Oregon

For Oregon the kids especially enjoyed learning about the fabulous Beverly Cleary, and playing the old-school Oregon Trail computer game. 

Books:

• Oregon (A True Book: My United States) by Josh Gregory

• B is for Beaver: An Oregon Alphabet by Roland Smith & Marie Smith

• Just Like Beverly: A Biography of Beverly Cleary by Vicki Conrad

• A Girl from Yamhill: A Memoir by Beverly Cleary

• Beavers by Gail Gibbons

• Apples to Oregon: Being the (Slightly) True Narrative of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries (and Children) Across the Plains by Deborah Hopkinson’

• Bound for Oregon by Jean Van Leeuwen

• If You Were a Kid on the Oregon Trail by Josh Gregory

• Coyote in Love: The Story of Crater Lake by Mindy Dwyer

• They Call Me River by Maciek Albrecht

• Brother Eagle, Sister Sky by Susan Jeffers

• Thunder rolling down the mountain : The Story of Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce by Zimmerman, Rusty

• https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-white-history-racist-foundations-black-exclusion-laws/ 

• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus/

• The Oregon Trail by Mel Friedman

• The Oregon Trail by Laura Murray

• Minnow and Rose: An Oregon Trail Story by Judy Young

Art Project:

Crater Lake

For our art project the kids chose to depict Crater Lake. Materials used: colored sharpie, oil pastel, water color. 

Oklahoma

We really enjoyed learning about Cherokee and other Native American cultures in Oklahoma, as well as a variety of famous Oklahomans. The kids also enjoyed a science lesson about the makings of the Dust Bowl.

Books:

• The First Strawberries By Joseph Bruchac 

• Wilma's Way Home: The Life of Wilma Mankiller (A Big Words Book) by Doreen Rappaport 

• Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Smith

• We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell 

• We Are Still Here by Traci Sorell

• Fry Bread: A Native American Family by Kevin Noble Maillard 

• Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer by Traci Sorell

• Unspeakable : the Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford

• Tallchief: America’s Prima Ballerina by Maria Tallchief

• A Primary Source History of the Dust Bowl by Rebecca Langston-George

• S is for Sooner: An Oklahoma Alphabet by Devin Scillian

• Oklahoma (A True Book: My United States) by Tamra B. Orr

• Tornadoes by Seymour Simon

• Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl by Albert Marrin

• Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp by Jerry Stanley

• Blue Willow by Doris Gates

• The Buffalo Soldier by Sherry Garland

• Will Rogers: An American Legend by Francis Anthony Keating

• I Have Heard of a Land by Joyce Carol Thomas

• Leah’s Pony by Elizabeth Friedrich

• Jim Thorpe's Bright Path by Joseph Bruchac

• Sprouting Wings: The True Story of James Herman Banning, the First African American Pilot to Fly Across the United States by Louisa Jaggar

• Woodie Guthrie: Poet of the People by Bonnie Christensen

• Elizabeth Warren: Nevertheless, She Persisted by Susan Wood

• Someday Is Now: Clara Luper and the 1958 Oklahoma Sit-ins

Art Project:

Tornado on the prairie

For Oklahoma the kids chose to depict a tornado over the prairie. We had a lot of fun with this project which was completed using oil pastels on watercolor paper.