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

States & Regions: Midwest Week 1

We are now back to learning about the 50 states once again. The midwest section or otherwise known as the heartland of America or the Breadbasket. We had to condense some this week in our learning due to the Presidents holiday on Monday. I will give you a quick review of our week.

Tuesday we played hookey with friends in the afternoon. There was a field trip scheduled that day to a farm but it was canceled due to rain. We met up with a friends at Mc Donalds to have the kids burn off some energy.

Wednesday I read some books on North and South Dakato. The kids did their state pages for each of these. I attempted to read them a book on Mount Rushmore but they were misbehaving so I had them each read a book and recite back to me and color a page of Mount Rushmore. They were not happy with this they love to relax and hear Mom read. Hopefully they will learn for next time.

Thursday was our Konos co-op day. The pictures that you see here are from it. The kids learned about corn. They had to label a corn plant and a kernel. The kids disected a kernel and looked at it under a microscope. This was so cool. My friend has a microscope that displays the picture on her TV set. The kids enjoyed seeing the germ up close. Then she had the older kids calculate how many kernels were on an ear of corn. She pointed out that this is useful for farmers when calculating how much their farm will produce.

After lunch she read a book about Mount Rushmore. My oldest son was well prepared having had to read the Mount Rushmore book the day prior. Then she had the kids reconstruct Mount Rushmore out of clay. It was a fun day of learning with friends.

Friday the kids learned about Kansas. They learned wheat products by searching our cupboards for items of wheat. I plan on doing a little more with wheat next week as we continue or midwest studies. We still need to watch Wizard of Oz for some added fun.

Here are the book list that we read this week:

- Welcome to the USA - Ann Heinrichs

- River Friendly River Wild -Jane Kurtz

-Welcome to the USA South Dakota -Ann Heinrichs

- Rushmore - Lynne Curlee

-The Cabin Faced West -Jean Fritz

-Farming - Gail Gibbons

-S is for Sunflower: A KAnsas Alphabet - Devin & Corey Scillian

- Corn Belt Harvest- Raymond Bial

- Climbing Kansas Mountains- George Shannon

God's Blessings to you. Have a great week learning with your kids. Enjoy a piece of bread or some corn and thank those midwest farmers for all their hardwork.