It's always a great day when you can combine various ways of learning about a subject, especially with kids who are more visual and hands on learners. For a number of weeks, the kids have been learning about the 50 States. Recently, we added a new tool to our arsenal of learning, the USA Activity Bundle from The Crafty Classroom.
The Crafty Classroom offers a large array of downloadable products, craft projects, and classroom ideas to help with your elementary homeschool needs.
U.S.A. State-By-State Activity Notebook - Fifty notebooking pages that combine visual representations of state flags, state birds, state flowers along with areas to fill in other state facts.
U.S.A. State-by-State 50 State Mazes - Challenging black line puzzles help familiarize students with the shapes of each state.
U.S.A. State Bird Art Cards - 27 various birds (as some states share claim to the same birds) are represented, allowing notebooking basic facts, coloring cards, and memory matching cards.
How We Used The USA Activity Bundle
This product turned out to be so much fun for the kids, especially Ashleigh who enjoys anything where she can color. Adding this to our current curriculum was simply and added very little preparation on my end. I just printed out the papers that we wanted each week and the kids were more than happy to work on them.
I decided to add these to our Friday lessons. Most of the week, we tend to have a pretty curricular heavy schedule but on Fridays we tend to only have a few lessons. Each week, we would add one state to our lesson, taking the time to look up the information we didn't already know or pull up a photograph or graphic for the kids to use as a guide to color flags, flowers and birds.
While Garrett isn't one much for coloring, the images on the print outs are large enough that he doesn't seem to mind doing them. The boxes are a big small for his writing, but that's only because Garrett tends to write quite big. Extra notebooking lines towards the bottom of the activity book sheets were perfect for writing the name of each state's state song.
Also included in the Activity Notebook are two games: USA Bingo and Roll Across America. Both games help to review what has been learned.
Bingo includes 8 player cards, each with states in which students place markers over when a state is called.
Roll Across America involves rolling a dice and moving the number of places indicated on the dice. When the player lands on the state, they must say the name of the state (older students can be asked to name the state as well as it's capital). If unable to answer correctly, they return to the spot in which they were originally. Bonus spots require them to answer a question, like naming the 13 original colonies. First player to make it to the end of the board wins.
Ashleigh really enjoyed the Bird Cards.. These combine notebooking and coloring together to allow students to become familiar with each of the official state birds. Notebooking lines allow for writing out simple facts about each bird. In our case, we would document where the bird nested (ground birds, tree birds, rock birds) and simple facts like the size of the bird and if it was considered a songbird or not. The bottom section can be used as a matching game where you pair the picture of the bird along with it's name.
However, without a doubt, the mazes were probably Garrett's favorite part of these activities. (Ashleigh preferred the bird cards and activity sheets). These mazes are challenging and are not straight forward, with lots of twists and terns and dead ends as they weave in and out the tracks from one end of the state to the other. They were easily printed on the back of the activity sheet for the corresponding state, saving paper.
These resources can be used in so many different settings, easily fitting into an American geography or history course or just as a fun activity that also includes a large amount of learning.
For more information about The Crafty Classroom and the USA Activity Bundle, be sure to visit their website. You can also find them on the following social media platforms:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Crafty-Classroom-121821161222656/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CraftyClassroom
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/craftyclassroom/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecraftyclassroom/
Also, be sure to read the other reviews from the Crew Members. In addition to the USA Activity Bundle, members were also offered to review Alphabet Curriculum Notebook, Bible ABC Curriculum Notebook for preschool students, Learn to R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook and R.E.A.D. Review Pack for Kindergarten students, and How to Write a Paragraph for older elementary students.
Fun pack! I have three girls and I think, after reading your descriptions, each child would like a different ebook. What a neat set. - Lori
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