Hi and welcome to our week on Arkansas! We’re well into our Road Trip USA curriculum, and the kids are having a blast!
Here are some of the things we learned about this week:
- Located Arkansas and Little Rock on our wall map
- Read our National Geographic Atlas and located Little Rock, AL using the map coordinates.
- Worked on our 50 States and Capitals song
- Learned about the state bird: Mockingbird
- Learned about the state gem: The Diamond
- Learned about the state insect: The Honeybee
- State Flower: Apple Blossom
- Famous people: General Douglas MacArthur
- U.S. President: Bill Clinton
- Classified the animals of Arkansas
- Famous Landmarks: Fort Smith
- Food: Catfish, and fried green tomatoes!
- Read: If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine
I started putting up a white board each week just to help us review the facts quickly.
One of our favorite parts is adding in the Road Trip USA Animals to our wall.
I’m taking turns reading our book each day with Strawberry Shortcake. She really likes to be our reader for the day, unfortunately the other kids don’t listen quite as well when she does the reading so I’ve been switching back and forth with her just to give her a chance at least.
We’re slowly building the U.S. with our bulletin set. (I apologize, I haven’t been able to find this anywhere, I’ve had it for a few years and I’m not sure if they still make it or not. It’s made by Creative Teaching Press if that helps your search.)
Did you know that Arkansas is one of the few places in North America where diamonds are present? Tourists may hunt for them at Carter of Diamonds State Park. Since we didn’t have time to actually drive there, we did our own little diamond dig right in our kitchen! (Supplies: Tub, rice, clear beads, willing diamond excavators.)
I forgot to count the beads before I added them in, so I think they got them all, but just in case we won’t eat the rice ;o)
We went over all of our state facts and did our coloring page:
Since it was a review week, we filled in and added Alabama and Arkansas mini-books to our Southeast page.
We practiced our mapping skills by locating the state capital on our map using the coordinates.
We added the state to our Trend USA Wall Poster:
And we finished off our week by stamping our Travel log with the Arkansas state flag!
And that wraps up our Arkansas study! If you’d like to come along with us on our Road Trip USA journey, click the image below to learn more!
If you are reading about the Underground Railroad, you may wish to also include “Underground to Canada” by Barbara Smucker. Published in 1977 it has been on Canadian reading lists ever since. The forward includes a portion of the “Conscience for Change” speach given by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr at the 1967 Massey Lectures in Toronto. It is a terrific book.
Wish we would’ve found diamonds that easily when we visited Diamond State Park years ago. lol We studied Arkansas History (our home state) by grabbing a tent and sightseeing most of Arkansas. 🙂
I love your blog! Its very inspiring for someone who wishes to one day homeschool. My girls are small and I am debating on whether to homeschool or public, and this blog is just really making me lean towards homeschooling! Thank you so much!!!
HI Erica~
I found something similar to the US map that you are putting together here:
http://www.wayfair.com/Teachers-Friend-Bb-Set-Map-Of-The-United-States-TF-3036-GKT1650.html?refid=GPA49-GKT1650&gclid=CPye17-T760CFYPc4AodDX3Ssw
hope it helps other readers
Monica
NY
Hey! I just wanted to tell you how much I love all of the things that you create. Your curriculum has been such a huge help to me in my homeschool! I have a homeschool blog as well & recently started a blog roll. I would love it if you would link yours up if you have the chance!
Thanks!
http://teachbesideme.blogspot.com
I tried this idea with the rice and beads and it was a big hit! We were doing Arkansas and West Virginia. I put cream colored beads in for coal in WV (the black was way to easy) and clear for diamonds in AR.
They all had fun yelling out the gem and the state each time they found one. What a great idea. I am using a different curriculum this year and have already printed all my sheets. Next year though I will switch to yours, just for the fun activities!!