How the States Got their Shapes - Study Guide Season 1 Episode 9

The boys and I have been watching the History Channel Series How the States Got Their Shapes.  It's pretty interesting show about the geography of the United States.  You can currently watch the shows on Netflix and you can purchase them to view from Amazon.  You can also purchase the DVD series.  We fortunately have Netflix. 

I am working on study sheets for the boys to work on while they are watching the episode. I thought I would share these with our readers, since they are not easily found. 

Watch, I will be posting them weekly.  You can also find them on our How the States Got their Shapes Page.

Here is:

Season 1: Episode 9 - Culture Clash

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Our visit to the State of Washington

Some fun facts we learned about Washington:

• The most rain any place in Washington ever got in one day was 14.26 inches at Mt. Mitchell in 1986.



• The highest place in Washington is Mt. Rainier, which is 14,410 feet above sea level.



• Washington is the only state to be named after a president.



• The state flower is the Coast Rhododendron.



• The state tree is the Western Hemlock.



• The state bird is the Willow Goldfinch.



• The state fish is the steelhead trout.



• The state dance is the square dance.



• The state fruit is the apple.



• The state fossil is the Columbian Mammoth (and a group of fourth-graders from Windsor Elementary in Cheney worked with the state Legislature to make this happen!).



• The state marine mammal is the Orca (and a group of students from Crescent Harbor Elementary in Oak Harbor worked with the state Legislature to make this happen!).



• The state vegetable is the Walla Walla sweet onion.



• The state capitol is Olympia. Native Americans who lived here for generations called it “The Black Bear Place.”



• The Space Needle in Seattle is 605 feet tall.



• Washington has five major volcanoes as part of the Cascade Range: Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens.



• The Centennial Trail that goes from Spokane to Coeur d'Alene is 69 miles long.

 We were going to make apple pie, but ended up making hot buttered apple juice with cinnamon.

 Finding Washington on our File folder game.

 Caty loves this part of school.  She is coloring her Willow GoldFinch.

We also watched videos of events that happened at Peace Arch International Park.



And learned more about the World's Largest Concrete Power Dam, Grand Coulee Dam.  Lydia argued with me that it really isn't a dam...because only wooden dams built by beavers could be called a dam.  Too funny, she was on the side of the beavers!!!



Did you know that Washington is the home of temperate rainforests?  What a great way to add some science to Geography!!  Great discussions had about this topic.

We didn't get a chance to do a major project this week.  But we learned some cool things about Washington!

Next week....Ohio!

US Geography - The Hoosier State (Indiana)

The week we learned about the State of Indiana.

Indiana Facts:

Capital--Indianapolis

State bird -- Cardinal (the pretty red one is the boy and the brown one is the girl...that is what Bug told me)

State flower -- Peony (one of many)

State tree -- Poplar (one of many)

Became the 19th State in 1816.

Well known for Indy Racing.

We watched some You Tube clips of last years Indy race.  Joey enjoyed it, a bit.  But he said he preferred Cars 2 instead.

They watched the clip while working on their drawings.

To help draw the Indiana Flag---and all 19 stars---we cheated a bit and used gold reward stickers to complete our flags.

The kids picked out homemade apple butter and fried biscuits...a southern Indiana treat we read about as their state meal.  They did not like apple butter, but did enjoy the fried biscuits which were kind of like doughnuts.

Here's some of our finished drawings.

I found that file folder game at Dollar Tree several months ago.  It's a great portable map.  Wish I had 3, but only have 2.  May stop tomorrow and see by chance they may have more.  We haven't added the actual game part yet.  Waiting until we get some more states studied.

Next state we are studying is Washington.  Brayden randomly picked it out.  But we will take a week off from State Geography to study Sweden for our World Travelers Geography Club next week. 

US Geography - The Volunteer State (Tennessee)

So I found this AWESOME series of Books at Timberdoodle.  I have 2 kids that love to draw.  So what better way to keep attention is to teach State Geography and History information with a drawing book.  I also found this other book at a sale somewhere...I'm sorry, I don't remember where.

Since we were in Tennessee last week with Daddy for work, we started with Tennessee.  Especially worked out niced since we were near the State Capital.

We learned about state seals and flags.  We also worked on drawing pictures of the State tree and flower.  Daily we quizzed each other about certain Tennessee facts. 

We visited the State Capital...

We looked at the earliest settlers....even before the the frontier folk.  This museum allowed us to look at nomadic life (was able to tie it into our History unit in Story of the World...whoohoo!).

We learned there were 3 presidents that called Tennessee Home.  We were able to visit The Hermitage, which was Andrew Jackson's home.

When we got home, I made a Tennessee Meal.  I was going to go with BBQ beef over mashed sweet potatoes.  But Joey chose a recipe we found called, Tennessee Steak Soup.


Tennessee Steak Soup

Here's what in our version (because I cannot cook with broth, onions or garlic).

1.5 lbs Ground round
diced celery and carrots
1 can of organic diced tomatoes
3 cans of water

I sauteed the beef and drained it.  I sauteed the carrots and celery in coconut oil until slightly soft.  Added the veggies to the meat.  Dumped in the tomatoes and then added 3 cans of water.  Let it simmer for about 15 minutes to allow the carrots to finish cooking.  I also added salt and pepper.  That is something you can do to taste.  You can also add onions and garlic to your taste.  Also diced white potatoes.  Just adjust your cooking time.  Instead of water, use beef broth and you can also add worchester sauce. 

This was yummy. (Even my blander version.)

And now we are off to visit....Indiana.