide, Dark Sea

Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

Which Way to the Revolution

Letting Swift River Go

 

Michigan:

 

Paul Bunyan: How a Terrible Timber Fellar Became a Legend - Rogers

Paul Bunyan Fights the Monster Plants - Blassingame

The Christmas Tree Ship

The Log Cabin Church

Mrs. Mack

 

Minnesota:

 

Follow the Stars: A Native American Woodlands Tale - Rodanas

Legend of the Lady Slipper - Lunge-Larsen

Sacred Harvest: Wild Rice - Reggiunti

 

Mississippi:

 

Freedom School, Yes!

Oh Lord, I Wish I was a Buzzard

Grandaddy's Gift

Little Toot on the Mississippi

 

Missouri:

 

Mark Twain and Huck Finn - Ross

River Boy: The Story of Mark Twain - Anderson

Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi - Harness

Mark Twain? What Kind of Name is That? Quackenbush (what kind of name is *that*?)

Tom Sawyer, Danger in the Graveyard - Richardson

Tom Sawyer Gives up the Brush (video - 30 minutes)

Wagons West!

Fiddlin' Sam Dengler

There Goes Lowell's Party - Hershenhorn

 

Montana:

 

Once We Had a Horse

 

Nebraska:

 

Dandelions

The Huckabuck Family

 

Nevada:

 

Tulip Sees America (covers several states)

Any books on desert life, particularly the Mojave, would work for studying this state. Books on red rock canyonlands would also work.

 

New Hampshire:

 

Ox Cart Man (or is this Vermont?)

 

Lucy's Summer

 

Sara Whitcher's Story

 

New Jersey:

 

The Colony of New Jersey

The 18 Penny Goose

 

New Mexico:

 

Josephina books

Spanish and Colonial Santa Fe (video)

Carlos and the Cornfield

Cowboy's Roundup on an American Ranch

Los Posadas: An Hispanic Christmas Celebration

Grandmother's Adobe House

 

New York:

 

My New York

How Pizza Came to Queens

Anna, Grandpa and the Big Storm

The Inside-Outside Book of New York City

Liberty

The Story of the Statue of Liberty

Joe and the Skyscraper

Under New York

 

North Carolina:

 

Back Home

My Great Aunt Arizona

Mountain Boy

The Colony of North Carolina

The Jack Tales

Grandfather's Land: We are Mountain People - Fitch

 

North Dakota:

 

River Friendly, River Wild - Kurtz

Thrashin' Time: Harvest Days in the Dakotas

 

Ohio:

 

Aurora Means Dawn

Lentil

(Warm as Wool may fit better here than previously stated state)

Flatboats on the Ohio: Westward Bound

 

Oklahoma:

 

I Have Heard of a Land

Angels in the Dust

They Came From the Bronx: How the Buffalo Were Saved

 

Oregon:

 

Oregon's Journey

Long Ago in Oregon

Roughing it on the Oregon Trail

 

Pennsylvania:

 

Just Plain Fancy

A Humble Life: Plain Poems

The Folks in the Valley

The Egg Tree

The Colony of Pennsylvania

Pioneer Church

Bewildered for Three Days

Punxatawney Phil

 

Rhode Island:

 

Finding Providence: The Story of Roger Williams

The Colony of Rhode Island

Loud and Crowing (Rhode Island Red roosters)

Roger Williams and Rhode Island (video)

 

South Carolina:

 

Carolina Shout!

The Colony of South Carolina

 

South Dakota:

 

Mount Rushmore (two titles)

Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox - Bleeter

 

Tennessee:

 

Swamp Angel

Davy Crockett (Rabbit Ears, w/ tape)

Luck with Potatoes (do they grow these in Tennessee?)

 

Texas:

 

Legend of the Bluebonnet

Beats Me, Claude

Armadillo Rodeo

Bluebonnet at Dinosaur Valley State Park

Bubba the Cowboy Prince

Susanna of the Alamo

The Inside-Outside Book of Texas

Armadillo from Amarillo

The West Texas Chili Monster

Jalepeno Hal

The Cowboy and the Black-eyed Pea

Fish Fry

Freedom's Gifts: A Juneteenth Story

Ganzy Remembers

Prairie Christmas

A Cowboy Named Ernestine

 

Utah:

 

Salt Lake City - Doubleday

Grandfather's Gold Watch

 

Vermont:

 

Least of All

The Wonderful Hay Tumble

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

Snowflake Bentley

 

Virginia:

 

The Relatives Came

When the Whipoorwill Calls

One Christmas Dawn

Appalachia: Voices of Sleeping Birds

The Blue Hill Meadows

Night in the Country

This Year's Garden

 

Washington:

 

Island Time

A Horse's Tale

 

West Virginia:

 

When I was Young in the Mountains

In November

But I'll be Back Again

Scarecrow

Silver Packages

Waiting to Waltz

 

Wisconsin:

 

Giant Ball of String

Dance at Grandpa's

Christmas in the Big Woods

Winter Days in the Big Woods

The Deer in the Wood

Going to Town

Summertime in the Big Woods

 

Wyoming:

 

Tonweya and the Eagles - YellowRobe

Lakota Hoop Dancer - LeftHandBull

Inktomi and the Buzzard - Goble

Jack Creek Cowboy

 

Washington, D.C.:

 

Capitol: Washington, D.C. From A to Z

The White House

The Wall

Inside-Outside Book of Washington, D.C.

 

Puerto Rico:

 

The Outside Dog

Take a Trip to Puerto Rico

Sergio and the Hurricane

Abuelita's Paradise

 

Virgin Islands:

 

The Day the Hurricane Happened

Izzard

 

Pacific Territories:

 

U.S. Territories and Possessions

Pacific Islands

 

Hope you find some things you can use,

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Connecting Geography and Literature from TCM, which uses picture books, such as The Great Kapok Tree, Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe and The Island of the Skog. I used Draw Write Now and the One Small Square books to supplement.

 

It was great fun.

 

Ruth in NC

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Wow, Regena, that's quite a list! We did something similar but nowhere near as organized. We kept maps and a globe out. For the early grades, whenever we read something for school or for fun that mentioned a place, we found it on one of them. If the kids were intrigued, we got some more books on that spot and read about it.

 

When we drove or walked someplace, we talked about direction, landmarks, etc. As they got older, they began to use maps. We got a good local map and had them use it as we drove to lessons, church, anywhere. They loved treasure hunts. Start out with simple ones in your house and yard using directions, pacing, and landmarks. Graduate to map treasure hunts as they are able. Details varied with age, but the basic premise was that if they could give me directions to a place so we got there within a set time limit, they were rewarded with a treasure related to the destination. Ice cream stores were their favorite, but we did bookstores, dollar stores, parks...

 

Weekly Reader has some inexpensive booklets we found useful:

 

http://www.weeklyreader.com/estore/p-937-map-skills-for-today-grade-1.aspx

 

 

Another resource we liked was The Ultimate Map and Timeline Guide

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These were recommended to me by Jessica: We're going to read The Seven Sisters who lived on a ball that floats in air by Jane Andrews (boy I hope I typed that title right) and it is a geographical fiction book.

 

Also the Twins Tales by Lucy Fitch Perkins and the Our Little Cousin Series, all free through www.OldFashionedEducation.com under Social Studies and Geography link. They are all free.

 

Here is a link where I got lots of suggestions: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29571

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here are some first grade geography selections from Veritas Press:

 

Legends and Leagues and Jo Ellen Moore's Beginning Geography Vol. 1&2, Geography/States & Capitals Songs CDs

 

 

 

Other possibilities... Galloping the Globe or Cantering the Country.

 

 

 

These ones were recommended to me just recently as I was roughly planning ahead for geography/history for our first grade year...

 

Adventures in My Father's World and The American Story 1 by Winter Promise.

 

 

 

Melissa

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Regena, thank you so, so much for that amazing list! I'm copying and pasting and saving, for sure! :D

 

I'm looking to combine A Trip Around the World, which someone already mentioned, with Eat Your Way Around the World (http://www.geomatters.com/products/details.asp?ID=374). There's also a book along the same lines, Eat Your Way Through the USA that focuses on recipes from each state, if you'd rather do a state approach than a world one.

 

We'll probably also use Children Just Like Me.

 

Hope you find something that works for you! :001_smile:I'll be curious to see what else comes up here.

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I second what Jessica said. We are using SOTW 1 for first grade and are completing the mapwork. Reviewing this should be sufficient. If you want to add more, use the Geography Songs CD or just let her get familiar with some of the larger countries in the world that she can use as a tool to find her way around the globe.

 

Galloping the Globe looks like a fantastic curriculum (I really want to use it) but with SOTW it is just too much, in my opinion. It includes history and science and literature all in one study. We are using the activity guide for SOTW and have plenty to do with that.

 

I wouldn't worry so much about a geography study that includes much cultural information at this point. Just let them memorize where the countries are. You could also include major rivers and mountain ranges as well as oceans and continents.

 

Paula

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SOTW has geography, outside of that just use a wall map of the U.S. and World and get acquainted. Remember 1st grade :D 3R's. SOTW's geography work will be enough.

 

We are not doing SOTW yet, and we need something to make homeschool fun, and base our reading on. That is why I went with my own geography study. I think that mummyfying a chicken and the other activities in SOTW are better for later grades and we will appreciate the history more later too. So for now we are learning where Brenda Songs parents came from, not every Asian is Chinese, and Hawaiians are not Asian, :tongue_smilie: Tigers are not from Africa... etc. Since we are studying animals it seemed perfect to tie in what country the animals live in and then tie in people/ culture /projects from there. :) I just wanted to share my view.;)

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is filled with loads of easy to read geography books.

 

We are learning about China...

 

We took out a book called A ticket to China and another one called, Why we left China. Don't get too many, keep it simple at this age. Daily we read certain parts of the books and discuss them. You can have your child do a narration or a dictation in which you write down what they learned and then they can draw a picture about it.

 

We will eat a chinese meal.

Paint Chinese Characters and numbers, even our names.

Make a chinese lantern...template is online..

color an envelope red and put a dollar in it as we learn about the Chinese New Year

Read one or two Chinese folk tales.

 

We will pray for this country as we are Christian and then that is it. Our unit on China is done and we can go back to the library and do it all over again with the next country.

 

Really, Geography at this age can just be simple, pure, and fun!

The internet is loaded, did I say loaded, with free flag printables and maps.

 

Have fun! You'd be surprised what you can come up with on your own.

 

Blessings!!!

 

Dee

 

ps if you need loads of internet sites on China, I have them. Email me and I will give you most of the ones we used for our unit.

rebel4jesus25@hotmail.com

 

pps Egypt is our next country and again, I plan on keeping it simple, all the while introducing my son to the wonders of both Ancient and modern Egypt. :)

 

ppps :P We also took out a few movies from Netflix. One on Eric Lidell, it's a cartoon, one on a boy and his panda in China...can't remember the title, and one from the library called, Families Around the World, China...so kewl!

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I don't think SOTW's geography is the perfect solution for every one but for Alaska Mom who is new to all this and she already has SOTW...it's enough for right now. I'm trying to encourage her to keep things simple for just starting out. :)

 

Oh, I see! How did I miss that? Of course if she already has SOTW then she can feel comfortable using that. ;) If she wants art activities that are more pulled together (she was asking about our art book) that will correlate to her studies, (maybe simpler than SOTW) then Artistic Pursuits first K-3 book has art tied in to ancient history.

 

Sorry to throw more at you, but you can feel free to stop looking at geography. :D

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