If the hat fits...

Wear it; whether you're a chef or the president! 

Illinois Unit Study

On this President's Day, I thought it would be nice to post about our Illinois study of Abraham Lincoln. As a young adult, he moved to IL with his family.  He started his career in IL.  He had various jobs (such as store clerk, postman, soldier, lawyer, & legislator) before becoming the 16th President.  His greatest contribution to society was his ambitious, passionate efforts to end slavery in this country which led to the Civil War which led to the Emancipation Proclamation.  Although Lincoln was assassinated before seeing the fruit of his labor, God used his efforts to establish the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery throughout the U.S. in 1865.

During the week of our study, we walked in the post office and saw this big poster of this stamp.  What a "God-incidence"!

While Lincoln worked as a postman and lawyer, he kept the mail and important papers in his top hat.  So, I made a construction paper hat for Carysse to write facts about Lincoln. 

Lincoln was born and lived in a log cabin throughout his childhood.
The girls made log cabins out of pretzel sticks.

I had to keep the roaming baby bear occupied by giving him some to eat. :-) 

It was fun studying my home state! 

Books Read - Welcome to the USA: Illinois, Abraham Lincoln: 16th U.S. President,
Abe Lincoln's Hat, & Honest Abe Lincoln

Idaho Unit Study

Of course we decided to focus on potatoes for our study of Idaho.  But, we can't talk about potatoes without talking about potato chips! George Crum, a mixed race (African American & Native American) chef, "accidentally" created chips while trying to fix a complaint by one of his customers that the french fries were too thick.  Most findings say this incident is true but others say it's a legend.  Either way, we enjoyed reading about Crum and his life.  

Carysse wrote facts about Crum on a chef's hat.

The girls made potato print snowmen.

 We also grew potato plants!

Two weeks later, we did a 2nd observation.  The girls were excited to see buds coming out of their potatoes. 

Four weeks after we started the experiment, Carysse's potato buds started growing stems!
Kalia's potato (left) didn't change much from the 1st observation.  I think it's because she mutilated it by insisting on making a "sun" with all her toothpicks :-). 

I found this sheet for her to record the observations.  

Books Read - Welcome to the USA: Idaho, Potatoes, Potatoes, The Greatest Potatoes,
George Crum and the Saratoga Chip