50 States Study

We are doing a U.S. states study this year, tackling one or two states per week. 

We are going to put all our info and worksheets into a notebook.  At the beginning of the notebook there will be a blank map of the states.  One of the boys will color in whichever state we are studying.  I’ve decided to go in order of admittance.  This way they can see how the country developed over the years.

I am using Jimmie’s worksheets she designed when her daughter did a states study.

For page 1 I found some state outline maps to use here until ds is more comfortable trying to draw the outline in the appropriate box himself.  I found state flag stickers at Rainbow Resource.

There are two blank sections on page 2 of the worksheet.  In the bottom one we will paste a pic of the state bird/state flower to color (found at homeschool share for free or at Notebookpages.com for a small fee.)  In the other one we will put a sticker of the state license plate.  I found pics of the plates here and printed them up on sticker paper.

I thought they turned out pretty good!  There is also a spot for making a rubbing of the state quarter (maybe get a collection going?) but I also found images of the quarters here that I printed up on sticker paper as well for when we can’t get our hands on a certain quarter.

I signed up for a postcard exchange on a homeschool board I am part of and we have already received cards from 13 different states.

Here are some of the books we will be using.

I also signed up at About.com for their free email course, “Our Great 50 States.”  Every week I get a newsletter with links to printables and lesson plans for 2 different states.  The course follows order of admittance as well so it’s very timely for us.  Our favorite part of the email course is the recipe suggestion for each state.  So far we’ve enjoyed milkshakes and smores while learning about the states…um, can you say, “Homeschooling rocks!”?  :)