NEVADA   

All for Our Country

    Well we're finding out some fun things on the internet.   This is our big haul on postcards.  We have more postcards from Nevada than any other state, Thanks to one special lady and her friend!  We love you thanks so much!   Let me tell about some of the places we learned about.   Area 51:  its a specialized military area with no one outside the military allowed in, we were told the desert area was long and lonely.  This is near the Extraterrestrial Highway near Rachel, NV--cool holographic postcards of stealth planes and mountains.  Hoover Dam:  been there...quite an impressive gander over the edge!  726 ft high, on the Colorado River.  Las Vegas gets much of their water and electricity here.  Reno:  beautiful city lights.  Great Basin Nat'l Park:  Baker Lake, elevation 10,620.  Virginia City, Chollar Mine:     read a poem that my grandma had recorded in an autograph book:  "Make new friends but keep the old .  The one is silver,  the other gold." "Bonanza"  was supposed to have been filmed here.  Goldfield:  halfway between Reno and Vegas, lots of mining  Amargosa River Navigation Company:  ?  Sail and gamble between Vegas, Reno & Lake Tahoe.   Dayton: Route of the Pony Express  Tonopah: more mines.  The Desert Queen has mined $$$$150 millon in silver!

As a "tweener"  we spent Christmas in Las Vegas with extended family one year.  We arrived in the dark and I remember watching the lights get brighter and brighter for what seemed like hours until we finally arrived.  I grew up in the midwest and it was strange to no cold or snow for the holiday.  It was one of those special Christmas memories because we were with family!

all our postcards, resouces and then some

  send a Nevada E-card!!

http://www.clan.lib.nv.us/1%5Flaunch/  History of Nevada, interactive, multimedia

http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/kids/  Nevada Kids Page

http://agri.state.nv.us/AGRI_JustKids.htm  Nevada Agriculture kids page

http://www.travelnevada.com/map_state.asp  Map of Nevada

Games on states & color pages http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/kids/fun.htm (links)

http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/kids/game/default.htm symbols of Nevada matching game

http://factfinder.census.gov/home/en/kids/kids.html click on the state get the info…quick and simple

http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/kids/ Nevada’s official kids site…
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/es/nv

Statehood: October 31, 1864;  36th admitted to the union

 Nevada: from Spanish meaning snow-capped.

Population: 1,998,257 #35

Capital: Carson City (pop 52,457 )

Size: 110,567 square miles, #7

Motto:  All for our country

Nickname:  The Silver State

Flower: Sagebrush

Tree: Bristlecone pine and single-leaf piñon

Bird:  Mountain bluebird

Land Mammal: desert bighorn sheep

Fossil:  Ichthyosaur

Gem: Fire opal

Economy:   filmography (did you know over 600 movies have been made in NV?)  MINING: Among its products are gold, silver, copper, zinc, brucite, magnesium, magnesite, manganese, tungsten, uranium, mercury, lead, non-metallics, oil, coal, iron.

AGRICULTURE: Cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, poultry, hay, wheat, corn, potatoes, rye, oats, alfalfa, barley, vegetables, dairy products, some fruits.

Famous Nevadans:John C. Frémont, Jedidiah Strong Smith, Andre Agassi,Thelma Pat Nixon, Wayne Newton, Siegfried and Roy (Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn)

report1

 Report 2

Great state Nevada

by

bugaboo girl

 Is Nevada a great state you ask? Well it's State bird is the moutain bluebird. It's state flower is sagebrush. It's motto is: All for our country. And it is the 36th state. So it is a Great state. 

  Idaho  Let it be perpetual

Idaho is one of our favorite states!!!!!  My husband and I have actually lived their and we spend many vacations there visiting relatives.  Our postcards came from relatives in that area.  One of my favorites is of an eagle.  Once, while drive around Lake Coeur d'Alene we saw a wintering bald eagle swoop in front of our car and dive at the water and catch a fish!  It is one of those cherished memories of God's fantastic creation!  The kids enjoyed the ones from the Cataldo Mission which is the oldest building in Idaho.  Although they don't remember, they have actually been inside of it.  It's architecture reminds me of the Alamo.  My husband has gone skiing on Silver Mountain, in the Silver Valley many times.  And we enjoyed a wonderful trip on the free worlds longest Gondola ride in Kellogg and looking out over 5 states and Canada-ticket price? $10 -view? $priceless.

In 1942 during WWII the federal government detained about 10,000 Japanese Americans in Camp Minidoka an internment camp in south-central Idaho.  About 110,000 were gathered from the West Coast.  They were concerned that these people might try to help the Japanese troops.  They were released in 1945.

Here's a great little downloadable book with lots of facts as well as coloring: http://gov.idaho.gov/fyi/kidbook/KidBook.pdf

some other good ones:

http://gov.idaho.gov/fyi/symbols/symbols_index.html

Statehood: 1890  #43

Population:  1,393,262, # 39

Capital: Boise (pop 190,122)

Size:  83,557 square miles, #13

Motto: "Esto Perpetua" (Let it be perpetual)

Nickname: The gem state

Flower:Syringa 

Tree: White pine

Fruit:  Huckleberry  (MMMMMMM our favorite fruit!)  The kids love to pick them with  extended family.  We knew someone who actually got $50 a gallon for the tiny little treats.  We tease guests from that area that they are not allowed in the door without a freezer bag of huckleberries!

Bird: Mountain bluebird  

Raptor: Peregrine Falcon

Horse: Appaloosa  

Fish: Cutthroat trout

Fossil:  Hagerman Horse Fossil

Insect: Monarch Butterfly

Gem: Idaho Star Garnety

Dance: Square Dance

Vegetable: Potato

Economy: Silver (at one time it was the biggest producer in the world), potatoes, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Tourism, Food Processing, Timber, Mining, Trout, Austrian Winter Peas, Lentils

River miles: 3,100 (more than any other state)

Famous Idahoans  Henry & Eliza Spalding (second white woman across the Continental divide traveled with Dr. Marcus & Narcissa Whitman she was the 1st), Chief Joseph ("I will fight no more forever") Nez Perce tribe, Ernest Hemingway (visitor and wrote much of For Whom The Bell Tolls here)

Report1

By

  Oklahoma!  Labor Conquers All

Yes, we watched the movie "Oklahoma."  And we ate Sooner Sloppies, from our 50 state recipe book (listed in our Alaska post) because one of their biggest products is BEEF (it was what was for dinner)  

Our postcards had some great info...

The capital building has a working oil rig on the front lawn.  

Talequah's street signs even have the Cherokee language written on them. 

Oklahoma was the destination of the Trail of Tears when the Native Americans were forced out of their eastern homes. Which is probably why it is home to the largest Indian population of any other state: 252,420. 

Here are some websites we found useful....

http://www.kidzone.ws/geography/usa/index.htm  good for all the states

http://www.ok.gov/osfdocs/stinfo2.html  official state page for kids

http://www.travelok.com/about/StudentGuide.pdf  Good stufff (found this one too late for my kids to use....they were already done) too long to print (27 pages) but lots of neat info.

http://www.kidzone.ws/geography/usa/oklahoma/flag.htm

http://www.abcteach.com/flags/oklahoma.htm

  Alaska: North to Freedom

Here's a website from the state of Alaska that we enjoyed:

http://www.dced.state.ak.us/oed/student_info/student.htm

The state fish is Salmon so we ate Northwest Salmon Sandwiches, the recipe taken from the book: American Grub-Eats for kids from all fifty states by Lynn Kuntz and Jan Fleming, illustrated by Mark A. Hicks. We watched the movie The Far Country starring Jimmy Stewart, which is about Alaska's goldrush days.  We also looked a poster from the Iditarod sled dog race, which is a 1,049 mile trek from Anchorage to Nome.

Statehood: 49th in 1959

Population:  644,000

Capital: Juneau (pop 30,684)

Motto: North to Freedom

Nickname: The Last Frontier

Mammal: Bowhead Whale

Land Mammal: Bull Moose

Fossil:  Wooly Mammoth

Flower: Forget Me Not

Tree: Sitka Spruce

Mineral: Gold

Insect: Dragon Fly

Gem: Jade

Bird:  Willow Ptarmigan

Sport: Dog Mushing

Report 1

Lookey, Lookey!

We will be posting their reports along with other interesting tidbits when they do an in depth study of each state.  Look for Alaska soon....