States & Capitals Videos

As a class we watched several State and Capital videos that will help us memorize all of them. Here are the top 2 that the class voted for!

                   

Holiday fun and Alarm circuits!

Let's catch up on the happenings before and after Christmas break!

The All-Stars researched how different countries around the world celebrate Christmas.

After researching, they wrote a report, created a poster and presented what they learned about their country.

As part of a STEM project, we made salt dough Christmas ornaments. This was of course messy and a lot of fun!

Students were challenged to make their very own switches that would work in an electrical circuit. They came up with a lot of clever designs!

Testing to see if their switch works...

We had a few students who accepted the challenge to memorize the Gettysburg Address!

It was so great to hear the students recite such a beautiful speech! I am very proud of them.

We had a lot of fun at our Christmas party, thanks to all the moms who helped out!

We played Christmas BINGO, decorated cookies and played lots of fun minute to win it games!

Lots of fun, treats and laughter! Our room mom organized such a fun time!

Get the jingle bells out of the box!

To end our unit in electricity the students had to build an alarm that would solve a problem that a girl named, Emily, had. She lived on a farm and continuously would forget to refill the water trough for her sheep. She needed to make an alarm that would light up and make a noise when the water trough was empty!

As you can see they have a trough (paper cup) that is on a teeter totter type of device. The covered it with aluminum foil...good thinking!

They only had an hour to make their alarm, but most of them were able to accomplish the task on time!

A lot of improving and brainstorming went on.

Now we are moving on to.....Fractions and Heredity! Term 3 is going to be very fun!

*If you have any questions about the State Report project see the post below that has detailed instructions. Feel free to email me at maddiel@provo.edu

Gooooooooooooooooo All-Stars!

State Report Information

Schedule of State Report Sections

Date Assigned	Due Date	Sections/Assignment
Jan 6	In class	Determine state
Jan 6 - 10 *optional	In class www.2chambers.com	Letter to State, written and mailed
Jan 13	Jan 21	State Facts
Jan 21	Jan 27	License Plate Famous People
Jan 27	Feb 3	Map State Flag
Feb 3	Feb 12	Historical Timeline
Feb 12	Feb 24	Population Graph State Coin
Feb 24	Mar 3	Pick one from the selection given: Travel Brochure, Recipes Sports Weather/Climate
Mar 3	Mar 6th 2:00-3:00	In Class State Fair Set up begins at 1:30 (Parents are invited to attend)
Mar 3	Mar 10th - 14th	In class presentations (around 5 minutes) Reflection paper Bibliography

    

Bibliography

A record of ALL resources used for your project must be kept. You will give credit to the authors of books and articles found online that you use while you research your state. Below is the format for books and Internet articles--pay attention to punctuation. Remember, your final draft of your bibliography needs to be in alphabetical order.

Books:

Author Name (last name first). Title of book. City of publication: Publisher, Date of publication

Internet article:

"Name of article." Site Title. Date Published. <electronic address>

Reflection Paper

Write a short paragraph responding to each of the following questions:

1) What were the most interesting things you learned about your state?

2) Which project did you enjoy the most and why?

3) Which project did you have the hardest time with and why?

4) If you knew a friend going to visit your state what would recommend for them to do?

Letter To States (optional)

Write to your state’s chamber of commerce and see what information you can receive through the mail. Maybe general tourist information.

http://www.2chambers.com   Find the address and record it.

State Facts

Create a fact sheet about your state. You will also use this information on the poster/backdrop you create for the state fair. include the following information:

State Capitol

Current Governor

State bird

State animal

State flower

State stone

State motto

State song

Population

Major Cities

Major products

Major industries

High temperatures

Low temperatures

Average rainfall

www.infoplease.com

License Plate

Every state has its own license plate design. Find out what your state’s license plate looks like and draw it on a blank piece of paper. If the state has multiple designs for their license plates, you may choose one. Make sure it is drawn neatly and colored in with colored pencils.

Flag

Draw (freehand) your state flag. Include the correct colors and turn this in on a neat blank piece of white paper. If there are very complex parts to your flag you may trace that part.

Famous People

History creates, tells, and remembers stories about famous people. Who are the famous people that everyone in your state remembers? Who do they hope to meet someday? Who would they recognize at a moments notice?

Tell the story of 3 famous people from your state. Each story needs to be one to two paragraphs. If possible, include a copied picture of all 3 famous people.

Who are:

the famous leaders? the sports heroes? the writers? the artists? the explorers?

the scientist? the movie stars? musicians?

or anyone famous you can find-for any reason-include!

Famouspeople.com...offers information about people from around the world.

Biography.com...choose a time period-see what you can find.

www.almaz.com/nobel/...Scientists, authors, and many other famous people can be found here.

Map

Welcome to the world of Cartography….or the making of maps. People, also called cartographers, have been making maps for thousands of years. Many mapmakers accompanied famous explorers or were explorers themselves. Often mapmakers were proven wrong and their maps shown to be incorrect with later explorations. Early maps showed the world as flat! Imagine not knowing the world was round? Today, with country borders changing constantly maps are constantly being remade and updated.

You will be drawing a map. Enjoy your exploration and mapmaking!!

Your map should include:

*a border around your paper about one inch,

*your state drawn with surrounding states or bodies of water labeled-but your state should take up the majority of the paper,

*the capital and two other major cities,

*landforms (major rivers, lakes, mountain ranges, etc),

*a compass rose, a legend, drawn/labeled neatly, and colored with colored pencils.

www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/world.html...Great for geographic details!

geography.about.com/library/blank/blxindex.htm...

Historical Timeline

Knowing the history of a state, or at least a few significant events, can lead to a greater understanding of the people and what it is like to live in that state. Besides, it is kind of interesting, too!

Using provided paper, create a timeline of:

At least 12 important events that took place,

Illustrate with at least 4 colored pictures.

**Remember, a timeline is a number line. You should have benchmark dates with equal intervals.

BONUS Choose either...pictures with all 12 events OR find a total of 20 events.
HistoryMole.com

www.historynet.com

Population Graph

How has the population of your state grown or shrunk in the last 100 years? Every ten years a census is taken to count all the citizens in the United States. Look up the census information about your state. Create a graph to show how the population has changed over the last 100 years.

Make sure you choose an appropriate graph and that everything is labeled clearly.

http://quickfacts.census.gov

State Coins

Which coin graphics did your state vote on to represent itself?  You will find your state’s coin, download a picture of it, and describe the images and words that are on your coin in a paragraph.

You will now design a coin that YOU would like to see your state use.  Make sure to search for the many submitted options your state was choosing from when making their choice.

Use a plain white piece of paper, make sure your coin and pictures are large enough to have good detail.  You should also have words and/or dates on your coin.

Pick ONE of the Following:

*Travel Brochure

Here you will create a pamphlet describing the tourist attractions.

The COVER:

will need to include the state name and a picture and short description of one attraction.

The INSIDE:

will need to list any information about your state that would sell your state to tourists. What locations are the most attractive? Feature them. You will be a salesperson here. Choose carefully. Other ideas, but not mandatory, might include the following:

Exciting activities available.

Historic and scenic locations.

An outline map of your state with arrows to the attraction spots.

For each attraction spot give a detailed paragraph.

Include at least 3 actual pictures of the attraction spots. (copy the pictures) BONUS: Design a Power Point travel guide in addition to the paper pamphlet.

*Recipes

Regions are often distinguished by the foods which are served. What foods are your state known for?

Find 3 recipes of traditional dishes served in your state. If you can not find the exact recipe, explain what the main ingredients are in 3 types of food served in your state.

Try to choose one you can make for the state fair.

BONUS for cooking one of the recipes for your family. Taste it, and write a paragraph on whether you liked the dish or not and why.

www.hormelfoods.com/brands/worldFood/default.aspx   Lots of links here to search for recipes.

*Sports

What major sports teams are found in your state? Basketball, football, soccer, hockey?? Look up the basic statistics on the major teams in the state and prepare a chart to display them.

Who are the famous/best players on the team? How is the team doing this year/how did they do last year? What is their records for wins and losses?

Include all interesting and important information about the teams.

*Weather/Climate

Would you enjoy living in your state? The weather (or climate) can make a place enjoyable or miserable. Don't you think?

For your state:

*Create a chart for summer and winter high and low temperatures.

*Create a chart of average rainfall for each of the seasons.

*Today's weather in your state.

And describe in a short paragraph why or why not you would want to live in your chosen state.

BONUS ...find 5 facts about the current weather conditions in the capital of your state. The weather conditions must be for this current week.

www.washingtonpost.com... The Washington Post (a newspaper) has gathered information on weather. Click on the weather link next to the header—this will take you to the weather portion of the website. Then, in the search box type your state’s name. This site will also give you current events and lead you to other sites to search for information besides the weather!

www.weather.com… Look here for world weather.

www.infohub.com/guide/...Find your state and click on "When to Go."

In Class/Gym State Fair

You will be setting up a booth that represents your state. Students from all four classes in the grade level and parents will visit the state fair. This is your chance to highlight the most important and most interesting things you learned through your research.  Be creative—and have fun!

For your booth, you will make a backdrop/board that includes:

*the name of your state as a title (large font)

*your map

*pictures of important/interesting people and places

*timeline

*the flag of your country

*other interesting facts/information about your country.

Everything on your board and display needs to be tidy, typed, and needs to fit on the top of your desk.

You will also need to prepare 4 to 8 note cards to help you share information and details about your state.  

Optional:

You can prepare/bring a food item native to your state for others to sample.  Be prepared with any serving utensils needed and for many people to want a sample.

In Class Presentations

In order to set up an effective presentation you will need to:

*Choose 5 components of your state report to share.

*Practice aloud what you are going to share. You will not be allowed to just read from your report.

*Find props if possible...books, flag, money, something from that country, recording of anthem...be creative!

*Before you begin, ask 2 questions that you will answer during your 5-7 minutes.

*Explain why or why not you would want to visit your state.

Make your presentation last between 5 and 7 minutes -no shorter, no longer.

You will be teacher for 7 minutes, so teach what you think is most important about the state you have studied.