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.

All About Totem Poles and Sight Word Dragon Story

Wednesday is Social Studies day and we are still learning about Canada. The next subject is totem poles used by Indians from Canada. This fits in nicely also to Caitlin learning about Native Americans. If you want a short reading about totem poles and directions to making your own totem pole, you click this link. If you have the time, and plan ahead unlike me, you could have your kids design a totem pole for your own family. I think that is a great idea. We are also on our second week of making our states lap books. This week is Georgia. You can design them any way you like to suit your child's age level. To find free printable states you can go here. The video is a cute way to help your kids learn sight words.


Lesson Plans For 10/27/10:

DJ:
Social Studies: Ancient Times chapter 7, map skills, plus above listed activities
Math: Division, mixed math
Spelling: Chapter six review
Sign Language

Caitlin:
Social Studies: As above
Spelling: List six
Math: Addition
Language Arts: Blends sk, finding words in pictures, long vowels
Printing Practice
Clock work, calendar work, skip counting, sight words