During the summer months, I look for school activities that bring more fun into our learning time. Not that we want to waste time with twaddle. If you had dropped by during our school time during the last month or two, you would have seen an emphasis on U.S. geography. Our latest review figures into that in a fun way. The USA Activity Bundle from The Crafty Classroom has fit right in with both fun and learning.
This bundle of e-books includes U.S.A. 50 State Mazes, U.S.A. State Bird Art Cards, and the U.S.A. State Activity Notebook. These are pdf files, ready to print as many copies as your family needs. If you wish to use the U.S.A. Activity Bundle in a classroom or co-op setting, there is a license option available for this. The recommended grade level is 3rd. The resources on Crafty Classroom are all aimed at 3rd grade or younger. That being said, all of my children, from the 16-year-old on down to the 7-year-old used and enjoyed these resources.
When we printed our pages, the mazes were double sided. I just made sure my children knew to use only pencil or colored pencils. Two of my children absolutely love mazes. They both said these mazes were just right – challenging without being too hard, yet, not too easy. The rest of the e-books we printed single sided.
The U.S.A. State Bird Art Cards were the favorite of my oldest daughter. She is our resident birder. There are four parts to each page – visual fact card, coloring card and memory matching cards – both named cards and image cards. She appreciated the visual fact card the most. This section showed the bird with its coloring as well as the states it is the state bird for. The lines are for writing in fun facts or other interesting things about the bird. There are recommended resources for obtaining the information – both free online and a book (or two) to purchase (or borrow from the library). Some birds have multiple states, so there are only 27 birds in this pack, though all states are represented.
The U.S.A. Activity Pack is where you can adjust to meet the needs of older students. For each state there is a single page, ready to be filled in, labeled and colored. On the state’s outline, your learner can mark the capitol, rivers, mountains and other landmarks. The flag is drawn, ready to color. There are places to fill in the nickname, bird, flower and abbreviation. One of my favorite fill-ins is the number. We have always studied the states in the order in which they joined the United States. I love that this is included on the activity page.
How did I make this challenging for my older learners? The Facts & Notes section they listed famous people from the state. Then on a separate page, they were to write a paragraph on lesser known or quirky things about the state. This required more than just basic research on their part — and hopefully made it more fun for them. There are some suggested resources with the Activity Pack, free online or a book or two to purchase. As is normal for us, we headed to the library and came home with an assortment of books on the state.
Because we were using this as a part of a short term study, each child was assigned a different state each week. Then we presented our found information while the others filled in their activity page. This was such a fun way to work our way across the country in a shorter amount of time. Have more time? Spend the whole year crossing the country (in order of admission, right?) while studying U.S. history or your state’s history. You could even use these resources in preparation of a vacation. There are so many possibilities!
There are many other resources from The Crafty Classroom. Be sure to read the other Crew reviews; simply click the image below.
