The Wild Wild West 6th Grade Homeschool History

Science, and History were the two subjects that I still had to decide for my daughter, who will be in 6th grade next year. So, I finally decided on the West. The Wild West, history of how the western states came to exist, and Geography of that area. Below you will find the resources I found so far, for this class. I am sure Little House on the Prairie would work too, but she hates it and doesn't want anything to do with it. Netflix has a streaming series called the West, which is a PBS show. We will be watching that. Now, I still have to decide for Science. I do have an older book I might just go ahead and use, not sure.

http://www.wildwesthistory.org/
http://www.historynet.com/magazines/wild_west
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/lesson_plans/
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tsl/archives/04-1/lesson033.shtml
http://www.50states.com/
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/06/50-u-s-states-got-names/

Learning the States the Fun Way

I saw on Pinterest where another homeschool mom made a sight word game using popsicle sticks. I was just talking to a friend the other day about Geography, the states, capitals and other generalized topics. I had stated how I felt we were ignoring learning the states and capitals, mainly because it is so boring. I have tons of popsicle sticks lying around. Mostly because we do a lot of crafts. I was going to throw them away, but then I decided to make a stick game with them. So, today, and this was way more time consuming than I expected, I took on the task of writing on 50 popsicle sticks. On one side I wrote the state and the abbv. for that state. On the other side, I wrote the year it became a state and the capital. Then I placed them in a clean pizza sauce jar with 50 states written on it. You can see the results in the image. Since we have a states wall map they will have to find the state and the capital. We probably won't start this until after the Christmas holiday. If I can squeeze it in sooner I will. You could do this daily, or weekly, however you want. It is a great memorization tool. You could do this for multiplication, skip counting, sight words, spelling, etc. Be creative with it. If your child is having a hard time learning something, or is just bored to death, try something different and new. That is the beauty of homeschooling. And popsicle sticks are cheap and you could recycle the container. Matter of fact you could go into a lesson about recycling at the beginning of using your new jar game. Huh think of that.

2013/2014 History Curriculum

Continuing with my curriculum posts.  We are now up to History.  DJ will be doing American History through FLVS for 8th grade.  Caitlin will be doing several different unit studies, 19 so far, plus using the extra homeschool resources at the end of this post. 

8th Grade History Curriculum

Exploration and Discovery
US History
Meaning of Democracy
Our American culture
US political system
US economic system
US government
US geography
Advanced map and globe skills

4th Grade History Curriculum

Types of community life
History and development of Florida
World cultures
Reasons for our laws
Regions of the world
Earth's resources
Climatic regions of the world
Map skills
Using a globe
Knowing my place in the world


Extra Resources To Be Used With History Curriculum:

http://www.mission-us.org
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu
http://www.seterra.net
http://www.mrnussbaum.com
http://www.funbrain.com
http://www.icivics.org
http://www.youtube.com
http://www.50states.com
http://www.nationalgeographic.com
http://www.ushistory.org
http://www.egsc.usgs.gov

Brainpop free app for android tablets and phones.

History Of The Everglades 4 Parts

As part pf our 4th grade history curriculum, we will be studying the history of Florida. I am adding videos, to save for later use. Please watch, and enjoy them, they are quite interesting.

Supply and Demand, Economics For Kids

Today for Social Studies, our lesson is Serve it up economics. Here are two supplemental lessons you can add to your existing lesson. The video below is one, and two is here I like the Learning Haven website. I found it last year, when making our curriculum, then I forgot about it. They have tons of lessons, and ideas for teaching History, and Social Studies. The other website I want to share is I Know That This website was made aware to me, by a member of our playgroup. It is all educational games, in all subjects for kids up to age 12. My kids love the History, and Science games especially the deep sea diving. Check it out, it is free, and awesome.



Lesson Plans for 06/04/09:

Math: Division patterns, multiplication
Writing: Concepts of a paragraph
Language Arts: Sentence practice, Capital City
Spelling: Lesson 34- put your spelling words in alphabetical order
Vocabulary: Lesson 34- Write each vocabulary word and meaning two times each

School ends on June 10th, all days are 1/2 days that week.

History of Memorial Day, Investigating Inventors

Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis, know that I like to use videos as an addition to our lesson plans. This day is no different. Memorial Day, is next Monday. Do you know why we celebrate Memorial Day? Why did it start, how did it start? Watch the short video below to find out. I am looking for a more complete video, but anyone who searches for info, knows it takes a great amount of time. Also tomorrow, for Social Studies we are studying inventors. I picked Benjamin Franklin to start with. Watch the short video below, to learn about this great American inventor.






Lesson Plans for 5/20/09:

Math: Graphs, fast facts
Writing: You are a butterfly coming out of your cocoon
Concepts of a paragraph
Language Arts: spellamadoodle, adjectives
Social Studies: Investigating inventors, history of Memorial Day
Spelling: Lesson 32- write each spelling word and circle the vowels
Vocabulary: Lesson 32- Use each vocab word in a sentence.

Explorers and Pioneers Social Studies

Social Studies tomorrow will focus on Explorers, and Pioneers namely Lewis and Clark. I have a themed unit that you can get for free as well, from School Express. Of course I love to add videos to add additional learning material, and options for learning. There are two parts, both about 8 minutes long. History was one of my weakest subjects in school, mostly because I had no interest. Now I wish I had paid more attention, there is so much I either do not remember, or just do not know.





Lesson plans for 3/4/09:

Writing: Write a short fairy tale
Math: Pictographs, probability, multiplication, division
Language Arts: Subjects, there, their and they're
Spelling: Lesson 23 write each spelling words two times each
Vocabulary: Lesson 23 use each vocabulary word in a sentence
Spanish: review

The History Of Communication

One of the things my son will be learning, in 3rd grade, is the history of communication. I spent countless hours, trying to find material for a 3rd grader, to cover this topic. It was not included in the 3rd grade history book I purchased. Anyway after spending alot of time searching, I was finally able to find several options. If this is part of your curriculum this year, check them out, and use them at your will. They are all free.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_history_of_communication.htm this is a timeline graph from the beginning to modern day communication.

http://homeschooling.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=homeschooling&cdn=education&tm=2&gps=142_66_1362_583&f=00&tt=13&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.pbs.org/blackpress/educate_event/lesson1.html This one is a lesson plan for the effectiveness of both positive and negative communication.

http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=192831 From Biography.com a biography on Alexander Graham Bell, that is geared towards young learners. You can print the article, and make questions, for your homeschooler to take.

Please feel free to use any of these free options, for your history of communication topic. If you have any you would like to share, please feel free to do so.