Geography Travels: Texas

I’m just trying to catch up on last year’s geography travels.  Here’s our unit on Texas!

We began by locating Texas on a map, finding its capital and major cities, and listening to the Southern Border United States Song (Geography Songs).

We put together a notebook page (Homeschool Creations).

Using Geography from A to Z, we discussed river, plains, gulf, prairie, steppe, hills, plateau, valley, desert, canyon, mountains, swamp, forest, and coast

We did a map page (Enchanted Learning)

We discussed Texas Regions using THIS website

I allowed Isaac to come up with his own idea for making the flag of Texas, and he chose to paint it (print-out from Apples for the Teacher)

We also discussed the six flags in Texan history (using The Six National Flags of Texas website).  I made a matching game to help him learn the different flags and countries that claimed Texas.

We discussed Texas bluebonnets, and Isaac made a Q-tip painting (click link for photos of bluebonnets):

According to the American Grub cookbook, chili is the state dish, so of course we had some chili!

Week 2

Famous People from Texas…

Just a quick note, since I haven’t said it before:  Whenever we put together a list of famous people from a state, we count those who were born there as well as those who lived there for any length of time.  I should also mention that we do not include every famous person that’s from a state.  I choose from various famous people lists I find online, and I base my choices on several things:  1)  whether or not I’ve heard of the person myself, 2) the importance of the person in history (sorry, I personally find US presidents to be more important than movie stars), and 3) whether or not I personally admire the person (I always include presidents whether I admire them or not).  Therefore, I do choose actors and singers that I personally like or that I feel are extremely famous (even if I don’t like them).  If I’m desperate to find a famous person from a particular state, sometimes I will choose people I don’t really admire.  When possible, I also include athletes, artists, inventors, scientists, politicians and more—as long as I know who they are.  Anyway, that’s how I choose who to cover.  So, please forgive me if I leave out someone you think is important.   : )

We began filling in our chart with US Presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Here’s the White House page on George W. Bush.  You can click on the other presidents to read more about them.

YouTube videos on some of the presidents (I think we watched some for the others, but I can’t find them).

We discussed Texas history, and Isaac did a page on the Alamo.  We also looked at this website about the Alamo.  You can find more links for Texas history HERE.

Learned about Longhorn cattle HERE and HERE.

Texas songs and Gene Autry.  Let me tell you…there are LOADS of songs about Texas!  Just google “songs about Texas,” and you’ll find a list.  We listened to several on YouTube.  We also added Gene Autry (the “Singing Cowboy”) to our Famous People chart.

This one has low-quality volume—I chose it for the video, but you can find other videos with the same song:

I had to include this one, because it’s the most well-known Gene Autry song to ME!  I grew up with it.  : )

Here’s the Texas State Song:

I could put on a lot more videos of Texas songs, but it’s just too many.  Here’s a list of songs, instead (all linked to YouTube videos):

Marty Robbins—Ballad of the Alamo 

Johnny Cash—Remember the Alamo

Yellow Rose of Texas

Marty Robbins—El Paso

George Strait—Amarillo By Morning

Glen Campbell—Galveston

Jason Aldean—Amarillo Sky

Tanya Tucker—San Antonio Stroll

Here’s another version of Deep in the Heart of Texas (better sound)

Learned about the armor-plated armadillo and read the books Armadillo Rodeo (Jan Brett) and The Armadillo From Amarillo (Lynne Cherry).

We concluded our Texas study by discussing NASA (see link below) and Dallas Cowboys.   We also mentioned Sandra Day O’Connor, although we apparently forgot to add her to our chart.

Space Center Houston

Houston, We Have a Problem

More Texas Info Websites:

Texas SenateKids

Apples for the Teacher

Texas coloring pages HERE 

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

Road Trip Across Texas