Teaching with Ticia: Rhode Island and Vermont

I apologize for being late getting this post out this morning.  We've been sick for most of February and I got distracted enjoying our first non-sick days in two weeks.

So, here we go:

Rhode Island

I figure it is rather apt that Rhode Island is a small state, so I found only a few things on it in our library.

Nathaniel Greene- He was a Revolutionary War hero and has many different roads, cities, and schools named after him.  However our library had nothing on him, so I designed something from Wikipedia.  Does anyone have some book suggestions for him?

Rhode Island State Symbols-Rhode Island is one of the few states that has fairly unique state symbols.

Finding Providence-This is a great book about the founding of Rhode Island.  If you are Christian it's a great opportunity to talk about your faith and having trust in God.  Our activity for this book was to write down how we can know God's Will in our lives.

Carousels- There are some great carousels in Rhode Island, or so I've been told.  We read "Carousel Cat," but "Feivel's Flying Horses" is supposed to be about the actual carousels Rhode Island is famous for, it was sadly checked out at the time we were studying Rhode Island.

Other Activities:

Study clams- there are many interesting things you can learn about how they are formed and how they make pearls.  This could be followed up by trying clams.

Make a "Cabinet-" this is the state drink.  It's supposed to be quite good from what people have emailed me.

Vermont

I was very lucky to find some GREAT books for Vermont.

Tricking the Tally Man- This is a very cute book that is a combination of local legend and truth.  My opinion leans more towards legend.  Afterwards we "tallied" the people in the different towns. This was a great way to work on making tally marks.

Champy- Vermont has a legend that Lake Champlain has it's own version of the Loch Ness Monster, Champy.  While there are books about this animal available, they weren't available to me, so I used Stephen Kellog's book "The Mysterious Tadpole," which is really about the Loch Ness Monster.  Afterwards we drew what we thought Champy looked like.

Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream- Any activity that includes eating ice cream is a hit.  We read about how ice cream is made and then discussed the unusual names Ben and Jerry's uses.  Afterwards we came up with our own flavors and created our own unusual names.

Nora's Ark- About 80 years ago Vermont had some very bad flooding that resulted in several towns being washed away.  This story is how one family was able to save many of the people in their town because of where their house was located.  After reading we tried to fill our houses as full as Nora's house was.

John Deere- He was born in Vermont, but the factory is actually located in Illinois, so you could also study him there.  I didn't figure all of this out until I was looking up more information for him later.

After reading a rather compicated book book about tractors by Gail Gibbons, one of the few times I didn't like her book, we created our own farming vehicle to help farmers.  The kids all enjoyed this activity.  If you were doing this at home you could have them create it out of recyclable material.

Vermont State Symbols- I always find amusing when I find an ocean animal as the state fossil.  I don't know why.

Additional Activities:

Apple Pie-Vermont has a state pie, apple pie.  So you could make an apple pie.

Justin Morgan had a Horse- If you have older kids, this is a great book for a 3rd/4th grade kid.  It's all about the original Morgan Horse, Vermont's state horse.

Books Used in Both Units:

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