Monday, November 4, 2013

The "A" States

We just completed all of states that begin with the letter A.  I've been enjoying this USA unit as much as the girls because we're learning lots of interesting facts together.  Here are the highlights from our study. 

Alabama
Rosa Parks was born in AL so Carysse did a project on her.  
First, we completed this graphic organizer.  
Next, she made fact cards.

Then, she made her project display.  I got this idea here.  

Final piece!  
We dedicated this project to her grandparents who were born in AL and grew up during the
Civil Rights Movement.  

We talked about the miraculous story of Helen Keller who was also born in AL.
Carysse wanted to see what it was like to write without seeing.  

Books read - Welcome to the USA: AlabamaMoonshot (for The US Space & Rocket Center in AL), Journey to Freedom: Rosa Parks, & Helen Keller


Alaska
The Alaskan Blanket Toss takes place each year at the Whaling Festival.  The girls liked demonstrating by tossing their baby dolls.:-) 

Carysse's Northern Lights Scene.  I found the bear silhouette here

We read the book The Three Snow Bears.  This book is a fun spin off from Goldilocks and the 3 bears.Then, Kalia did a sorting & ordering activity using my un-artistic cut-outs for the boots, bowls, and blankets from the story. 



Arizona
 Did you know that Arizona is one of only four citrus-producing states in the country?  Texas, Florida, & California are the other states.  So, we did several citrus fruit activities. Kalia is ordering a lime, lemon, orange, & grapefruit from smallest to largest.  

Citrus fruit printing

Citrus fruit tasting - Carysse's lemon pucker was hilarious. 

They creating a desert scene using real sand from our sandbox on wheels.
I found the desert cutouts here



Arkansas
Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas is the only diamond-producing site in the world open to the public.  Also, Arkansas grows the most rice than any other state in the country.  Therefore, we combined those two facts and did our own "diamond" digging.  First, we talked about Proverbs 2:4 how we should search for wisdom & truth through God's Word - The Bible.  

Fun cheap activity using rice & clear jewels that
I found at JoAnns for $1.80.


We displayed Carysse's Words to Remember Jewel sheet from kindergarten.
Books read - Welcome to USA: ArkansasToads (for the world famous Toad Race held in AR) & What's it like to be a Bee? (Arkansas' state insect)

We Praise our Amazing & Awesome God for blessing us with these fun learning experiences! 

2 comments:

Tricia Keierleber said...

These were awesome! I'm always inspired by your ideas- can't wait to get started homeschooling! :)

Caryn said...

Thanks Sweet T!