For our Geography time I decided that we should notebook our way through the United States.  We started last month with Alabama and now we are up to Alaska.  This one will be a much more thourough study though, because my husband's dad and stepmom lived in Alaska for several years and sent us many children's books. 

So far this week we have read:  Swimmer by Shelley Gill and Illustrated by Shannon Cartwright

(with the exception of the last few pages containing much evolutionary information this was a GREAT book on the life cycle of the salmon.  Living in the Pacific Northwest, this was something we have seen much of first hand and it was a great review to what we had previously learned.)

and Kiana's Iditarod ALSO by Shelley Gill and illustrated by Shannon Cartwright (Incidentally, the author was actually the fifth woman to complete the Iditarod!)

We are also reading the appropriate portions of several books on the states...

We have The State Sticker Book by Justine Korman.  We have been through it and most of these books before, so this is a reread!

McGraw-Hill's Young Learner's Atlas: U.S. and World

Usbourne's First Book of America

The Kids' Book of the 50 Great States: A State-by-State Scrapbook Filled with Facts, Maps, Puzzles, Poems, Photos and More!  (This is a favorite of mine.  It is written by children who live in each state.  Very well-done, in my humble opinion!)

We are also rereading My American Adventure by Amy Burritt (a story about a family that took their children on a tour of each state and met each governor as a homeschool project!)

We have a whole stack of other Alaska books.  I will post about them as we read them.

We also plan to put these into a notebook and since my dh is a submariner, we are going to include information on ships and boats with state names...  such as the U.S. S. Alabama! 

And while we are on our Alaskan unit study we thought we'd add this quarter's FREE lapbook from Hands of a Child on Sled Dogs!  I even rented some DVDs about sled dogs and we are going to read up on what happened with this year's Iditarod!  Should be fun!

Two states into our adventure... 48 to go!

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