Midwest States Week 2

This week is our last week learning about the Midwest. We were a bit more relaxed n our schooling since we had company staying with us this week. Here is what the kids and I did this week....


On Monday the kids learned about Minnesota by coloring a state info. page and adding it to their state notebooks. Then we looked at Grant Wood's paintings The Daughters of the Revolution and American Gothic.



On Tuesday we read about Missouri, colored a state info. page and learned about the Pony Express. We had learned about this two years ago during our horse unit so this was a bit of review. Then I had the boys pretend to be Pony Express riders on their bikes. My daughter would have joined in too but she was sick. What the boys had to do was to use the stick in their hand and spear and slice of toast with a hole cut out of it. The idea is from Konos. The boys had a lot of fun with this one and it was a great day to be outside.


On Wednesday we read about Iowa and made a popcorn garland for the birds while watching a movie about Tornadoes.


Thursday we spent a good time of our day learning about Buffalo. I found a great craft on the crayola site. What you do is take a brown grocery bag. Cut a large rectangle piece, crumple it real good and soak it in water for a time. Gently pull it out, squeeze it and leave it outside to dry in the sun. The brown paper is supposed to resemble leather. Once dry cut a buffalo shape. Sorry I don't have a template for you. I just free drew it from the crayola website as a guide. The kids traced, cut and designed theirs. Here is a sample...

Friday we read about the state of Nebraska and how soy is one of the leading crops grown in that state. This gave me another idea for a project to make. I had the kids write about all the crops grown in the Midwest and glue a few samples.

Here is a list of the books we read to go along with this unit this week....

-V is for Viking: A Minnesota Alphabet by Kathy Jo Warig

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

- S is for Show Me: A Missouri Alphabet by Judy Young

-Pony Express by Steven Kroll

-Welcome to the USA Iowa by Ann Heinrichs

-Buffalo by Phyllis Perry

-Soybeans: The Wonder Years by Leonard S. Kensworth

-Welcome to the USA Nebraska by Ann Heinrichs

-C is for Cornhusker: A Nebraska Alphabet by Rajean Luebs Shepherd