States & Regions: Washington State

Sunday December 2, 2007


This week our family learned about the Emerald state Washington. There just was so many fun things and ideas to do with this one. On Monday, the kids learned about airplanes. Boeing is a large company in Washington. After we learned about how airplanes are able to stay up in the air we made paper airplanes. Luckily, Chip had a book to show us step by step ways to make some great airplanes. My daughter Coco's plane flew the furthest.

On Tuesday we learned about the fascinating life of a Pacific salmon. Did you know that they can survive in both fresh and salt water? During their growing up years as a small fry they travel from the fresh water to the ocean. After a few years they return to the same very fresh water spot to lay their eggs. To imagine their journey against the rough current of the Pacific ocean is remarkable in itself.


I had the kids make a mini folding book of the Pacific salmon life cycle. We also used the inexpensive fish here to identify body parts and for a stamp art activity. It was a smelly project but if you ever get the opportunity give it a try. The stamp prints we got of the fish scales were great.
















Baba, my youngest boy, it was too difficult for him to decide he loved them all. Coco loved pink lady. Chip liked granny smith and Fuji.

Thursday, we had fun with our co-op friends learning about volcanoes in our home. The cascade range runs through the state of Washington and it extends through Oregon and northern California. Mount St. Helen is found on this range in Washington. There are three basic types of volcanoes shield, cone and composite. Mount St. Helen is a composite volcano. It produces explosive eruptions. We learned about the 1980 eruption and how a volcano. The younger kids got to make a large clay volcano while the older ones learned about how volcanoes work. After lunch all of us had fun watching our volcano erupt.

Here are the books that we read this week:

-E is for Evergreen A Washington Alphabet by Marie & Roland Smith

-Volcanoes! Mountains of fire by Eric Arnold

-Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens by Patricia Lauber

-The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall

-Why Can Airplanes Fly? by Marian B. Jacobs

-Washington in Words and Pictures by Dennis Fradin

-See How it Works: Planes by Tony Potter

-Welcome to the U.S.A. Washington by Ann Heinrichs

-Applesauce by Shirley Kurtz

-Apples & How they Grow by Laura Priscoll

-Salmon by Elma Schemenauer

Next week, we are learning about Oregon.