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.