Geography Travels: Arizona

My parents, sister, and I vacationed in Arizona back in 1996.  We fit a lot into one week, and Arizona is definitely unforgettable.  One reason we chose Arizona to study is that Isaac’s grandpa lives there.  We’ve never been there as a family, but a trip to Arizona is in our plans this year!

Here’s where our geography travels took us:

Week 1

Located Arizona on our US map and colored it in; discussed capital and major cities.

Began reading Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry

Listened to “Southern Border of the United States Song” (Geography Songs)

Notebook page (Homeschool Creations)

Discussed the Five C’s (copper, cattle, cotton, citrus, climate) of Arizona’s economy

Geography from A to Z: desert, plateau, forest, gorge, river, canyon, butte, mesa, badlands

Map page (Enchanted Learning)

Flag page (Apples 4 the Teacher)

State songs:  “Arizona” and “Arizona March Song”

Discussed turquoise and other minerals found in AZ

YouTube videos

I Love You, Arizona (YouTube video with beautiful photos—the song is actually titled “Arizona” and is one of the state songs)

Turquoise Mining (YouTube)

Turquoise Buffalo Indian Jewelry (YouTube)

Began Famous People chart (see THIS webpage): We discussed Cochise, Geronimo, Sandra Day O’Connor, and John McCain

Desert study and books:  Deserts by Gail Gibbons, All About Deserts, and A Living Desert

Desert Museum Kids page (webpage about Sonoran Desert)

Sonoran Desert Fact Sheets for Sonoran Desert animals (Desert Museum Kids Page)

YouTube videos

Sonoran Desert

Sonoran Desert Wildlife

Draw-Write-Now Book 3, pages 42-43

Week 2

Discussed these natural wonders of Arizona: Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, Monument Valley, Meteor Crater, Glen Canyon, Superstition Mountains, and Canyon de Chelly

YouTube videos

Petrified Forest National Park

The Majesty of Monument Valley

Meteor Crater Arizona

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Canyon de Chelly

Links

Grand Canyon Skywalk page

Grand Canyon facts

Wonders of the World: Grand Canyon

Painted a picture of the Grand Canyon (idea from Deep Space Sparkle via Montessori Tidbits)

Discussed plants & animals of Arizona and labeled pictures for notebook: cactus wren, ringtail, Arizona ridge-nosed rattlesnake, Gila monster, prairie dog, coyote, javelina (peccary), horned lizard, jaguar, desert bighorn sheep, black-tailed jackrabbit, roadrunner, saguaro cactus, cholla, prickly pear, yucca, ocotillo bush, mesquite, Palo Verdo tree

Read Story of Echo the Bat (from NASA)

Read: The Three Javelinas and Alejandro’s Gift

Javelina (YouTube video)

Discussed Native Americans in AZ: Hopi, Navajo, Apache

Draw-Write-Now Book 3, pages 24-25

Played some Apache Games (Arizona pdf from Musings of Me—I can’t seem to find the link to the pdf…hopefully it’s there somewhere)

Other attractions: Tombstone, London Bridge, Hoover Dam, Wigwam Motel

YouTube videos

Around London Bridge in Lake Havasu City

Hoover Dam & Lake Mead

We also made Navajo Fry Bread (American Grub, p. 15)

Other blogs with Arizona studies

Musings of Me

Get Down and Get Your Hands Dirty

Montessori Tidbits

Links to websites about Arizona

Arizona Kids Page (Arizona Governor)

Arizona Secretary of State Kids Page

Enchanted Learning

How to make a bolo tie (from TLC Family--we never got around to this one)

I’m linking this post to “History and Geography” at All Things Beautiful.

Geography Studies: California

Being a rather large and well-known state, California was a definite choice for our US studies.  I’ve never been to California myself, but I know a lot of Californians.  Here’s what we did for our California unit:

Week 1

Located California on our US map and colored it in; discussed capital and major cities.

Sang “Western Border of the United States” (Geography Songs)

Notebook page (Homeschool Creations)

Flag page (Apples 4 the Teacher)

Wednesday: Geography from A to Z: desert, beach, coast, mountains

Map page (Enchanted Learning)

Discussed Sierra Nevada Mountains, Death Valley, and Mohave Desert; and we watched some YouTube videos, but I don’t have the links for them (sorry!).

Discussed earthquakes and read the book …if You Lived at the Time of the Great San Francisco Earthquake

We did watch some YouTube videos on the 1906 and 1989 San Francisco earthquakes, but I forgot to bookmark the ones we watched, so I don’t have any links.

Learned the song “California Here I Come” (I sang this song and did a little dance routine with classmates in our 5th grade musical, so it brought back fond memories.)

Discussed Hollywood

Week 2

Famous People: Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Sally Ride, Ansel Adams, Shirley Temple, Robert Frost, Jeff Gordon, George Lucas (click on links for interesting websites)

YouTube video links

The Humor of Ronald Reagan

Reagan at Brandenburg Gate

Nixon Resignation

Good Ship Lollipop (Shirley Temple)

First American Woman in Space (Sally Ride)

Ansel Adams, Photographer

Jeff Gordon Wins at Phoenix

George Lucas

Stopping by woods on a snowy evening (Robert Frost)

Isaac did a report on the Golden Gate Bridge (webpage HERE)

YouTube video on Golden Gate Bridge

Discussed San Francisco, cable cars (YouTube Videos HERE, HERE, and HERE)

Discussed California National Parks and watched YouTube videos:

The Coolest Stuff on the Planet:  Yosemite National Park

Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Park

Tallest tree found in Redwood National Park

Unusual Beauty of Joshua Tree National Park

Channel Islands National Park

Read some Native American folktales:  The Origin of Yosemite and How El Capitan Grew

Discussed Gold Rush (Click on that link for and interesting webpage and The Elephant, PBS Kids, and Onsite Adventures for more!)

YouTube video on the Gold Rush

Discussed missions (particularly San Juan Capistrano), Read book Song of the Swallows and a guidebook on San Juan Capistrano, where the story takes place.

YouTube video on early missions

Check out these California unit studies by other bloggers!

Get Down and Get Your Hands Dirty

Musings of Me

Montessori Tidbits

Adventures in Mommydom

More California links:

Enchanted Learning

Crayola Suspension Bridge craft (we didn’t have time to do this, but it’s pretty cool)

A to Z Kids Stuff

I'm linking this post to "History and Geography" at All Things Beautiful.

Geography Travels: Montana

Here’s another geography unit from last school year, when Isaac was in 4th grade. After this state, I have Arizona, California, Alaska, and Hawaii to blog about...nearly done!  We didn’t cover all 50 states…only 17, mostly chosen by Isaac. I wanted to do a good study of each state we chose, and 50 is a lot to cover in one school year.  This year, both Isaac and Moriah are doing 2-week unit studies of different countries around the world.  We’re halfway through the school year, so hopefully I can get to those soon.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve wanted to visit Montana.  I used to hang calendar pictures of Glacier National Park on my closet door.  I have yet to visit this beautiful state, but Isaac and I really enjoyed studying it in geography.  Here’s what we did:

Week 1

Located Montana on a map; discussed name.  Located capital and major cities.

Colored Montana’s flag (Apples for the Teacher)

Listen to Northern Border United States Song

Notebooking page (from Homeschool Creations)

Read from Geography from A to Z: mountain range, tableland prairie, plateau, peak, valley, river, badlands, buttes, glacier

Map page (from Enchanted Learning)

Discussed Glacier National Park (and viewed photos—click on link), read “A day in the life of a Park Ranger in Glacier National Park,” watched videos (see links below) and wrote a page on what he thought his day would be like as a park ranger.

Glacier National Park DVD part 1 (video footage with nice music).  There are 3 parts to this video on YouTube; you can find links to the other 2 parts after watching part 1.

Discussed glaciers (science):

Surfnetkids has several links to glacier pages for kids.

Youtube video “Melting Glaciers in Glacier National Park” (I personally don’t believe in man-made global warming/climate change, but this is a good video showing the effects of climate change on the glaciers, and I felt it was a fair presentation).

Week 2

Began Famous People Chart: daredevil Evel Knievel, actor Gary Cooper, artist Charles M. Russell, and paleontologist John R. Horner.

Watched YouTube videos on Evel Knievel’s daredevil motorcycle jumps at Caesar’s Palace (unsuccessful) and Kings Island, Ohio (successful).

Watched YouTube video:  High Noon trailer (Gary Cooper).

Music:  Montana (state song)—YouTube video with tune HERE.

Learned song “My Home’s in Montana” (YouTube video)

Art Appreciation:  Discussed western artist Charles M. Russell; Isaac chose his favorite Russell painting and did a page on why he liked it.  (webpage on Sid Richardson Museum—Russell collection)

Watched YouTube videos on C.M. Russell HERE (discussion of Russell) and HERE (the second one is a song about Russell with a slide show of his paintings).

Discussed dinosaurs in Montana (Montanakids page) and watched YouTube video “Montana: Land of dinosaurs”.

Draw-Write-Now, Book 3, eagle and mountains

Viewed Montana animals webpage (from Montanakids website)

Not long after we studied Montana, a blogger friend from Montana sent us a package, full of Montana postcards, brochures, and other goodies.  What a blessing that was!  The kids were absolutely thrilled!

More Montana links:

Montana

A to Z Kids Stuff

KidsKonnect

St. Mary’s Mission

Yellowstone National Park

Hell Creek Formation

Museum of the Rockies

I'm linking this post to the History and Geography meme at All Things Beautiful.

2011 Reading Goal--Done!

Here in England, we have about an hour and a half until 2012, and I just completed my reading goal for 2011. When I was younger, I was a big reader, but in later years I found that I was spending so much time on the internet that I wasn't reading much at all. Because I want to be a reading example to my kids, I decided to take on a few reading challenges I saw on a blog about a year ago. The first goal was to read 100 books, and the second was to read 25 award-winning children's books. I decided that the 25 award books could be part of my 100, and the books could include children's book awards in both America and England. All 100 of my books had to be chapter books (I could read well over 100 if they were picture books). I so enjoyed completing this goal, that I'm going to do it again in 2012! Only this time, I'm going to make my challenge a bit different, though it will still be 100 books. Isaac is definitely a reader, too, which is good; otherwise, I would probably find him playing Mario games on the Wii a lot more than he should.

If you are at all interested in seeing what I read, click HERE (I keep a running list on my other blog). Keep in mind, however, that just because I read a book does not necessarily mean I liked it or approve of it. Most of them I loved, though!

I'm sure a lot of you have had goals you wanted to complete in a year. I had a photography goal--at least one photo a day and post them weekly on my other blog. However, even though I do take a LOT of photographs, that one got left behind. One thing I regret is not having a Bible reading goal. Maybe that's another good one for 2012. How about the 100-book reading challenge? Is anyone up for joining me?

Tot School: Weeks 8-13

Okay, it seems I’m down to doing monthly Tot School posts instead of weekly!  For some reason, I’m having a hard time keeping up with my blog this school year.  Anyway, here’s a run-down of some things Gabriela did from the end of October through most of November.

Tutti Frutti game—This is a really simple matching game but gives practice telling colors and fruits.

Outdoor Time—When the weather was still mild enough to play outside, Gabriela decided to collect sticks in a bucket.  She was very proud of herself!

Apple Theme—We worked on this theme for awhile.  I got some nice printables from 2 Teaching Mommies.

While doing the above counting apple seeds activity, Gabriela took the “7” card and ran over to Isaac’s workboxes and matched it to the “7” on his box.  She was quite pleased at her cleverness (as was I).

Field Trip to Plas Newydd in North Wales—This trip included a tour of the house (and a detailed study of a huge mural painted by British artist Rex Whistler), a walk around the grounds, a playground, and a Punch and Judy puppet show.

Dalmatian Dominoes—I just let her play with them however she wanted.

Puzzles!  For 3 weeks or more, Gabriela played with lots of puzzles.  She didn’t want to quit, so I kept challenging her with more difficult puzzles.  We began with LAURI puzzles, which all 3 of my children have enjoyed over the years.  Then we progressed to 24-pc puzzles and finally to 60-pc puzzles.  Initially I helped her with the 60-pc puzzles, but since she wanted to do them over and over again each day, it didn’t take her long until she was able to put them together completely by herself.   

The LAURI puzzles she did includes:  a cat with kittens, cars, butterflies, tugboat, dump truck, train, and airplane.

Games:  Chutes and Ladders, Connect 4, and Honey Bee Tree   

Letter E Activities  

Fall Sensory Tub—You can read more about it HERE.

Playing with tiny pumpkins and sorting them by color

Wedgits!  This has been a long-time favorite of all my kids.  One of these days, I’d like to expand, as we have only a 15-piece basic set and the cards.

Letter F Activities

Pumpkin and Turkey Pick Sort

Our Thanksgiving 5-a-Day books (which I never got around to posting about):

We did read other Thanksgiving stories, too, but those are the 5 I read each day all week—books with good rhymes and repetition.  She listened to the 10 Fat Turkeys book on CD.

I’m linking this post to “Tot School” at 1+1+1=1.