ABC and 123: A Learning Collaborative: Teaching with Ticia: Symbols of the United States and Delaware

Monday, June 6, 2011

Teaching with Ticia: Symbols of the United States and Delaware


Okay, I have to admit I don't have super a lot about the Symbols because we're mostly covering these as we come to them in that particular state, but I want to share a WONDERFUL resource online.  Here in Texas one of the required things to teach about in first and second grade is national symbols.  So, when I taught about this we did it as a webquest and the kids answered questions.
Uncle Ben's Guide to U.S. Government.  This does a great job of explaining everything at an age appropriate level, and from this site I was able to plan a fairly comprehensive study of the national symbols.


The one activity we've completed so far is the Liberty Bell, which you'll need an egg carton, popsicle stick, yarn, and paint.

It's fairly straight forward, cut one of the cups apart, and then paint it.  When the paint is dry punch holes near the top and string the yarn through.  Wrap the yarn around the popsicle stick, and voila you have your very own liberty bell, pre-crack.




DELAWARE

What I actually do is limited to what is at our library, so I'm going to tell you what I did, and then provide some other suggestions.  I'm also looking forward to anything you have to share because I'm sure there's a lot more that I don't know about.


Here's what our notebook page looked like:

left hand side: Me on the Map

Right hand side:
State animal page- horseshoe crab (link is to download)

We also made our own horseshoe crabs to play with from a milk carton bottom.





State symbols page- I tend to choose similar state symbols for every state, bird, tree, insect, mammal, fossil, flag, so the kids can get an idea of the similarities and differences.  For older kids it could be interesting to graph some of the state symbols.  It amazes me how many states have milk as their state beverage, and ladybug as their state insect.



Activities that did not have a lapbook component:



Read the book "Crab Moon," and created our own horseshoe crabs.  If you're planning on doing this make sure you start saving those milk cartons in plenty of time, because I almost didn't..........







Read the book "Canonballs and Cornstalks" and made their own "soldier" from a clothespin doll.  I tend to do this type of activity once every couple of state studies because it gives them something to reenact history with later on.  And clothespin dolls are cute.





Other things to study, which I didn't follow up on: ladybugs, Betsy Ross' flag was first flown in Delaware (tradition), make peach pie, Fenwick Island lighthouse, grey fox, mollusk



Many of these books weren't checked in when we studied Delaware, so I can't vouch for the content, but this is what I was able to come up with for my local library.

Now, it's your turn. Do you have any posts about Delaware or National Symbols to share? I'd love to see them.

4 comments:

  1. Well, we live very close to DE and go to church there. Some could teach about taxes, bc there is no sales tax there. Something that kids would love to learn about is the Pumpkin Chunkin. http://www.punkinchunkin.com/ They use giant machines to throw (catapult) pumpkins through the air. It's on tv and everything...in the fall of course.

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  2. We are born and raised and still living in Delaware...and well there really isn't much special about Delaware! LOL Delaware is tiny and 2 of 3 counties are mostly rural. Dairy farms and soybeans are big here, as well as chicken farms. Mountaire and Perdue are in Delaware. We have one big state fair once a year during the summer which is a huge hit and lots of fun and the Nascar race comes here twice a year. Hmmm peaches and strawberries are popular here we have a festival for each when they come in season...we also have an Apple Scrapple festival in the fall. Oh! Delaware scrapple is famous! It was even on Dirty Jobs how it's made! Scrapple is very popular in Delaware. Dover Air Force Base is a big "feature" for Delaware...it's an important base as those military who have died over seas come to the base here, I've heard. That's kind of sad though :-( That's all I can think of though!

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  3. I've loved that horseshoe crab craft ever since I saw it on Ticia's blog a few months back!

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  4. Found your blog through the list of the Top 50 K blogs: congrats!!

    I'm an author/illustrator of picture books & attempting to learn how to circulate my blog to a wider audience of teachers.... so I thought I'd come to the best to learn.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

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