The 50 States...

This year our family decided to participate in a mini co-op of sorts but also to participate in a larger more structured co-op. In each co-op you, as the parent, are asked to teach a subject. I chose my favorite subject...history! For the elementary aged class I wanted to spend time exploring the 50 states. I spent most of the summer searching the Internet for great projects that would work in a co-op setting and that would be somewhat simple to teach. There were some great ideas like creating a 50 states book using postcards from the different states, creating lapbooks, and notebooking.

One of my biggest challenges was deciding exactly how much I would spend on each state. We would need to cover about 2 states per week and I wanted it to be engaging. I really liked the lapbook idea and found a great blog article on one but I was concerned about the prep time. If I weren't already doing so much this wold have been my first choice.

So I continued my search. I have decided to take the kids on a family trip using Our 50 States as inspiration. The illustrations inside are a treat and so we will be following this family as they travel across our great land.













I also picked up a wonderful treasure called The Little Geography of the United States. This book covers the different geographical areas of the United States. I plan to use this book as we introduce the different regions. My final book I wanted to use is called The Children's Book of America. This book is filled with tales of the United States and songs like America the Beautiful.












Now I had my inspiration pieces for the class. I also have a puzzle of the United States that we can play with throughout the year. I decided to make a basic template with areas to draw the State Bird, State Flower and paste in the State Flag. My hope is that as we travel with Annie, Ben, and Alex and create our notebooks our imaginations will take us to each place. I am still navigating these waters and am hoping that more inspiration **hint hint** will come to me. But for now we are packing our bags and heading on a year-long trip around the United States.

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