United States--Wisconsin and Wyoming

The last of the 50 states!  My goals at the beginning of this unit were to follow Braedi's desire, to build familiarity with each state and learn something interesting, to learn the states and their capitals and location on the map, and to have fun.  I think we accomplished all of them.  It's been a fun year and the kids and I are excited to move on to world geography next. 

Wisconsin was home to many pioneers so we made a log cabin.  The logs were made from rolled up newspaper and the frame was a shoe box that I cut to size. 

And because Wisconsin is the known for it's dairy cows, we also made a yummy malted milk shake.

I lived in Wyoming for about 5 years of my childhood and that made the kids a little more excited about this state.  I was able to share some random things I remembered--like the "Rawlins wind Monster", living in the sames city as the state penitentiary, and raising tadpoles.  We learned a little bit about Yellowstone National Park and Old Faithful and made our own geyser using Diet Coke and Mentos. 

Fun Time!

United States--Washington and West Virginia

Washington has a mountain range that runs right down the middle blocking the winds from pushing rain clouds across the state.  This makes the west side of the state wet and the east side dry.  The kids got a kick out of Mount St. Helens exploding and have been talking about volcanoes for days.  We've done so many volcano experiments that I didn't want to do another so we made a yummy apple dessert instead--because apples are what I think of when I think of Washington.

We took the recipe from the side of a cinnamon graham cracker box. 
6 granny smith apples, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 cup flour
2 Tbl. brown sugar
1/4 cup cold butter
10 cinnamon grahams, coarsely chopped

--Heat oven to 350 degrees.
--Combine apples and cinnamon in 9 inch baking dish.  (I added a little lemon juice.)
--Mix flour and sugar in bowl.  Cut in margarine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir in chopped grahams; sprinkle over apple mixture.  Cover loosely with foil.
--Bake 40 minutes or until apples are tender.  Cool slightly. 

West Virginia is a coal mining state.  And it is so mountainous that in order to build the airport, workers had to chop off tops of mountains and fill in the surrounding valleys with dirt to make a flat space for airplanes to land.  Virginia makes a lot of glass and glass marbles.  We decided to make our own marbles.  We used oven drying clay instead of glass.  We rolled the clay into balls and after baking them we painted them and plan on playing a game of marbles tomorrow. 

United States--Vermont and Virginia

Vermont has lots of green forests and beautiful mountains.  Vermont also makes more maple syrup than any other state.  Did you know it takes 4 trees to make just one gallon of maple syrup?  Kids in Vermont will make a kind of maple syrup taffy using maple syrup and snow.  Since we don't have snow (thank goodness!) we tried to make snow with ice in our blender.  It wasn't quite the same consistency, but it worked for our needs.  Then we heated real maple syrup to 235 degrees, poured it over the "snow", let it cool a little and then attempted to eat the taffy--it was chewy and sticky, but tasted good. 

Virginia is called the the "mother of presidents" because 8 presidents were born there and it's called "father of states" because 8 other states were made from it.  Virginia was the home of many of the first colonists.  I had a few ideas for activities, but when the kids learned that wild ponies roam free on Assateague Island and that no one knows for sure where they came from, (the most popular belief is that they swam to the island from a wrecked ship) they decided that they wanted to ride wild ponies.  They grabbed their bikes and scooters and went for a short ride. 

Faythe and her Letters

Faythe and I continue to work on her letter recognition during school time.  On Monday I will introduce a new letter and do an activity then during the rest of the week the other kids take turns working with her.  Sometimes they will do something that goes along with the letter of the week and sometimes they will come up with their own fun activity.  I love that they are willing to help Faythe learn and it is a great opportunity for them.  Over the past few weeks Faythe has been introduced to the letters Kk, Pp, Cc and Hh. 

We made a kangaroo that I thought was pretty ugly, but Faythe loved. 

We mixed red and white to make pink and painted a plate, then Braedi helped Faythe make a face for her pig.

Faythe took this paper cat to bed with her for a few nights. 

I love the humming bird we made.  We used cardboard, coffee filters, tin foil and markers. 

I love seeing my kids learn new things.

Corbin Turns 9!

Today we celebrated Corbin's 9th birthday!  Corbin has been excited for weeks and has been counting down the days.  He got some money and the game Stratego (thanks to his cousin for introducing him to it--it's one I remember from my childhood). 

Yesterday, while looking through a cookbook for dinner ideas, he found a birthday cake idea.  It was so easy.  Cut a pre-made pound cake into pieces and put them in a pan, cover them with whipped cream and add berries on top.  It was yummy.

For our family activity he chose dinner and a movie at home.  We watched Star Wars--Return of the Jedi and ate pizza. 

Corbin is growing up fast.  He is now counting down the days/years until he turns 12 and gets the priesthood. 

Neon Splash Dash

A few months ago I had a friend ask me to join her team for a 5K.  I thought it would be fun.  Turns out it was unlike any 5K that I've run.  First off there were rules about what to wear.  Another thing is that it was mostly for fun and it wasn't timed.  And another thing is that the race was at night.  We had to wear white shirts and there were several stations on the path where we got sprayed/splashed with glow-in-the-dark paint.  It was my slowest time (we timed ourselves), but it was also the easiest 3.1 miles I have ever run.  I ran with some girls from the team and we chit-chatted the whole time.  My friend and I even made tu-tu's.  Talk about going out of my comfort zone!  I'm not sure if I'll ever do it again, but it was fun and now I can say that I've done it.  Next up, someone needs to invite me to do a half marathon. 

before the race

after the race

part of the team

 

can you see the color in my hair?

United States--Texas and Utah

"Don't mess with Texas!" and "Remember the Alamo" are favorite sayings about this state.  Texas is a big state with all kinds of different climates, but the thing I think of when I think of Texas is cowboys.  I took this idea and we made mini-cowboys. 

The kids felt like they knew about Utah already because it is a place we've visited so many times.  Over the summer we visited the Great Salt Lake and just got our feet wet, but we didn't get to float in it.  We attempted to make a Mini Salt Lake and see what we could get to float in our salt water.  Nothing un-normal floated because the kids wouldn't let me put more salt in--they didn't want me to waste it. 

United States--South Dakota and Tennessee

A few interesting things about South Dakota:

• home of Mount Rushmore--a giant stone carving of 4 American presidents
• many dinosaur bones can be found there
• an area of steep cliffs and spooky rock formations called the  Badlands is a place I would like to see.

The kids colored and labeled a picture of Mount Rushmore for our activity. 

Our favorite thing about Tennessee was that it was the state where Davy Crockett lived.  The kids weren't too impressed with Graceland or "Music City, USA".  We made a Davy Crockett coon skin cap.