Continent Box Videos! Yes-I have them all completed now

OK-for those of you who enjoy seeing the items-head to my YouTube channel to watch them all!  I hope to also get a video done in the near future showing the Montessori Sorting box I have a whole long (actually a few) posts on.  You can read about that project here.

Visit my YT channel and be sure to subscribe, as this is where I will be updating and posting reviews, chatting about homeschooling, planning (planners), crafting and so forth.

My YT playlist for the Continent Boxes

Continent Box: North America

Here is my final box to showcase.  I am still working on building this one up, but I do have a good start.  I have decided to create a separate box just for the United States to help keep this one less cluttered and more about the other countries.  I do have a few state related items in here tho (for now) because they represent Native American tribes or unique (harder to visit) places such as Hawaii.

Contents for the North American Box:

*Coins and stamps from Ebay

*Postcards: various sources, some from post card exchange

*Mexican Items:  gifts from my oldest daughter to several of us-

including the bracelet, ball/cup toy, woven mat, coin purse (woven square thing), gecko key chain, lovely vase from Oaxaca Mexico (she also gave her sister a little cat statue made from the same material, but I didn't show that)

*Canadian Items:  gifts from my (second) daughter's friend who lives in Canada-  including the 10 cent paper money, the "Loonie" dollar coin, and the candy boxes

*Honduran Coffee bag:  gift from my husband's client (they own that coffee plantation)

*Wooden turtle box from Aruba:  Goodwill find

*State Items: 

Kukui nut bracelet and little Hawaiian token man (from our trip there),

the Alaskan pin (part of a giveaway I won a few years ago from Cosmopolitan Cornbread -check out   her channel on YT!  She's fun to watch), the two woven baskets (gift from a client of my         husband, just cannot recall which Native American tribe it is from) and the Hopi pin from AZ (purchased during a visit).

*Safari Toob animals/buildings/places:  North American Wildlife, River, Exotic Birds and a few from the Around the World and Landmark sets 

I will be adding more as I find items, hopefully some fun ones from Central Am. If I do-I will be sure to add another pic and description for you.  Be sure to check your local thrift shops, Goodwill and Salvation Army for some trinkets as well as Ebay.  HTH

Part 2 of the Homeschool Video Tour 2015-Geography Center

OK here is part two. It took so many takes to get one that was decent, I truly don't know why I thought this would be fun.  Sorry it gets kind of shakey/fast near the end but I am not redoing it.  Hope you enjoy it-LOL

Homeschool Video Tour 2015: Part Two-Geography Center

Continent Boxes: Asia

Asia is quite a big continent to cover.  Many countries are represented, so you could conceivably have a huge variety of goodies for your box.  I looked on Ebay and various other sites that sell more oriental type trinkets and such.  I could have bought a lot more but needed to watch the budget. Also, with his age and no other munchkins following his footsteps, it made little sense to go on a spending spree for items. My sister/brother-in-law spent ten + years in China so we have some nice items from there.  I don't have many post cards right now-which is fine. I could also add many more animals and would if I had younger kids. Because our lives have been upside down for several months, this is not high on my priority list.  

Contents for the Asia Box:

*These items were gifted to us by my hubby's sister:

*Stone, hand-carved stamp with the characters for my husband's name (with ink but I did NOT put that in there b/cuz that stuff is so stainy and messy!)  I took it's picture individually so you could see the detail. 

*Delicate bowl (probably for rice)

*Soapstone Elephant 

*Tigers (by Schleich.  Can be found in most stores where toys are sold.)

*Orangutan (no idea where or how this toy came about around here but we have it so I added it to the box)

*Russian Stacking Matryoshka dolls (Ebay)

*Chopsticks (local restaurant)

*Coin purse from Vietnam (gift)

*Japanese Samurai Doll (I think it was originally a necklace-where it came from?? No clue)

*Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China and the Buddha of Lantau (from the Safari Toob Around the World and World Landmarks sets)

*Asia Traditional Foods cards (Montessori Print Shop)

*Asia Animals and Landmarks cards (Target dollar section. I suggest looking during back to school time for these, or check Amazon/Ebay). The Montessori print shop also has cards for landmarks, musical instruments, animals, and more to purchase. There is a whole Asia set you can buy to make your life easier.

*Postcards -still need to add to this section 

*Stamps-for sorting in Montessori box (Ebay)

*Coins (some from Ebay, China coins/paper money were gifts)

Additional Items:

I have many books from the varying countries in our library book bin next to the Geography center.  I also put our Klutz Chinese Jump Rope book/rope (I see it as being available on Amazon thru some sellers, but there are nice rope substitutes for sale as well) into the basket on top of the center. Not sure if it is truly a 'Chinese' jump rope but hey-it's fun to do so I have it there. 

I included the Treasure Chests: Ancient China by Running Press we have too. This is a part of the older version of the Sonlight 5 history program.  I see a few are available on Amazon, you'll just have to do some searching to find one.  This has a fan, coins, ink and activities for the child to do. [images from Amazon.com]

We are putting flags onto our notebooking pages that we are doing for our Mapping the World by Heart program, so I do not have individual flags for the box. And because we really like Asian food-we have been frequenting our local Thai and Chinese restaurants.  I would love to find a Russian one but that may require quite a long drive.  My oldest daughter has friends from Pakistan and so we have had that type of food too (delish), so actually we are quite familiar with most of those foods.  

     

Continent Box: Antarctica

At first, some may think that there are not enough things available to create an Antarctica box. Don't let the seemingly sparse items deter you.  Actually there are some unique and fun goodies you could add to your box.

Now granted there are no countries there, but many have staked claims to parts of it. That opens up a great opportunity to learn about those research posts. Maybe having printed cards with pictures of various sites can be added.  Also, you can find a lot about those brave explorers who went there. Maybe you could find stamps with pics of them, or put a small flip book/lapbook in the box highlighting them.

The wildlife is mostly centered around the oceanic critters, but it is also where many of the world's penguin species are found.  Think of all those movies [March of the Penguins comes to mind] that could accompany this study!  So one can add pictures and miniature toy animals to the box. I looked through my Safari Toobs and see there are a few seals and sea lions and even a walrus.  Sadly, not one of those species are found in Antarctica, and I do not want to buy the penguin one (which has a lot of them found there), so I won't have as many critters as I would like. That said, I do want to mention that I have noticed a few folks who have innocently placed polar bears in the Antarctica box. But please do not put them in as they are not found there.  They live in the arctic polar regions of the north and should go in the N. America box, and yes-even in the Europe and Asia ones.  I have seen way too many people add animals when they do not belong there.  OK. There, I feel better.

Contents for the Antarctica Box

*Stamps (Ebay) -I looked for countries that have or have had stations there.  

*Postcards (Ebay) 

*Fire/Rescue patch (Ebay) -I let my son pick which one he wanted.  

*Animal Cards (Target dollar bin area) -see the Australia post for a pic of the card box. I also just laminated a picture from an encyclopedia on the animals found there.

*Antarctica Territories Cards (made myself using Word images and Wikipedia then laminated them and put each area on color coordinating paper to match the control card).

*Landmark cards-just found a couple different ones online, printed and laminated them.

*Animals (Safari Toobs:  Baby Sea Life and Oceans. Purchased at JoAnns using 40-50% off coupons)

*Large Killer Whale-that is an old tub toy we had still.  He has been sitting by the Ocean Box we are working on for his science.  He doesn't go in the box, he just wanted to be included-LOL.

*Antarctica Game (free download from Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop)  This is too big for the box so it goes in the basket on the top shelf.

**I don't have the Antarctica map printed/laminated yet.  That is for his reference for various mapping activities and such. That will go into the basket on the top shelf.

Additional Ideas for your box:

I have done a lot of Pinteresting and have seen many a posts on continent boxes.  I see some ladies have mentioned a few of the following sites listed below.  I  really don't need these but many of you may.  Keep your eyes open for other neat add ins.  I would love to find a mini-replica of Shackleton's ship or even a model of a scientific center [you know that doesn't cost a fortune and actually exists] to add to our box. Anyway, check out these resources too.

Who's Eating Who? book download (free)  There is also a bunch of other activities/info on that site (which we will visit a lot during our study) **Just keep in mind the cost of either printing this at home or thru an office supply place. It is very colorful!

Montessori Print Shop-Antarctica materials

Antarctica Transportation download

You can purchase Antarctica bank notes (Ebay) too-I believe it is issued by different countries


And there you have our Antarctica box.

Geography unit study: Mapping the World by Heart, atlases and misc.

Since our main focus this year is the World Geo study-I have dusted off my (very old but quite useful) Mapping the World by Heart program. This is the backbone we'll work from to cover the unit.

We started with Australia, since it coincides with the Sonlight 5 (Eastern Cultures) history program we are implementing this year.  I also have notebook pages he is filling in on various countries as move along. This is a part of the Homeschooling in the Woods Olde World maps download.  I will not have him do every single one (simply too intensive and time consuming) but we'll definitely cover the better known countries.  I have a nice binder with page protectors to place these in, that will create a nice notebook/reference tool when it is completed.
(I will add a pic of that after he gets a few done)

I put together a folder to hold the current map and worksheets with listed items to locate.  The map pictured above was not completed yet. The clay island was made using modeling clay. I like Crayola's best because it is soft and pliable.  Some are so greasy or difficult to to use because they are like steel and take forever to soften before you can do the project. That was a part of the mapping layers/levels activity. You can kinda see the worksheets that covered that in the left pocket of the folder.  He had fun making it and thought it was neat how the clay made a ring of 'water' around it.  We called it Fool's Paradise because I love that old lady on the Swiffer commercial who says she had been living there all that time believing her house was clean. Kinda funny.

I found some country flag stickers (not sure where we will use those, if at all) with another page of iconic pics from various places around the world at the Dollar Tree. He added the Sydney Opera House, a kangaroo and Koala sticker so he didn't have to draw those. It's not required to add things like that but it definitely makes it a bit more sparkly.

This is basically how the set up will work for the various continents.  He will have a worksheet noting what he is to list on the map and then once done, he can add some stickers to it.  Now to get him to be a bit more neat and serious with his handwriting.  Ugh.

The atlas' are our two main ones we refer to but I have a few others about.  One is from DK and the other is a Rand McNally atlas. These can be found at most book stores (in person/online) or through many homeschool suppliers. The Mapping the World by Heart is available thru most larger homeschool book companies.  I actually bought mine used on the Vegsource.com/homeschool many years ago. It is the first edition but it works.  The extra map sets I purchased from Rainbow Resource.  (ouch!  I think I bought those a few years ago for less than $10. Good thing I did.  But for 17 maps that are needed for the program-I guess $16 is reasonable.)**

**I am not an affiliate for any of these companies.  I simply provided links to the mentioned products to help you find out more about them.

What's on the Geography Shelf: IKEA Puzzle Box

As promised, I will be posting about what we have on our geography shelf.  Obviously, there are many things one could incorporate into their supplies-this is just a sampling to give you ideas of what you can do.

I will be adding stuff as we move along but for now this is what I have.  The IKEA storage box is great for holding puzzles because of its size.  I am able to stuff the Nat. Geo 2 side World puzzle and a few others in it.  The Animal Jigsaw puzzle book (by Garry Fleming) was given to me by a friend a few years ago, and I am excited we can integrate it into this unit.  It is below his skill level but hey-while I am reading him something about that particular continent-he can be putting it together.  He does well when his hands are busy whilst I read so it is a win-win situation for us.  I also see there are few other puzzle books in this series and I am seriously thinking of getting the continent book.  Again-not difficult by any means but it is way cheaper than getting the Geo Puzzles I want.  Again, being that he is our last student, I hate to drop too much $$ to pull this World Geography unit together.  If I had more coming up behind him, it'd be a different story.

The only issue I have with the puzzle book is that Antarctica is only a picture!  They really should have figured a way to get it to be a puzzle too.  It's a shame. Otherwise, the graphics/pics are very nice.  I see you can pick one up via Amazon for pretty darn cheap too.

The puzzle holding box is on the second shelf, right-hand side.

Continent Box: Australia

I was so excited to stumble across the Continent Box idea a whilst back.  Sadly, I didn't think of them. Nor had I heard of it prior to just this past year-so my older kids totally missed out.  But alas-I have one student who can benefit from it.

I will be doing a whole geography series (of posts) as we move through the various continents, but for now-here is what we have in our box.  For more (and awesome) ideas, just search Pinterest for Continent Boxes and Geography Boxes.  A ton of pins will pop up.




Our boxes go on our Geography shelf.  The current continent (box) to be studied sits right next to the Montessori sorting box on the second shelf. Extra things go in the basket on the top (in this case, the boomerang) that do not fit inside the Ikea box.

Contents for Australia/Oceania Box:

*Boomerang (purchased on Ebay)

*Australia and New Zealand coins (Ebay)

*Australian postcard (received via postcard exchange)

*New Zealand Kiwi keepsake (Ebay)

*Safari Toob: The Land Down Under (JoAnns-used 50% off coupon)

*Little koala bear (I believe that was from a McDonald's      Happy Meal promo from way back when. I just bought that toy not the meal)

*Pez Tasmanian Devil (grocery store)

*Map (Homeschooling in the Woods Olde World Style Maps and I also have the Bright Ideas Press WonderMaps I can use when need be)

*General Info on Australia/landmarks of Australia [free] (Montessori Print Shop)

*Australian Food (purchased from Montessori Print Shop)

*IKEA box (Kassett 2 pk 6.25 X 10)

*Australian/Papua New Guinea and New Zealand Stamps (Ebay)

*Australian animal and Landmark cards (Target: dollar bin area. Pictures of them to the right.  Look during the back to school time or hopefully, you can find these or something similar)

We also checked out a ton of books from the library on Australia, New Zealand, Fuji, Tasmania, the Aboriginal peoples and the Maori peoples.  I also grabbed some arts and crafts books so that we can do some activities that relate to the area.  

If I had more kids coming up behind him, I would have purchased more stamps to sort but what I have is sufficient for him. I probably would have bought the Montessori musical instruments, people and animals cards as well, but since my student is now 13-it just wasn't necessary. I only used/laminated the cards that have all the info (not the 2 part matching ones) on it. 

I do not have any flags in the box because the Homeschooling in the Woods map set has notebook sheets [to fill in various nuggets of info for the region/countries] with an area for a flag. The only thing I won't print are the flags, in order to save on ink since it can be spency. I am purchasing some stickers that he can place there instead. These notebook pages will go into a Countries of  the World binder we will build over time.

BTW:  I could have labeled this the Oceania box but since our kids were taught that Australia is one of the 7 continents, not Oceania, I didn't want to change it. Obviously, you can label it as such. I really don't like how they keep changing things, like the Antarctica Ocean to the Southern Ocean and Pluto being nixed as a planet. I mean leave it alone already.  Sheesh.  LOL.   

Working on getting the Continent Boxes filled and finished Montessori Geography Box top

I am moving really slow this summer, but alas-I did [FINALLY] get the top of the geography box completed-which only took a year to do, LOL.  I have been hunting for some type of paper that had all/most of the world on it to decoupage on to it.  I was elated to find a sheet of scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby this past week.  So today-I finally finished the thing!  I am pleased with the results.  All I have left to do is buy some Velcro dots to adhere the maps to (on the inside top) and print/laminate the maps.

I have also rearranged our classroom area, pared down lots of supplies and books and added a whole area for world geography.  I still have to take down the rain gutter shelves, patch the holes. I will then repaint the area so I can put up a nice world map and a smaller shelf from IKEA to hold the current continent books.  With all the activities around here, it has been hard to get time to truly devote to wrapping this up.  My hope is to not only have it done in time for the Not-Back-To-School blog hop but to also get it done soon so I can do a video tour of our room. I truly enjoyed watching a few videos of other homeschool rooms, so I hope to do one too.

I also have lots of busy work to do for the different Continent Boxes and since we'll be starting with Australia, I am searching and purchasing various things to add to it. I also have to buy, download, print and laminate a bunch of stuff for it as well.  Once I have a better handle on things I will be sure to post.  Until then, thought I would just catch you up on my summer projects.

Montessori Geography/Continent Box -so excited to share our homemade version

So back in September I posted that I wanted to make a Montessori Geography box (I had seen an awesome example on Pinterest).  I found an old, smelly and 'in great need of care' silverware box [the type that many a bride received for her wedding which was quite popular in the 1950s-70s] that would be perfect for the project.  It was marked $2 or $3 but I talked it down to a whopping dollar bill! My goal for this project was to spend as little as possible and I actually managed to do just that as the total overall cost was under $10!

SO I had the box and I knew what I wanted to do with it-but it took many steps to accomplish. That was September remember?  Due to some health issues, then the holidays then tucking it aside to then finding it and saying, "OH yeah-need to finish this!"-it took longer to get done than it should have.  So to start, I had to allow for at least a month of 'freshening' to get rid of the musty smells. That meant ripping out the gross felt and little doodads that were meant to hold the silverware. That helped eliminate some stench-but then I had to scrap off (as best as possible) the ugly glue, then rub the wood down with bleach water, then place the box in the sun to further the process. At night I placed a bowl of water with bleach in it inside the box, closed the lid and let it continue working on degrossifying it. I learned that trick from Martha Stewart many years ago.

Yes, it was that gross!

When it was finally ready for the box compartments, I sent the hubby and son on a search and find mission.  Thankfully we live in a sub that still has construction going on and since my hubby has spoken to several of the building crews before about scrap wood, it was not a problem finding some luan wood for this. Frankly, with the layering of that wood I can say it was a pain to work with. So if you decide to do something similar-look for a piece of wood that is one solid sheet and not layered together due to it's inherent need to split.  Anyway, I decided how I wanted the boxes to be and ordered my cut pieces from my handyman hubby.  Due to the glue issue (that was under the felt) I had two pieces of luan cut to lay down over them to give me a fresh look. Then he cut a few strips to build the boxes.  That was the hard part. We do not have a mini-Norm Abram workshop about the homestead.  But we made due and I am quite pleased with the results.

After the liquid nails (glue used to adhere it) dried we were ready for paint (I did sand down the wood to avoid splinters) and after several coats it is complete.

I found scrapbook paper I liked (at Hobby Lobby) and just cut it to fit.  

I took slightly watered down white glue (poor man's Mod Podge) to adhere 

it to the top, then coated the entire top/outside with a thick layer to protect it.  

Furthermore, I also have to print and laminate the maps I want to go on the interior lid of the box. I will put little Velcro dots on it to allow for easy map changes, which means all maps will have the dots as well so they will adhere to the main lid area.  This is key to multi-use flexibility.  If I just slapped a pre-school/K level map onto it, I could not use it for a variety of things I have in mind. Especially since I am using this with an older elementary student (right now) but want to be able to use it for future younger students as well.  Oh, and we need to put a hinge on the backside of the lid. Since the original hinges are small, are at least 40+ years old and with the additional weight from the the luan, it needs that additional hinge support.  I highly recommend doing that as well if you make your own.

I did paint the box sections to match the Montessori color code for learning the continents.  I also included a box for Antarctica!  This is important because several countries have territorial claims to it.  I therefore made 8 sections. One for each continent and one for what I am calling the control box. That is where the collection of items to be sorted go.  I will do a separate post on different things that I hope to do with our box as soon as I get all that done.  One step at a time-LOL.

Example using stamp cards for different continents.  Antarctica is not shown b/cuz I have not received the stamps yet but you get the general idea.  The map that would be used would be the general color-coded continent map for Montessori.  I will link all the sources in the post about how to use the box once I have that completed. 

Paddle to the Sea book/map study

I bumped this post up from 2009 (wow-that was eons ago!) since I will now be covering this book study with my youngest.  I will come back and add in any new things we use for idea helps for you but for now-here are some great links.




I found this thru the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival-

Part one of Paddle to the Sea

A gal posted the You Tube link for the Paddle to the Sea movie. How fun is that?! I wish we had had this when I did the study with my daughter a couple years ago. It is broken into 3 parts (10 min. for first 2, about 8 for the last one) to enjoy. My son was mesmerized...and it was filmed in 1966-so there is nothing flashy about it!

This makes a great addition to your geography studies, esp. if you are doing Paddle to the Sea. And if you are looking for a great study guide for geography, I highly recommend the Beautiful Feet Geography Guide. It covers four of the classic Holling C. Holling books-Paddle to the Sea is one of em. BF Books has 4 great maps to go with the study and they make very nice keepsakes-I have done this with 3 of my 4 and when Buddy enters 4-5th grade, he'll do it as well.




In the right sidebar of You Tube, you will find the other 2 parts. Thanks to Established Work (can no longer find this blog-sorry) for posting this info.

Beautiful Feet Books: Geography Maps and Notebook ideas using the BFB Geo Thru Lit study

So this year we have gone back to our favorite study guides for history-Beautiful Feet Books (BFB)*. We are feeling so much better and enjoying this transition back to what we know and like. As an added bonus, I have pulled in the Beautiful Feet Books Geography Through Literature study [which my 3 previous kiddos did and loved] because it goes along, just about perfectly, with the California and Westward Expansion that we are covering this year..  Like amazingly.  :) Love when that happens!

We put his maps above our white board.  He was getting sloppy with his work on the second map-and admitted it.  Ah boys-my girls were meticulous and he is like 'whatever'.  LOL He also said he decided to go all 'colory' on it, after examining his older brother's and sisters' maps (yep, still have em) and stating that he chose to go wild while they did theirs all nice like (paraphrase of his comment-let me tell you he had me in stitches laughing about his decision). 

Because there are four books used in the Geo study-all Holling C. Holling books-I decided to divide the year into 2 books per semester.  Since we started out with the expansion/exploration of sea faring brave-hearts, we began with Seabird.  This is actually one of my favorite H.C.H. stories. The boy especially enjoyed it because it was all about sailing and man stuff. The kind of man stories that inspire young lads to dream of heading out to horizons unknown. We also did notebooking [per the instructions in the guide plus a bit of our own] pages on it. And if that wasn't enough of a tie in, since it's about a bird (for the most part) it actually melded seamlessly with our Apologia Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day program!  [The first couple chapters are all about birds-so yeah!!! Talk about getting more bang for the buck!]

I found this pic of a seagull coloring page, and then had him 

categorize the names like we did in our science lessons. 

The notebook is broken into the book sections. I 

simply photocopied the cover for the title page, 

to make my life easier. 

Obviously you could just have the student

write the name of it on paper. 

Then we moved to Tree in the Trail.  My favorite of the four in this study.  Since both the California and the Westward Expansion talk about the movement from east to west in our US history-it was a  no brainer of a choice for our next map. Again, we did notebooking as well.  Plus, here again-our Little House on the Prairie study fit nicely too (they didn't do the Santa Fe Trail but they did move via wagon and such) which is part of our literature and LLATL study. We have read the first book of hers and the Almanzo book (Farmer Boy) so far.  We'll keep on with the series per my grand overall plan for our lit studies. Not to mention they will only further blend into our overall history study for the year.

These pics are from Edwin Tunis's Frontier Living Book-

this is out of print, I own it.

Again, we just copied some pics cuz he doesn't like 

drawing and well, again-it's easier. I don't usually

push photocopying pages but there are times, and since this

is for educational purposes and not being sold-

it falls into that gray area.

And there you have it. We'll be done with this semester pretty soon and I have to say, this time around has been so much more enjoyable and refreshing.  I will post more about our Apologia experience and other thoughts soon.



*I am not an affiliate for BFBooks but boy I should be-I truly love this curriculum. It is literature based,  we can cover as much or as little as we wish,  and at our pace. It has activities/notebooking that are easy to do and (at least right now) it is beautifully tying into many of our other subjects!  So anyhoo-this is my own personal take on it and no, I didn't get paid or receive anything for it.  

It's all about the states

So if you have read my previous Busy as a Beaver post, then you realize I have been working on the geography stuff for the up and coming year.  And I promised to do a geography post...so here it is.

I stumbled across this State Symbols USA site-and boy was I like whooping it up over the wealth of info and such here.  Good place to start.  I used this one to get the seals and other goodies to really make our state study "pop" with neat stuff! I noticed on the side-bar there was this book for Alabama (since we are going in alphabetical order here) and thought-could it be?  Could there be a book for every state? Yeppers!  Now, since I did the study before these were written with my older 3, I was unawares.  So stop giggling if you already knew about em.  The most exciting part-outside of the fact that now I can start each study with a book as the lead in and it fits the Charlotte Mason method, and it is just so beautiful and, and, and...can ya tell I am excited about it?  Best yet-our library has em all-now that is like a one in a thousand chance and I am so geeked!  So-then I searched and saw that they also have this baby available-so I put it on hold (since it was one thing our library didn't own) and got it today-not that I am big on teacher's guides (always seem to not follow em too closely) but figured I could glean some useful ideas to make this a great stroll thru the USA.  Take a look-see here...

Look how nicely each book is illustrated and ties into something major the state is known for!

The series is called Discover America State by State-but when I did the search thru the library-I had to look for each individual state's book-guess our library website is a bit fussy-LOL, so anyhoo-when you go to the State Symbols site-just look on the side-bar for that state and you will have the name.  

I will take some notes and let the rest be (in the guide) but I am always looking for ideas-now to find time to go thru it!

The HIP Pocket Change (US Mint) site has lots too.  I actually downloaded the quarter info-the background about the decisions behind the state's quarter design-look under the extra resources sections for each year...they are about 2 pages long each. I just ran those off.  There is also the full quarters listing in picture form under the 2008 stuff.  If you go thru the earlier years, you won't have em all.  I ran those 2 pages off and then cut out the quarters to add to the info packet for the individual states.  There are also coloring pages that you can run off (good for younger siblings to keep em busy) and lots of other links/activities.  

Found this one, but haven't explored it yet: Teacher Guide to the 50 States

A to Z Teacher Stuff has a recipe for edible state maps (why not enjoy a wee bit of food when doing this heh?)

Maps that Teach  offer up some good online links/activities

This 50 States Book List is going to come in rather handy during our study.  I will just use what I can get thru the library-on top of the cool state books noted above.

The US50 site offers up those stamps I downloaded. I did have to shrink the size of em a bit, and tried to fit as many as possible on the page too.  They have more state info to help you with your studies as well. The license plates are from MS Word-images, I think the only one I couldn't find was SC, so I searched the internet and found one that would work-sized it and added it to the document to print.  

I will also be using a few goodies I was able to review whilst being on the TOS crew:

The Little Man in the Map  This is a delightful way to learn the states and where they are located on the map.

My Review 

HS in the Wood Olde World US Maps  I will be using the states maps and notebook pages, and the brochure document too-I think that one is under the World maps tho.  I will have to double check-but these are sooooo nice and perfect for this study.  I am also the materials for the Geography Center.  But if you are on a super tight budget, you can find most downloads for free from various other sites-they simply won't be as detailed or have all the data, but they certainly can create a lovely notebook for your student.  I suggest Googling or doing Swagbuck searches, which frankly is a great way to get free $ (Swagbucks that is-you can join and earn-I have already earned $20 worth of free Amazon gift cards just by searching!) Click the icon below and it'll get you there.  :o)

 My Review

TOS Travel the World eBook I will pull some elements out of this eBook to help with our studies too.
My Review

I also have a mishmash of atlases, coloring books or map books about the states, and of course-where would I be if I didn't tie in some kinda lapbook to this?  Well-I purchased

Hands of a Child State by State lapbook  and will pull out components as needed. 

10 Days in the USA

This is on my wish list-a nice to have but not totally necessary...

I have found flashcards at the dollar section of Target, a poster listing the state names/capitals at the Dollar Tree and so forth. Been building the collection for some time and now when we get to it-I can draw from all sorts of good products to make this a fab project.  

HTH ya out too.  So that is the big stuff-I am sure I have more, but it gives ya a good idea of what one can use to pull together a study.  I have seen a few other great ideas from my pals via their blogs too-but since I am pretty sure I have enough to make this a detailed enough to remember kinda study-I am using what I have available.  :0)