50 States Unit Study: Learning about the States

Welcome to the second day of Hopscotching Across the USA! Today I’m sharing how we learned about each of the 50 States. We had a routine we followed for each state, and then branched off on rabbit trails or activities based on our schedule and what piqued our interest.

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First Steps for Information about the 50 States

Step #1: Atlas

The first resource I’d recommend adding to your bookshelf is a nice atlas. We used the National Geographic United States Atlas for Young Explorers.  There is an introduction to each region, a two-page spread for each state, and a companion website with videos, sound clips, and downloadable photos and maps.

For each state the text shares information about the basic stats, history, and major features along with several images for each state.  The map is a full page with major cities, landmarks, physical features and economy symbols.

Step #2: Video

A DVD series I was glad I invested in was The States from The History Channel.  After looking over the pages in the atlas we would watch the roughly 10 minutes video segment for the state.  The information in the videos is quite varied: famous landmarks or events, famous people, geographic features, historical events…but they always gave us an interesting look into the state, and often led to topics we wanted to research further.

Please note that this series is for adults.  With my 6 and 9 year old there was one state with a topic I chose to fast forward through, so you should preview before sharing with your children.

Step #3: State Quarters

A third major component of our study was the 50 States quarter collection. At the U.S. Mint website you can find printable images of the quarters (handy if you don’t have the actual quarters) and free lesson plans listed by issue year. I only used the download called “Additional Resources” that gives the background for the image on the quarter. (Note:  The Additional Resources link near the bottom of the website that is supposed to cover all issue years is missing the 2008 quarters.)

You can learn a lot of interesting things from the quarter designs: products of the states, events or places of historical importance, natural features, famous people or landmarks, wildlife, nicknames and the stories behind them, etc.

There is also the new America the Beautiful quarter series featuring 56 national sites that began in 2010 and will continue to be issued until 2021.

Go-Along Books

There are scores of wonderful books to go along with your 50 State Study for a wide range of ages.  You can find books about the U.S. in general and books about specific states or locations. You can find books about a famous story from a state’s history, or books set in a certain state that discuss local places or events.

I’ll point out specific books we enjoyed in upcoming posts according to the topics, but here are some ideas to get you started:

• Discover America State by State is a series of alphabet books about each state for the younger crowd.  The title of each one follows the same pattern: M is for Mayflower, a Massachusetts Alphabet, or S is for Sunshine, A Florida Alphabet.

• Most libraries have a nonfiction series for the 50 states.  At our library they have Celebrate the States by Benchmark Books. It was too long for reading in entirety but was perfect for a picture-walk or looking up details on a topic of interest.

• These two websites are worth checking for book ideas:

• 50 States Book List: This website from an elementary school teacher has many books listed for each state, chosen by story setting or author’s home.  It’s a wonderful resource for finding picture books.

• Booking Across the USA: This was a blog link -up with bloggers writing a post about a picture book and related activity for each state.

Internet Resources

Two websites were treasure troves of information, and depending on our schedule and interest we would spend more or less time browsing:

• 50States.com: Basic information like the capital, motto, date of statehood, flag, famous people, the state bird, tree, flower, and song, along with fun tidbits of trivia. Not only does it list much of this information but clicking on some items (like the name of the bird or picture of the flag) will lead to details.

• Explore the States from America’s Story: This website from the Library of Congress offers articles with photos for each state.

I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow when I’ll be sharing how we learned about the geography of the United States.  Subscribe via email or RSS so you don’t miss a post!

Here are the topics from this series:

Day 1: Introduction to the 50 States Unit Study
Day 2: Learning About the States
Day 3: Getting to Know Your Geography
Day 4: Games to Play
Day 5: Recording Your Journey
Day 6: Famous Places in the USA
Day 7: Natural Attractions
Day 8: Nature Study
Day 9: The People of America
Day 10: Food from the 50 States

I’m teaming up with over 25 other iHomeschool Network bloggers. Hop over to iHN for ideas from veteran homeschooling moms on topics ranging from Teaching with Legos to Project Based Learning.