Doing a state study for the 50 states

[flyingmommy]

I am planning to begin a study of the 50 states. I am planning to have my girls study one state each week, beginning in March and going through the end of our school year. When we begin our next school year, we will pick up where we left off and finish by the end of the school year. I will not be going as in depth as a unit study, but I want to cover a decent amount of information about each state. I already know what information I want to use. What I am asking is for opinions regarding the best way to proceed.

 

I can't decide whether to study the states alphabetically, regionally, or chronologically by the date they achieved statehood.

 

So......I would love some opinions as to which way you think is best and why. If anyone has done anything like this before, I'd love to hear how it went.

 

This will be in addition to a regular history study. I plan to do the state study three days a week for about 30 minutes and require my older dd (12) to write one short report each week.

 

Thanks for your input.

 

Jeannie

[MamaT]

We are studying the states this year. I chose to go by regions and found a book called The Map Book that listed facts about the regions, blank region maps and a page for each state.

 

I also am using The United States of America, A State-by-State Guide by Scholastic and U. S. Map Skills by Instructional Fair, Inc.

 

We begin by reading the facts about the region, then read the page in the Scholastic Book on the particular state for that week, finally we do the worksheet in the U.S. Map Skills. When we get to the last state in the region, my children fill out the empty region map from memory and take a test on the capitals of those states. We also review past state capitals and regions on a U.S. map.

[CalicoKat]

we're doing this through MFW Adventures. It's in the order of statehood.

[6packofun]

Personally, I would do it regionally. :) Mainly because then you could cover any regional geography and it also helps terms like Midwest, Great Plains, New England, Pacific Northwest, etc. sink in if you'd like them to learn those.

 

One site I love is http://www.classbrain.com for their state info! The Crayola site also has some nice coloring pages for each state with an outline of the state, the state bird, flower, etc.

[flyingmommy]

bump

[AudreyTN]

we're doing this through MFW Adventures. It's in the order of statehood.

 

That's what we're finishing up. But if I had to do it over, I'd probably do it regionally. It would be easier to memorize the names and locations.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Have you seen the Kingfisher Young People's Atlas of the United States? It's an excellent resource. It presents the states by regions, and teaches about the region. Then, it has a two-page spread about each state within that region. It is very informative, and is full of pictures. It is a large format book, so it can really pack the information in an attractive presentation.

 

Here's a link at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Young-Peoples-Atlas-United-States/dp/0753450224/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234586138&sr=8-4

[Legomom]

I would probably start with making sure that they generally know something about all of the states -- the Scrambled States game is a great easy way to do that -- helps with location, capital etc. Then I would start with states that we have visited, then states we would like to visit and finish up with the rest of the states. Like filling in pieces of a puzzle. I really like the alphabet state books "A is for Aloha" etc. They actually have a lot of interesting information presented in a fun way. Professor Noggin has some U.S. games as well. My son loves the states so he spends a fair amount of "free" time on this subject.

[Marylou]

http://www.addictinggames.com/50states.html

[katemary63]

Spectrum Geography for Grade 4 is called Regions of the U.S.A. and is quite inexpensive. I don't know what your kids ages are but this might be a resource you could use.

[SonshineLearner]

http://singnlearn.com/ has the States and Capital Kits...a great site...and good learning material.

Carrie:-)

[flyingmommy]

Thanks for the input! I welcome any other ideas that anyone wants to give. I want to do a good job with this. I really learned so little about the individual states in school. It'll be a great learning experience for me as well.

 

Again, thanks so much to everyone who has posted ideas. And thanks in advance to anyone else who is kind enough to post.

 

Jeannie

[myfunnybunch]

We just checked out this book from the library: Kids Learn America: Bringing Geography to Life with People, Places and History. It's organized by region. It's got information and hands-on projects, and looks like it'd be a great state-a-week book.

 

Our library has a section filled with books on U.S. geography books and sets of books about each individual state.

 

Enchanted Learning ( http://www.enchantedlearning.com ) has U.S. maps and individual state maps and information (flags, state symbols and so forth).

 

Cat

Edited February 14, 2009 by myfunnybunch

[Lady_Dulcinea]

When we were doing this (and never finished it...but should pick it back up) we did it by date of statehood. We made a scrapbook 2page spread for each state which I think they enjoyed. We had the sate flag, flower, motto, bird, and tried to get interesting or historic facts about each state.

 

 

(if you want to see more pages I can get them for ya, but that is the only one I had on the computer)

[Cedarmom]

We bought a Cooking around the USA book, and made recipes from differant regions.

[Nestof3]

I have some forms I typed up for a two-year, one state a week (approx.) my eldest did. I can find the CD that has the forms if you'd like them.

[flyingmommy]

I like the idea of the scrapbook and also the cooking idea. I think I read about that one on RR or somewhere.

 

Dawn, I have found lots of sites with various unit study type forms. Is this similar to what you used? I actually have some forms in a reproducible map book that I bought. I'm not crazy about them, but I do have them. I appreciate the offer for the forms. If you have the cd handy, I'd love to see them. Don't feel like you have to tear the house up to find them, though. I am very patient. (just don't ask my kids to verify that) :tongue_smilie:

 

Thanks to everyone who has responded. I appreciate all the help and ideas!

 

jeannie

[Hoggirl]

I had a friend who worked it out so her dd could receive a postcard from every state in the US! It really wasn't as hard as it sounds. She just found someone who knew someone who knew someone! Her I think she just asked the person to write a short bit (kind of whatever they wanted) about where they live. Her daughter loved receiving all of these. You could add them to your scrapbook!

[Peek a Boo]

I vote for chronology: order of statehood. tie it in to the state quarters series too ;) Do a timeline on the fence or something as you go along.

 

We made a 50-states book, but did it in a 4-month time period instead of drawing it out too long. We'll be doing this again when we do a 1-year run through of US history next year.

[flyingmommy]

Cynthia, that's a great idea. I was thinking of contacting the tourist bureaus for each state and get them to send something to us. I love the idea of a postcard. I'm going to start thinking about who I know who might know somebody....who might know somebody.....

 

Peek, how did you manage to squeeze it into four months? Were you doing any other social studies at the same time?

 

Jeannie

[Peek a Boo]

Cynthia, that's a great idea. I was thinking of contacting the tourist bureaus for each state and get them to send something to us. I love the idea of a postcard. I'm going to start thinking about who I know who might know somebody....who might know somebody.....

 

Peek, how did you manage to squeeze it into four months? Were you doing any other social studies at the same time?

 

Jeannie

 

 

It was part of a year-long study of US History. We started w/ Native Americans and US geography, got to Columbus by, oh, Columbus day, and the Pilgrims by Thanksgiving. December was a Colonial Christmas, looking at events leading up to the revolutionary war. january was New Year, New Country. We spent the first two weeks doing a map/page a day adding the colonies to our book as they banded together. By Presidents Day we had most all the states in the union by the time Lincoln was President. We spent a couple weeks on the civil war, then March on Reconstruction through about 1900. April was 1900-1950, and May was up to current events.

 

As we added stuff to our stairwell timeline, we did another state page as we came to it chronologically. But we spent more time on the history of the US and why each state was added than we did over state flowers and such ;)

 

i printed maps off 50states.com, we labeled major rivers/ mountains/ cities, and noted date of admittance to the union and state number.

 

During this we also did a "President's Tree" on the wall -each President was pasted onto an apple w/ a leaf noting the number, and a twist tie as the stem attaching it to the paper branch. It's a whirlwind year, but a lot of fun :)

 

don't forget: if you have AAA, you can get a guidebook/map for each state for free --good maps about state parks, history, and such.

[Nestof3]

I will cross-post this also from another thread in case it helps anyone.

 

For US Geography, we loosely followed Trail Guides. I also ordered various tourist brochures from all of the states and bought a lot of black cardstock. I designed a form my son had to fill in for each state. He then had to cut out pictures from the brochures in various categories and adhere to the cardstock. For example, three historical sites, three entertainment, and so on. He worked on this over two years and ended up with a nice thick binder that looked like a tour guide of the states.

 

The movie Scrambled States of America is a hilarious video that helps teach states. Even my husband likes watching this.

http://www.amazon.com/Scrambled-Amer...4534819&sr=1-1

 

The board game, Sequence: States and Capitals, is also great for learning capitals in a fun way.

http://www.amazon.com/Jax-Sequence-S...4534783&sr=8-1

 

Another great movie, for studying presidents, is So You Want to Be President. Lives of the Presidents is great if you can borrow the audio version from your library as well.

http://www.amazon.com/You-Want-Presi...4534850&sr=8-1

 

http://www.amazon.com/Lives-Presiden...4534883&sr=8-1

[StaceyinLA]

purchase one United States Coloring Book from Rod & Staff for each child and used that as a starting point. We went in the order they were in the book (alphabetical). They would do the coloring and use the information in the book, along with research, to write reports. They kept the reports in a binder and just slid the coloring book in there with it. You can also print out those state information pages too if you want to have them fill one of those out for each state and put with the report.

 

My older kids did it too and enjoyed it. It is so neat to look at the books and see the various ways in which they colored things. The teens' books are so cool because they did all kinds of stuff with the pictures. Coloring is just so relaxing. My 17yodd still keeps colors and coloring books in her room and colors at night sometimes.

[Tanya in KS]

We are working on this right now:

 

Simply Stated is the curriculm that I have used this year. It has been wonderful to add picture books, along with longer readers about each region.

 

Here is the link for the website:

 

http://www.kreativesimplicity.com/frames_index.htm

 

We combined this with Simply Presidential. I loved their simple approach.

 

We made simply notebooks with facts that we learned about each state. I have a 2nd & 5th grader doing this study together.

[Marylou]

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Indianapolis, Indiana,

and Columbus is the capital of Ohio.

There's Montgomery, Alabama,

south of Helena, Montana

then there's Denver, Colorado,

on to Boise, Idaho.

 

Texas has Austin

then we go north,

to Massachusetts--Boston

and Albany, New York.

Tallahassee, Florida andWashington, D.C.,

Santa Fe, New Mexico and Nashville, Tennessee.

Elvis used to hang out there a lot, you know

Trenton's in New Jersey, north of Jefferson, Missouri,

You’ve got Richmond in Virginia,

South Dakota has Pierre,

Harrisburg's in Pennsylvania and Augusta's up in Maine,

and here is Providence, Rhode Island next to Dover, Delaware.

 

Concord, New Hampshire, just a quick jaunt,

to Montpelier, which is up in Vermont,

Hartford's in Connecticut so pretty in the fall,

and Kansas has Topeka

Minnesota has St. Paul.

Juneau's in Alaska and there's Lincoln in Nebraska

and it's Raleigh out in North Carolina, and then,

there's Madison Wisconsin and Olympia in Washington,

Phoenix, Arizona and Lansing, Michigan.

 

Here's Honolulu, Hawaii's a joy

Jackson, Mississippi

and Springfield, Illinois,

South Carolina with Columbia down the way,

and Annapolis in Maryland on Chesapeake Bay,

They have wonderful clam chowder.

Cheyenne is in Wyoming and

perhaps you make your home in

Salt Lake City out in Utah where the buffalo roam.

Atlanta's down in Georgia and there's

Bismarck North Dakota,

and you can live in Frankfurt in your ol’ Kentucky home.

 

Salem in Oregon, from there we join,

Little Rock in Arkansas,

Iowa's got Des Moines

Sacramento, California,

Oklahoma and its City,

Charleston, West Virginia

and Nevada--Carson City.

 

That's all the capitals, there are!