Arizona, California and Colorado

During the months of September and October, as far as reading books and watching movies about the 50 states go, we slacked off a bit.

Here is what we watched and read for Arizona, California and Colorado...

Arizona-
We watched the movie,

Brighty and the Grand Canyon

and have been trying to get the book,

Kate Heads West

California-
We read the book,

Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say

Colorado-
We watched the movie,

The Mountain States by National Geographic

and read the book,

The Sweetwater Run: The Story of Buffalo Bill Cody and the Pony Express by
Andrew Glass

Though I admit we're taking our time through the books and movies that will help us grasp the history and way of life in each of theses states I'm not too worried about it. We'll get to each of them eventually and in the mean time the boys are doing a wonderful job learning US geography.

W has also made up a game where he says, "How many states start with the letter (whatever letter he chooses)?" and then we have to figure out the answer. It never lasts long but it's fun to watch them come up with things like that on their own.

Hope you're having a wonderful day,

Free Online Geography Games

So the conversation went like this (well except for the fact that we called each other by name not initial):

Me: Hey, W, come check out this cool game I found.

W: Cool! What continents can you do?

Me: Well, this is the United States, it's in North America.

W: I know but what continent can I do? I want to do Africa.

J: Hey, can I play after W?

So what was it that captured our attention so fully? This online geography game by Owl and Mouse. I found it while checking out this blog, and I must tell you it's awesome. I'm 33, W is 8 and J is almost 6, and we all love it.

And yes, you can do Africa, along with China, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America and many others!

Arkansas

Did you know that Johnny Cash was born in

Kingsland, Arkansas??

It just made sense for us to focus a bit on Johnny Cash as part of our Arkansas study.

We love Johnny Cash!

So for Arkansas we listened to,

The Johnny Cash Children's Album

and a collection of hymns sung by Johnny Cash.

On a more serious note I read them the book,

Cracking the Wall

The Struggles of the Little Rock Nine

by Eileen Lucas

Alabama

Learning about Alabama was a great joy to us because we are also learning sign language and Helen Keller is from Alabama!

We read the book,

Helen Keller and the Big Storm by Pat Lakin

This is a level 2 reader so my 3rd grader was able to read out loud to us.


We also watched the movie,

The Miracle Worker

It is also about Helen Keller and more specifically her teacher, Annie Sullivan.

Fun with the 50 states!

This year we'll be learning a bit about the 50 states! Our goals are as follows:

• be able to locate the majority of the 50 states on a map
• watch a movie and/or read a book each week having to do with or being set in one of the 50 states
• learn a little general social studies in the process!

This will be a very laid back learning adventure, but I thought I'd share my book and movie selections here. I must give credit to

http://littleacornscds.blogspot.com/

This is where I began in my search for books. I then looked up the books in our local library system and only stuck with those I could get from there. Also please note that I have two boys and she has two girls so our selections will vary for that reason as well as basic personality differences and educational goals.

Alaska

This week we read a fun book about an explorer from what is now known as the Czech Republic. He traveled to Alaska and lived among the Eskimos. We loved this book! There is some debate about whether or not this explorer really did all that he said.

A Small Tall Tale From the Far Far North by Peter Sis

We also watched an animated short story called,

Alaska's Three Bears

It was cute, fun and educational!