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.

Alaska

Perhaps my favorite piece of our learning about Alaska was learning about native rights advocate Elizabeth Peratrovich who managed to successfully lobby for civil rights legislation for Native Alaskans while Alaska was still a territory. As a fun bonus, she was the subject of a Google Doodle a little while later and the kids were super excited to see that. 

Books:

• The Blizzard’s Robe by Robert Sabuda
• Raven: A trickster tale from the Pacific Northwest by Gerald McDermott
• Storm Run: The Story of the First Woman to Win the Iditarod Sled Dog Race by Libby Riddles
• Alaska by Shelley Gill
• L is for Last Frontier: An Alaska Alphabet
• Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich by Annie Boochever

• This book is advanced for young kids but it has some interesting info and some pics so it is still be worth checking out at as resource.

• The Inuit by Kevin Cunningham (Scholastic Book)
• Whale Snow by Debby Dahl Edwardson
• Akiak by Robert J. Blake
• How the Raven Got His Crooked Nose by Atwater et al
• How Raven Stole the Sun (Tales of the People) by Maria Williams

Art Project:

Northern Lights

Our Alaska art project was inspired by the Northern Lights / Aurora Borealis. We watched a video that both showed the lights and explained the science and we also read about it. Then we made our art. A google search led me to this project https://thecraftyclassroom.com/crafts/arctic-art-projects-for-kids/northern-lights-igloo-art-project/. It has an explanation for how to do the project and a template for the igloo shape. We also used a polar bear template from another project on the same site but applied it to this one. In overview: we printed the template on card stock and taped it onto 9x12 art paper, then the kids cut up, layered and "painted" (with a wet paint brush) art tissue paper which bleeds color when wet. Once it's dry you remove the tissue paper and template to reveal the white foreground and colored background. You can then add details to the foreground as desired. Visit the original site for all the detailed instructions including step-by-step pictures. The kids the *loved* this project and are eager to experiment with the medium again.

Alabama

Alabama was the first state in our 50 states project (alphabetical order). I'm not going to list every single resource we collected here, but figured I'd at least share the books we read, and our art project. 

I will note that we spent time on MLK and John Lewis in Alabama, although we could equally have talked about them in Georgia, but AL was the heart of their civil rights movement work (and where John Lewis grew up). We may circle back though, when we get to Georgia.

Books:

• Y is for Yellowhammer: An Alabama Alphabet

• Exploring the States: Alabama

• Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis by Jabari Asim

• Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport

• The Quilts of Gee’s Bend

• Belle, the Last Mule at Gee’s Bend: A Civil Rights Story by Alexander Ramsey Calvin and Bettye Stroud

• Ultimate Field Trip 5: Blasting Off to Space Academy

Art project:

Alabama quilts project

After reading The Last Mule at Gee's Bend, and perusing the photos of actual quilts in The Quilts of Gee's Bend, plus viewing a short video about the quilts online, we were ready to make our own collage version. If you don't know about the Gee's Bend quilts, I definitely encourage you to learn more. They are beautiful and come with a lot of history from the African American women who make them, and have passed down their quilting tradition while supporting their families and community. After coming up with the idea of doing Gee's Bend inspired quilts via collage I did some searching and found a couple of bloggers who have done this before, so we looked and their ideas as well:

• https://artprojectsforkids.org/gees-bend-quilt-collage/
• http://elfersartroom.blogspot.com/2013/04/1st-grade-gees-bend-quilt-collages.html

How we did it: I cut 5 sheets of 8/12 x 11 card stock into four equal rectangles so that we had a pile of 4 each in 5 different colors. The kids each selected 4 pieces to be their quilt squares. The remaining pieces they cut up free form and pasted on their squares in the design of their choosing. Then we pasted all 4 quilt pieces on a piece of black 9x12 construction paper for backing.