This is the United States--Unit Study

American  Landmarks, Symbols, Basic Facts

We are going to study some basic facts and symbols of the United States with this unit study.  Things like
US geography (rivers, mountains, time zones)
famous landmarks
American patriotic songs
the US flag

the Liberty Bell

the Statue of Liberty,
the Great Seal etc. etc.

 Here are the topics we'll be covering over a two or three week period (or so) in this introduction to the U.S. I typed it up for myself, but you can  click here to see that sheet. I have a lot of wonderful history resources from my years of teaching a 7-10 year old class called "American History for Kids."  We'll be doing tons of activities and readings selected from my numerous resources (which I obviously can't share because they are copyright protected). And another reason why I'm so excited is because my best friend here is going to do this same unit and we hope to do lots of trips together. Hooray!

In a couple of days I'll share the fact sheet I made about the world.

I'll be sharing my US Landmarks (Montessori type) 3-part cards on July 26th.

(Left--Space Needle, Seattle, WA) Update, here's the link!!

US Landmarks and Symbols — free 3-part Montessori cards (over at our new location, homeschoolden.com

I love this cute rhyme/song to learn the 50 states. It's called 50 States That Rhyme.  The kids loved their South America countries and capitals song (Rock the Capitals) and learned so much that I'm inclined to give this a go as well!

By the way, for those of you who live in the US, I noticed that Target has lots of things in their dollar bin area (in our area at least) that we'll find especially useful this year -- US Presidents and world landmarks, for example.  

You might also be interested in our World Facts Packet

This goes over some basic world facts.  Do they know…

• What are the four largest countries? (Russia, Canada, the U.S.A., China)
• What countries have the most people? (China, India, the U.S.A.)
• What are the world’s largest cities? (Tokyo, Jakarta, Seoul)
• Which countries have the longest life expectancy? (Monaco, Macau, Japan)
• What are the major religions?

Since we live in the U.S., I also had the kids go over some basic facts about America.

• What is the U.S. capital? Washington, D.C.
• What is the smallest state? Rhode Island
• Biggest state? Alaska
• What is the name of the tallest mountain in the U.S.? Mt. McKinley
• What is the longest river? Mississippi River
• There is also a sheet so the kids can locate some geographic features of the US: the larger rivers, the oceans, Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes