Today was Memorial Day in the United States. It is a day of rememberance for those who have died in service to our country. While my own children don't yet fully understand their freedom and the brave sacrifices that ensure it, we want them to begin to process the significance of remembering. In the midst of our yard work, camp fire, and family wiffle ball tournament we took some time to start an informal conversation about the holiday with a drawing activity.
Materials:
Magazines
Scissors
White Paper
Glue
Pencils
Colored Pencils
Objective:
Kids will reflect on how and why we observe Memorial Day
Activity:
Cut pictures from a magazine
Attach magazine cut outs to white drawing paper with tape or glue. Instruct children to create a scene showing what their character would be doing on Memorial Day based on their understanding of the holiday. Let the brainstorming, drawing, questions, and conversation begin.
Share pictures and discuss the ideas the kids are trying to portray. An obvious extension activity would be to write about the finished pictures or to add conversation bubbles to the pictures reflecting what the characters may be thinking or saying.
Outcome: With our own children the outcomes included: thoughtful conversation about what it means to remember, an interesting discussion about the differences between days of celebration and days of remembrance.; a richer understanding of our own family history and our great grandparent's contributions to our country's freedoms.
Arkansas was a state that our library didn't have much on so in our personal studies we weren't able to do as much, but I have some fun ideas to tell you about afterwards.
Rosie's Fiddle- the state instrument of Arkansas is the fiddle, and I found this wonderful book about a fiddle. Rosie challenges a visitor to a fiddling contest only to discover it's the Devil. After reading the story we wrote down how we would win in a challenge against the Devil.
Arkansas Flag- Most state flags have specific reasons behind their creation, but I'm not always able to find the reason behind them. In the case of Arkansas I was able to find some great resources on their state flag, and so we learned all about it and then made a flag to represent ourselves.
Diamond production- Arkansas is the only state in the contiguous United States that has a diamond mine, it's actually one of the big tourist draws for that state. So we did a lot of talking about what you can make with diamonds, and then made our own "jewelry."
Other ideas
Hot Springs- there are natural hot springs that are a big draw.
Bill Clinton- honestly I didn't have a good book about him at our library, which was rather shocking to me
MICHIGAN
Clever Beatrice- a set of tall tales from Michigan, if your library has a copy I highly recommend getting these tall tales. They're clever, well written, and highly entertaining. After reading them we worked on puzzles and brain games.
Log Cabin Quilt- We don't tend to think of Michigan as a frontier state, but once upon a time it was, and this book is set during that time. Most of the plot of this book revolves around chinking a cabin, filling in the empty space between logs. For our activity we drew what our cabin would look like if properly chinked.
And that was the TWO books I could find, as I said my library had practically nothing for these two states, so we had 2 activities for each of them. So, here's my other suggestions:
Make a car, Detroit is the car capital of the world
Kellogg's is based there. You could poll your students for favorite cereals. My kids don't like cereals which is why I didn't do this activity.
Ginger Ale was invented there. You could make a homemade soda using water, dry ice and lots of flavoring of your choice, then compare it to the traditional sodas you buy.
What would you do to study Arkansas or Michigan? These studies need some serious boning up, but my resources weren't able to do it, at least not without breaking my budget.
Hog Music- 'A little girl is sent a birthday present by her aunt, along the way things are added to her present to make it truly memorable.' After reading this we took the time to figure out what we would give her if we were sending a present cross country. It has to pack well and not break while traveling a long way. Our group came up with dolls, and hair ribbons, and the boys, of course, added in weapons.
Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers- 'A little girl writes a letter to presidential hopeful Abraham Lincoln encouraging him to grow a beard.' We stopped the book half way through, right after the letter was written and each of the kids wrote what they would suggest Mr. Lincoln do.
Popcorn- Illinois is known for its popcorn, and so we tried an experiment with soaking popcorn kernels in different liquids to see which would pop best.
Other ideas I didn't cover due to lack of time and or books to read:
Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan (born in Illinois), Wild Bill Hickock, Field Museum, Great Chicago Fire, the first McDonald's, Oreo cookies
Alabama
Sadly, our library only really had anything about Rosa Parks, so our study was rather short for Alabama.
Rosa Parks- After reading about Rosa Parks we talked about small ways we can right wrongs. Rosa Parks did by not standing up. Then we talked about it.
Helen Keller- This is one of those great stories about not giving up. If you have not read about Helen Keller, go out and read her life story. She is incredibly inspirational, and as a little girl I read her life story over and over again.
Last Mule of Gee's Bend- Gee's Bend helped with the Civil Rights movement in a small, but very important way. They provided the mules that helped pull Martin Luther King Jr's coffin. For a while I thought about having them show a way to honor someone, but instead decided a craft was called for, so we made mules, to help us remember the mules from Gee's Bend.
I always find research for these state studies interesting. I find out all sorts of things, for instance Indiana is another of the states President Lincoln lived in. Prior to starting researching I hadn't realized how much people moved around back then. I had thought it was a recent trend, but apparently it's just in the DNA of our country.
What's in the lapbook:
Indie 500- I've found that giving kids a chance to build with Legos and learn at the same time is a guaranteed buy in from them. The same was true this time as they built race cars and raced them.
A Place Called Freedom- This is a great story about the founding of Freedom, Indiana. After reading we took the time to plan out what our perfect city would look like on paper. If you have extra time, this would be a great time to pull out blocks and building supplies to design your town.
Raggedy Ann and Andy- I always wanted one, they're so cute. We did a lot of talking about what our perfect doll would look like and then made some fun paper dolls.
Non-lapbook projects
Floating House- Prior to reading this book, I hadn't really thought about the different ways people might have traveled West, and after reading this we talked about it a little, but then we made boats to take home.
MISSISSIPPI
student name is blurred
Projects in the lapbook
Stetson hats- There are two different ways to go with this topic. One would be to design your own hat for a specific purpose. I decided to go with the science behind felting. The kids all got a chance to turn some wool roving into felt, and discover it's not as easy as it looks.
Freedom School- During the Civil Rights movement many people came down South to teach the African Americans who hadn't been given equal schooling. This is a great example of the bravery of everyone involved in that movement, and what a rich heritage we have because of the many cultures coming into our country.
Mike Fink- Tall tales are funny things, back in the 1800s an over the top braggart who is a bully was popular. Now we read about him and think he's a bully and don't like him. He does make for great discussion, though, and after reading it I challenged them to draw their own rendition of what he fought.
How Steam Engines work- When I think of Mississippi I think of steamboats. But, how to make that into an activity for young kids? Well, obviously you need to look at the science behind it. Especially when you find a great video narrated by a seven year old.
Louisiana is a fun place to study. There is a lot of history, culture, and art to look at there. It's also a fun place to visit, which I discovered last spring when I spent a day or so driving through there.
What's on here:
My plan to save the levies- One of the things we talked about is the devastation Katrina had on New Orleans, and how we can work to prevent that. We talked through it, but since it was mostly talking I don't have any picture to go for that activity.
Down in Louisiana- I discovered a great Louisiana author who has several books set in various parts of Louisiana, this first one is "Down in Louisiana," a twist on a traditional song. The book is made in collage style and I encourage the kids to create a collage of different animals mentioned. They didn't always go with my plans and instead opted to draw their creations.
Chef Creole- This is an imaginative book using food from Creole culture to create a person. Again this book was done in collage style, and many of the kids opted to make collages, however this child did not. So, if you want to see other examples go to the full post.
The Blues music- I found a fun retelling of Bremen Town Musicians as the "Ol' Boogie-Woogie Blues Bayou," and my kids thoroughly enjoyed it. When paired with a blues song from Fantasia 2000, it led to a fun experiment in art. I have to say, any time I get to pull Gershwin music into school work is a win for me.
Other things not included in the lapbook because they were lost or misplaced:
State symbol book- I had fun pulling some ideas from the state symbols with Louisiana.
Crawfish- I always love to compare what is real in a fiction book with what isn't.
Jean Laffitte and the Big Ol' Whale- This was a fun opportunity to throw in some art projects. There's apparently several tall tales about this pirate, and he also participated in........
The Battle for New Orleans- which features Andrew Jackson from Tennessee. If I was writing this post a week later, I'd have a better post to link to about that battle, but we just finished doing our War of 1812 activity Friday.
And finally, I found this post amongst my pins and bookmarks about Louisiana, All Things Beautiful is working her way through the states and has a different take than I do on it, she does more cooking, and you have to try some of her recipes.
I was going to post on Ohio and Louisiana, but there were a lot of activities and books to go with Louisiana, and that would make this post extremely long, beyond my attention span..........
OHIO
First a sign language joke (I took 2 years in college), the sign for Ohio is "O" move your "O" higher. That may only amuse me, but it certainly amused me very much.
Included in the lapbook:
My Great Invention- Ohio is home to the "Invention Museum," which I would love to visit someday! I found a book called "Cromwell Dixon's Sky Cycle," all about a boy who loves to invent things. With my kids we created an invention with Legos, however this would also be a great time to break out your box of recyclables and let them create whatever they want. This activity lets you pull in several different disciplines (science-making a plan and experimenting, writing, what are your steps and how did you do it, math- measuring).
Covered Wagon- Early on Ohio was considered the "Great Wilderness," and it was brave to explore out there. We tend to think of wagon trains to Oregon or somewhere "out West," but once upon a time this was great wilderness. We had to fill our covered wagons with pictures of what we would bring. I tried to size it appropriate to the space, but that did not always work right.
Neil Armstrong- Neil Armstrong is from Ohio, and the book I found wrote all about how he planned and worked to achieve his plan of being a pilot and then an astronaut. I challenged the kids to think of what their goal is and how they would achieve it.
Trilobites- the state fossil. Afterwards I did a few google searches and found these ideas: trilobite masks and printable 3d trilobite and snack. Trilobites are on my things I find oddly amusing list.
Giant of Seville- This is a cute story about a small town, Seville, that helps a VERY tall man feel welcome in their town despite his not fitting any of the houses or buildings. A great story to talk about accepting people who are different than you, and how to work to help them fit in. An easy extension of this book is to measure out how tall the giant was and compare it to themselves.
Annie Oakley- my library had several books on her, but it did not work on the flow of our lesson to include her. I highly recommend reading a book about her and then comparing it to the musical about her "Annie Get Your Gun!" If you have boys with Nerf guns this would be a great chance to let them practice hitting targets like she did (toilet paper rolls make great targets).
Warm as Wool- You can use this an introduction to spinning wool, I found a great series of videos on this starting with "How a spinning wheel works."
What to do with State Symbol books
Graph them, this is the easiest thing to do with them. I joke that every third state has a ladybug as their state insect and the other two are either a butterfly or firefly. But, it makes for an interesting comparison. What is the most common state insect or flower?
Sort into classifications- Does every state have a state flower or fossil? Which states have what symbols?
Compare and Contrast- Venn Diagrams would be a great idea here. You can compare two neighboring states and see if they share any common symbols.
What would you do with them? I'm planning on graphing them, but I think we might go back and do a Venn diagram as an easy pictorial introduction.
I have to say, and I've probably said it several times, and will say it several more times, but these had some of my favorite books and activities.
KENTUCKY
What's SUPPOSED to be in the lapbook (my children lost/misglued some components):
Young Abraham Lincoln- This would be a great book to bring in if you're ever doing a tall tales unit, both of these states had some fun books like this. It would also be great if you're teaching 6+1 Writing for Voice. We concentrated on what is a friend. They each had to write 4 things that make a good friend, which was rather enlightening for me about my kids.
Mohammad Ali's catchphrase- If that man hadn't gone into boxing he would have made a lot of money in advertising with his ability to write a jingle.
Daniel Boone's Surveying Equipment- I found a fun book about Daniel Boone, but it was even more exciting to see his ACTUAL tools. It gave me a great chance to show the kids about primary sources when learning about history. Okay, so a first grader isn't going to absorb much of that, but it lays the groundwork.
Not pictured:
Night Boat to Freedom- Another great book about the Underground Railroad. Each night he would row someone across to freedom, and each night his grandma would ask "What color did they wear?" So, we drew what color we would wear to freedom.
Kentucky Horse Park- this park is a monument to all things race horse, and has a lot of information about the history of racing in Kentucky.
Books used:
TENNESSEE
Our library for whatever reason has some great resources for Tennessee: (going clockwise in a circle)
Swamp Angel- A unique tall tale because the main character is a girl. It was a fun story, and if you're inclined to do a writing unit for tall tales, Tennesse is a good state for it because I found several tall tales. We drew what we thought Tarnation (the bear from the book) looked like after Swamp Angel threw him into the sky.
Luck with Potatoes- Another great tall tale about a farmer who grows potatoes so big you can only fit one in your truck at a time. We drew/wrote what we found inside of our potatoes.
Casey Jones-We read a book about this train engineer and watched the Disney cartoon short as well. Afterwards we did a very simple comparison of the two. This would be a great chance to use a Venn Diagram and start working with that.
Andrew Jackson- We read a book about Andrew Jackson, and afterwards talked about his "kitchen cabinet," after talking for a while they all wrote down who they would have advise them.
Sequoyah- This was a wonderful book about the man who created a written Cherokee language. I always enjoy finding books that explore people who come from different cultures and how it made the American crazy quilt better. Our activity was to try and create our own alphabet like he did. I think a better activity might have been to concentrate on the illustration style in the book, which is fairly unique. My activity went over the kids' heads a little.
NOT INCLUDED in the lapbook:
Bluegrass music- We read an adorable book about bluegrass music and a loving grandma and listened to some music. Afterwards we made banjos.
MORE IDEAS:
Davy Crockett- I found a fabulous book about him, but honestly don't think my activity was all that great. I tried to find a good tutorial for making a coon skin cap for kids, but only turned up directions for making real ones. That's not so good.
I have to admit I'm a sucker for New York City because I visited there as a young girl and very much enjoyed seeing Ellis Island and seeing my first Broadway Musical. So, I really enjoyed looking for some fun ideas for it.
What's in the lapbook, as you can see it took a few pages to glue it into.
Norman Rockwell is from New York, and this was a fun writing activity. Write a story about the picture you got. I did a google search for the images and got more than I could use.
My Ideal Park- Teddy Roosevelt is from New York, my library did not have a good book about him, but it had a truly delightful book about his daughter with wonderful illustrations, and fabulous vocabulary. If you can find a copy of "What to Do about Alice?" I'd highly recommend it. Afterward we discussed Teddy Roosevelt founding the National Park system, and designed our ideal park (link to printable).
Under New York- This is a charming story about what there is under the city and the many layers. It was a great way to think about what is going on that you can't see. Inside the Under New York printable they drew what was going on under NYC.
Tenth Avenue Cowboy- A boy moves to NYC and dreams of growing up to be a cowboy, his dream comes true but not the way he planned. This was a great way to talk about dreams coming true in ways that aren't expected.
Statue of Liberty- I found a list of how tall different parts of the statue's body were. We went outside and measured it out. In my experience you can tell a kid how big something is, but until they've actually seen it measured out in real life they don't understand it.
Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt flapbooks- for these I used a picture I'd googled and had them write one sentence about each of the presidents. As I mentioned my library did not have any great books about either Roosevelt or their wives.
Building Manhattan- I used a photocopy of the final page of the book to create a timeline of what happened.
Back when I was in junior high I had to do a state study about North Carolina. I thought I was oh so clever and called it "Have you ever heard of the Tar Heel state?" My history teacher was not as amused and my grade was rather bland, probably a low B.
North Carolina is rather printable light......... That's being kind. The books for the state straggled in over the course of 2 months and I just was not able to cover them all.
Design your own plane- Obviously a very popular idea. Afterwards they really enjoyed flying them outside.
Best way to waterproof paper- North Carolina is known for exporting tar (hence the name Tar Heel state), so we enjoyed trying different ways of waterproofing paper.
North Carolina state symbols-I continued to be amused at what states pick for the state animals, surprisingly enough squirrel is not too common.
OTHER ACTIVITIES not in the book
Greensboro sit ins- my kids really enjoyed designing protest signs. I did not enjoy as much their deciding to protest later while circling and yelling loudly.
Blackbeard's Last Fight- Several states claim him, and since he plundered up and down the Southern United States it is valid, but he died in North Carolina, and so I put him here. The kids very much enjoyed making a puppet of him sinking.
I know there is a lot more I could do for New York, but we had spent three weeks on it, and I could tell the kids were getting antsy about it. For those of you who have visited there or live there what is your favorite thing in New York?
For some reason I love the state of Virginia. As a kid I was able to visit there once or twice and when I was pregnant with my daughter I got to visit Colonial Williamsburg, so it holds very happy memories for me. Also several of the people I admire from American history are from there. Needless to say I very much enjoyed this state.
Items for the lapbook:
Chincoteague pony-There are several books written about this island, including "Misty of Chincoteague," which would make a great read aloud. Afterwards they created what their ideal pony would look like.
George Washington- This is a 3 page book, and on each page they had to write something they learned from the two books we read about George Washington.
State Symbols booklet- I continue to be amused when states choose milk as their state drink.
My Dream Home- Thomas Jefferson designed Monticello himself. We simply folded a half sheet of paper in half and on the front drew the outside of the house, and inside drew what they would include in their house.
Patrick Henry- After reading David Adler's book we wrote down the 3 jobs he did and how well he did at them. It was a great way to emphasize even famous historical figures didn't succeed at first.
Robert E Lee- again this is a simple piece of paper folded in half, on the front is glued a painting of Robert E Lee I found with a Google search. Inside they wrote what they learned about Robert E Lee.
Confederate and Union Soldiers-These are from Junior General, a site which is great for reenacting battles so that kids are better able to understand history. I also printed off copies of the Monitor and the Merrimac, two historic ships from the Civil War.
Promise Quilt- This is a very cute story about a little girl who misses her Dad after he has gone off to fight in the Civil War. He promised her he would come back, but he died in a Union hospital. The story is how she works with her mother to make the last promise her Dad made come true. After reading this we made "quilt squares." This could be a great geometry lesson.
Things not in the lapbook:
"imprint of George Washington's teeth"- like in the story of "George Washington's Teeth" we made imprints of items using play dough. Of course in the actual book they made it out of plaster of paris.
Sparks Fly High- this is a fabulous folk tale, and I was not able to think of any good tangible activities to go with this, but we did have lots of fun dancing after reading this story. I highly recommend this story because it is very cute.
A Horse's Tale: Colonial Williamsburg- we played a game I have from a history book, but you could also go to the Colonial Williamsburg site and play any of the online games they have there. You can spend HOURS on this site.
Possible extensions:
Battle of Yorktown, Battle of Appomatox, Monitor and Merrimac, Underground Railroad, Martha Washington
Both South Carolina and New Hampshire were a bit of a struggle for me because my library had dribs and drabs of books, but they came in over the period of two months, and I couldn't do our studies that way, so they do not neccessarily have the best lapbooks, but there are some interesting activities.
South Carolina:
I'm going to go through this in order of the ones I found to be the best books:
Ron's Big Mission- This was one that came in later, but I wanted to be sure and include it because it is very well done and talks about segregation in an appropriate way for young children.
After reading this book about Ron McNair, who grows up to be an astronaut for NASA, we tried to fulfill his childhood dream talked about in the book of designing airplanes. My kids happily spent 30 minutes or so designing a very unflyable plane, which they tried to fly.
Shipwreck Search-The Hunley was the first submarine and was lost at sea during the Civil War. This book talks about all of the things scientists and historians did to try and bring up the Hunley.
Our activity was to reenact the scientists finding it. Buried in the bowl was a toy car, "the Hunley," and several other false objects. The goal was to find the Hunley without ever putting their hands in it.
Another activity you could do is measure out the Hunley and think what it would be like to be on the sub. It was very small and cramped and would be eye-opening for the kids to walk through.
Freedom Ship- No photographs because we mainly read it and looked at a map of that time. I used the map from here, and we discussed how difficult it would be to sneak on board the ship and stay quiet.
Champions on the Bench- a great book for any kids who are baseball fans, and another great book on segregation. The kids understood how the boys on that baseball team felt when they weren't allowed to play because of their skin color. I felt that any activity afterwards would cheapen the impact of the book with my group, but it could be an excellent time to write or talk about how to treat others.
These two there were no specific books, though we did read Freedom Ship to go with Fort Sumter because they sailed past it.
Francis Marion was a Revolutionary War Soldier who fought with guerilla war tactics and drove the British soldiers crazy. Disney did a very good mini-series on him in the sixties, which I linked to above. It's well done enough that my entire group enjoyed watching it, and that includes my daughter at 4, all the way up to a 5th grade boy.
Both of these are important to South Carolina history, but MY library did not have any good books for them.
If you have any suggestions of activities or field trips for South Carolina, I'd LOVE to see them because I feel we didn't give this state full credit because of what we had available at the time.
New Hampshire:
Granite Baby- this is a cute tall tale from the state of New Hampshire about some sisters who are larger than life and best at everything, except taking care of babies.
After reading the story we tried to carve something like they did in the book. Except we carved ours out of soap which can be "carved" using soap knives.
Tuttle's Red Barn- is the true story of a family barn, that has been in their family for over 400 years. It's a great way to introduce and teach timelines, and that is what we used this book to introduce.
Afterwards I had scanned a picture from each time period and they cut them out and put them on a sentence strip in order.
The Bear who Heard Crying- a "true story," according to legend about a young girl who was lost for four days and when found told about the 'big puppy' who kept her safe.
Afterwards I gave the kids a piece of green cardstock to draw a forest on. I cut four windows that can be opened and behind those four windows they drew different things from the forest and one of them held the bear and the girl.
This last activity has no picture, but would work very well in a classroom. We read some of the potato books and talked about our favorite ways to eat potatoes. I had gotten several people to share their favorite way to eat potatoes on Facebook, and we graphed it and answered several questions about it. Obviously this would work very well in a classroom because you have a large group to query built in.
New Hampshire felt like it went better, but again it feels like we could have done more. I probably will feel like that with any state we can cover in one week, though.
I had originally planned on writing about Maryland and South Carolina together, but that ends up with Virginia with New Hampshire, and Maryland had several books that I'd highly recommend. So, I'm separating it out. So, November will be South Carolina and New Hampshire
.
Here's what in theory is on these pages, but my kids were a little creative in their gluing.... Not a bad thing in most cases, just a little disorienting when you're trying to share how it should look.
A pastel drawing based off of Tiny's Hat, a story about Billie Holiday's childhood, yes his is all blue. He likes blue A LOT. I really enjoyed this book for several reasons, one because of the illustrations and the jumping off point to try a different type of art. Also because it talks about sad things that happen sometimes, and kids need a chance to talk through scary things like that.
A map of the slave versus free states to illustrate how hard it was for Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman to escape, but it also showed how they had it easier to escape than a slave living in South Carolina or another deep South state. I wish I'd had a better activity to go with these two books, so I'd love suggestions.
A pop-up picture of the Baltimore fires. This is a great book for anyone who is an animal lover, and the illustrations are very well done, and it has the added benefit of being a true story.
And finally a picture of the battle in front of Baltimore that resulted in the writing of "The Star Spangled Banner."
We also read, but there aren't good activities to go with these, so we just talked about them.
Molly Bannaky- I enjoy finding books that also highlight where the colonists treated people of other races fairly because I think it's important for them to see the good and the bad. This is also interesting because it is a female colonist as the main character.
God Bless the Child- book with CD of Billie Holiday's lyrics. When possible I try to find music that is representative and came from that state. Also, I like Jazz music.
Coal Country Christmas- would be a great book to pull out at Christmas time and talk about what you have and what you can give.
Battle for St. Michael's- a great story about how the small American town tricked the more powerful British navy.
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