Florida

 For Florida the kids especially enjoyed learning about manatees, the Everglades, and the Kennedy Space Center. And with this post we are now "caught up," as we are finishing up our Georgia unit currently and still need to figure out an art project!

Books:

• S is for Sunshine: A Florida Alphabet

• Florida (A True Book: My United States) by Tamara Orr

• Everglades by Jean Craighead George

• Everglades National Park (Rookie National Parks) by Karina Hamalainen

• The Seminoles (A First Americans Book) by Virginia Driving Haw Sneve

• Osceola : Seminole warrior (1994) by William R. Sanford, 

• Or: Osceola Seminole Warrior by Joanne Oppenheimer (1979)

• She Sang Promise: The Story of Betty Mae Jumper, Seminole Tribal Leader by: J.G. Annino

• Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

• National Geographic Reader: Manatees by Laura Marsh

• Manatee winter by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld

• Marjory Saves the Everglades: The Story of Marjory Stoneman Douglas By Sandra Neil Wallace

• Zora!: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston By Dennis Brindell Fradin, Judith Bloom Fradin

• Not really a kids book but we used the photos

• Jump at the Sun: The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston by Alicia D. Williams 

• Just published so wasn't available, but looks good for future reference

• Kennedy Space Center: Gateway to Space by David West-Reynolds

• Not a kids book but looks like it has a bunch of pictures

Art Project:

Space Shuttle Launch Art

The kids wanted their art project to depict a space shuttle launch from Kennedy Space Center. They specifically chose to picture their favorite shuttle, the Endeavour, as they have visited it a number of times at the California Science Center. We did a google image search for space shuttle launch photos and designed our art from the photos. The art is our favorite mixed media formula: sharpie (for outlines and detials), oil pastel (for the smoke and orange fuel tank), and water colors (for the fire stream and sky), applied in that order (after a pencil sketch of course).

Delaware

Our timing was lucky -- President Biden's inauguration happened to fall during our 2-week Delaware unit. So even though we didn't find as many books for our Delaware unit, we had plenty of civics lessons to talk about. 

Books:

• F is for First State: A Delaware Alphabet

• Horseshoe Crabs and Shorebirds: The Story of a Foodweb by Victoria Crenson

• Delaware (A True Book: My United States) by Melissa McDaniel

• Caesar Rodney's Ride by Jan Cheripko 

• Joey: The story of Joe Biden by Jill Biden

• Annie Jump Cannon, Astronomer by Carole Gerber

• The Delaware Colony by Kevin Cunningham

• High Tide for Horseshoe Crabs by Lisa Kahn Schnell

• When the Shadbush Blooms by Carla Messinger (about the Lenape who lived all up and down the Atlantic seaboard including Delaware)

Art Project:

Delaware Blue Hens

Our art project for Delaware depicts Delaware Blue Hens (the state bird, and mascot of the University of Delaware) underneath a bough of peach blossoms (the state flower). We did not find an existing art project online so we just designed it based on this art piece we found on Zazzle during a google image search for Delaware Blue Hen art. Sketched in pencil as usual, then the hen was outlined in sharpie. Oil pastel for the comb and beak, water color for the body, ground cover, and sky. One girl used watercolor for the blossoms and leaves with sharpie for the branch and stamen, the other chose to use oil pastel for all but the stamen (which were sharpie).

Connecticut

My 2nd graders now know how to spell Connecticut by pronouncing it dragged out as "connect-i-cut." The more things change, the more they stay the same. If we ever visit CT we now know we'd like to see the Mark Twain house, visit the Mystic Seaport Museum, and hopefully catch some fall foliage. 

Books:

• N is for Nutmeg: A Connecticut Alphabet

• Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers by Jean Fritz

• My Heart Glow: Alice Cogswell, Thomas Gallaudet, and the Birth of American Sign Language by Emily McCully

• Mark Twain: An American Star by Elizabeth McLeod

• (he lived the end of his life in CT; we may bring him up again for Missouri [birthplace] or one of the locations where Huck Finn takes place).

• Who Was Mark Twain? by April Jones Prince

• Noah Webster and His Words by Jerri Chase Ferris

• Yankee Doodle America: The Spirit of 1776 from A to Z by Wendell Minor 

• A Kids' Guide to the American Revolution by Kathleen Krull

• This one is text heavy but could be a good resource.

• Who Was P.T. Barnum by Kirsten Anderson

• Welcome to Felicity’s World, 1774 by Elizabeth Gourley

• Life During the Revolutionary War by Bonnie Hinman

• Eli Whitney by Karen Bush Gibson

• Native Peoples of the Northeast by Barbara M. Linde

Art Project:

New England Fall Foliage

Partially because it was seasonally appropriate when we reached CT, and partially because fall foliage does seem to be iconic, we decided to do art work to depict this. I found this project online. We did not have acrylic paints as suggested, so we first sketched the tree outlines in pencil, then filled in the trunks / branches with brown oil pastel, then watercolored the sky light blue, and finally used tempra paints and q-tip bundles for the leaves / grass as described on the project page. They came out really cool looking, as you can see.

Colorado

 One of the lovely things about this state project has been seeing the kids get very interested in the landscape and nature of different places around the country. They are getting bit by the travel bug and very much want to see the places we've learned about. Colorado, of course, provided lots of nature to be impressed with.

Books:

• C is for Centennial: A Colorado Alphabet

• High As A Hawk by T. A. Barron

• Rocky Mountain National Park (Rookie National Parks) by Lisa M. Herrington

• Florence Sabin: Teacher, Scientist, Humanitarian (Now You Know Bio) by E. E. Duncan 

• Or: Florence Sabin by Robin Campbell

• Ben Nighthorse Campbell : Cheyenne chief and U.S. senator by Henry, Christopher E

• The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin (Amazing Scientists) by Julia Finley Mosca and Daniel Rieley

• Dinosaur Mountain by Deborah Kogan Ray

• Dropping In On Denver by Hilarie Staton

• Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde by Caroline Arnold

• Purple Mountain Majesties by Barbara Younger

Art Project:

Colorado mountain scape

For Colorado the kids wanted to depict mountains in their art. We looked at photos and art of mountains online, and talked about how to create depth and perspective by using different coloring for mountains at various ranges of distance. This was the first project which was made fully with watercolor. One kid made hers all purple to represent the "Purple Mountain Majesties," while the other preferred greens and blues that looked more like the pictures of mountains in the distance to her.  

California

We allowed a bit of extra time for California since its our home state and we had a lot of material. We'd hoped to do some local field trips as well, but with the COVID surge near its peak, that was not an option. Luckily we will have future opportunities to visit local places. 

Books:

• G is for Golden a California Alphabet

• C Is for California: Written by Kids for Kids

• Our California by Pam Muñoz Ryan

• Ancient Ones: The World of the Old-Growth Douglas Fir by Barbara Bash

• Redwoods by Jason Chin

• Joshua Tree National Park (Rookie National Parks) by Jodie Shepard

• Yosemite National Park (Rookie National Parks) by Audra Wallace

• A Monument to Treasure  by Debbie Bertram and Susan Bloom

• Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Krull 

• (Technically, Chavez was from AZ but we missed the opportunity there, and it made sense thematically to talk about in CA)

• Dolores Huerta: A Hero to Migrant Workers by Sarah Warren

• Side by Side/Lado a lado: The Story of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez by Monica Brown

• Who Was Sally Ride? By Megan Stine

• Sally Ride: A Photobiography of America's Pioneering Woman in Space by Tam O'Shaughnessy 

• I am Jackie Robinson (Ordinary People Change the World) by Brad Meltzer 

• California's Indian Nations by Ben Nussbaum

• Life of the California Coast Nations by Molly Aloian & Bobbie Kalman

• The Chumash (Spotlight on the American Indians of California) by Dorothy Jennings

• The Tongva (Spotlight on the American Indians of California) by Mary Graham 

• Gabrielino (Native Americans) by Barbara A Gray-Kanatiiosh 

• The California Gold Rush by Jean Blashfield

• Spanish Missions of California by Megan Gendell

• Dream Something Big: The Story of the Watts Towers, Dianna Hutts Aston

• Antsy Ansel by Cynthia L. Jenson-Elliott

• Fish for Jimmy by Katie Yamasaki

Art Project: 

California Golden Poppies

We considered a few other options: Redwoods (but how would we manage to show their scale and majesty?),  or Joshua Trees (the girls wanted to actually see them first, since that's something we can do at some point), before settling on fields of golden poppies as our goal for this art project. After searches we settled on this project and this art piece on Etsy as inspiration. We looked at lots of photos (do a google image search) of golden poppies and finally used this youtube video for a tutorial on drawing the flowers (although we thought the color choice was off, so we didn't follow exactly). Then we designed our project - first sketching in pencil, then doing the outlines using black sharpie. For the stems and small buds we used colored sharpies. Then we used several colors of orange and yellow oil pastel for the flowers themselves, and various green oil pastels for the field and hills. Finally we used watercolors for the sky.

Arkansas

Arkansas was the first state we studied where I really didn't have much knowledge going into it, so it was a learning experience for me as well.

Books:

• N is for Natural State: An Arkansas Alphabet book

• The Little Rock Nine : young champions for school integration by Jake Miller

• The power of one : Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine by Judith Bloom Fradin

• Poetry for Young People: Maya Angelou by Dr. Edwin Graves Wilson

• Maya Angelou (Little People, Big Dreams) by Lisbeth Kaiser

• Rise: From Caged Bird to Poet of the People by Brittany Hegedus

• Hello, I'm Johnny Cash by Greg Neri

• Raggin': A Story about Scott Joplin by Barbara Mitchell

• Good Morning Granny Rose (An Arkansas Folktale) by Warren Ludwig

Art Project:

Hope Watermelon Festival

I didn't have an art project in mind ahead of time for Arkansas, so after we finished reading our library books and other resources, we discussed what would be a good art project to represent Arkansas, and the kids settled on the Hope Watermelon Festival. So we looked a bunch of photos from the festival online, and then workshopped our own art project. You can see the result here. We sketched in pencil first, as we almost always do. Mixed media: sharpie (black outlines / lettering / watermelon seeds), oil pastel (sun, banner & table sign colors, watermelon outline and strips, and the flowered table cloth), and lastly watercolor. Since oil pastel repels watercolor, and sharpies also don't bleed once dry (they're not water soluble), we were able to watercolor the watermelons and sky, and the checkered table cloth, without all the colors bleeding together.

Arizona

In Arizona we were very interested in the natural wonders, looking at images of the Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, and Petrified Forest, as well as ancient indigenous architecture (Montezuma Castle National Monument).

Books:

• Grand Canyon by Jason Chin

• Grand Canyon by Wendell Minor

• Songs from the Loom by Monty Roessel

• Life in a Hopi Village by Sally Isaacs

• Mule Train Mail by Craig McFarland Brown

• Batboy: An Inside Look at Spring Training by Joan Anderson

• G is for Grand Canyon: An Arizona Alphabet

• The Butterfly Dance by Gerald Dawavendewa (From the Tales of the People series)

• Where is the Grand Canyon? By Jim O’Connor

• Inside Biosphere 2 by Mary Kay Carson 

Art project:

Grand Canyon art

The kids wanted to do art depicting the Grand Canyon. After looking lots of photos for inspiration we follow the instructions of this project we found online, working in oil pastel and then finishing with watercolor for the sky.