This unit was done a few months ago, so I’m playing catch-up. I’ve never been to Pennsylvania myself (the Philadelphia airport does not count), but I’d love to visit someday! Here’s a look at our unit studies:
Week 1
Located Pennsylvania on a map and found capital, major cities, and borders.
Watched this video about Philadelphia:
Isaac began reading The Cabin Faced West, which takes place in Pennsylvania. He read this book each day throughout our studies.
Listened to “Northern Border United States Song” from Geography Songs.
Using Jolanthe’s Country Factsheet Notebooking Page (Homeschool Creations) as inspiration, I created this form. However, I later asked her if she’d be willing to make a better form for me. She did, and you can find Jolanthe’s State Factsheet notebooking pages HERE.
Flag page from Apples 4 the Teacher:
Began Famous People chart (which I made)—We listed these throughout the 2 weeks as we studied them.
Discussed President James Buchanan and watched this video about him:
Read from Geography from A to Z about: lake, river, and mountains
Map page from Enchanted Learning:
Discussed Mary Cassatt (famous impressionist artist from Pennsylvania) and studied several of her paintings. (Click on links to see the complete collection of her paintings and to read a short biography.)
Watched this YouTube video of some of Mary Cassatt’s paintings. There are several paintings of babies and small children without clothing…just to let you know...
Chose Mary Cassatt painting to copy; began working on it.
Discussed Pennsylvania history.
Reviewed “Northern Border United States Song”
Discuss Hershey chocolate and watched this video:
Snack: Hershey chocolate bar (of course)
Finished Mary Cassatt painting (I let him use colored pencils, as we didn’t have the best paint or paper):
Week 2
Discussed Louisa May Alcott. We meant to watch the movie Little Women. However, we were back in England by this time and discovered that our dual-player VCR was no longer working. My Little Women movie is an American (NTSC) VHS tape. My husband went and bought a used VHS player, but sadly it doesn’t play my NTSC VHS tapes (I have a boxful of them here). I’m now in the (slow) process of purchasing those particular movies on DVD from Amazon.uk. I did order Little Women, but it was well after we finished studying Pennsylvania.
Page on the Liberty Bell:
Watched a YouTube video on the Liberty Bell:
Discussed Stephen Foster and watched this video:
Discussed Robert Fulton and watched this video:
Discussed Quakers and Pennsylvania Dutch (Amish and Mennonite)
Discussed Gene Kelly and watched this video:
Discussed George C. Marshall and watched this video:
NOTE: In order to have enough products to add this Amazon carousel to my post, I included the movie Singing in the Rain (which I do have) because it has Gene Kelly in it and also It's a Wonderful Life (which I also have) because it stars Jimmy Stewart, who was also from Pennsylvania (Isaac chose him as his famous person for the notebooking page).
I’m linking this post to “Geography/History” at Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn. Click on that link for more posts about geography and history!
Stay tuned for our travels to New York, Kentucky, and Florida!
