How To Teach The 50 States in America

By the third grade, kids should have an idea of what the thirteen colonies are. And by fourth grade, state standards just want them to learn about the state that they live in. Those are the basic common core standards, but for homeschool, we go further! In this article, you will learn How To Teach The 50 States in America using the 50 States Unit Study: Let’s Study The States!

The 50 States

Learning about all 50 states in the United States of America can be fun, most teachers present the subject very dry. Mostly since there just isn’t enough time in the day to cover everything they would like to. So, this unit study was created for both homeschool parents and teachers too.

Studying the United States of America is a fantastic way for children to learn about all the 50 states, their history, social studies, economics, geography and more, while doing fun activities along the way.

This unit allows students to explore each state with in-depth research, while adding in art, writing skills, reading comprehension, and a bit of math. The perfect addition to end your homeschool year when your homeschool student/s are bored of everything else, and you want to have fun while still learning.

Parents and teachers can also take this time to introduce the 13 Colonies, before branching off into the other states!

The Specks:

The main part of the State unit Study is designed for your students to go at it alone! The questions consist of almost everything they can find in a good United States of America resource, there are good ones listed on the included resource page.

The unit gets to the point of helping your student explore the United States of America and learn about each the 50 states. No fluff. There is no excess or over exertion of printables, so students can stay focused.

If You just want to hand them the unit printable and a book, you can do that!

If you want them to write a paper, and do crafts, you can do that too!

Included:

• You have an instructional sheet and a supply list.
• Students have a fully colored map of the United States of America with the state and its capital highlighted.
• Students have a blank United States of America map.
• Students have a two-sided State Research page.
• Younger students have a one-page state research page that can be notebooked or hole punched.
• There is a list of all 50 states with links to pronunciation and state facts.
• There is a full resource page with a booklist, websites, and free videos.
• There is a writing prompt page, God Bless America, Let’s Write! For ideas on essays your students can write about or expound upon.
• There is a list of crafts on the America is Beautiful, Lets Craft! Page. Students can do these if time permits in your classroom.
• There is a 5-paragraph essay outline to help students plan their writing.
• A writing rubric for parents & teachers to grade essays.
• Plus, any extra unit papers needed for doing some of the crafts.

This unit is suitable for grades 2-12, however younger students will need guidance through the curriculum. This unit should be fun, exciting and enjoyable for any of these grade levels and needs!

Core Work For The 50 States Unit

The core work for upper grade students is the state research and any written papers. For younger students, the core work is state research and crafts. These will reinforce their learning and is really all that’s needed.

If your students do just the core work, they will cover research skills, geography, writing, social studies, reading, and reading comprehension.

If your students do the unit in its entirety, they will cover all the above, plus art, and some math for elementary students if they are cooking any recipes and working in the kitchen with conversions, multiplication and fractions.

Check out the images to get a preview of the unit.

Printer Friendly

The unit is made to be hole punched along the bottom margin and inserted into a three-prong binder or folder.

I have listed some below, you can click on any of the links and purchase them directly from Amazon.

The folder will keep all your students information in one place, and they will create a state study book to reflect on in later studies!

They are printer friendly, and they can be printed in black and white if you do not want the color some of them have.

These images contain affiliate links. They might earn me a small percentage if you buy through them but will not affect any price you pay or see.

Ideas and Resources

Creating this unit study for my own classroom first, they are tried and tested. You can allow students to branch off into groups and focus on one state a day, or one every two to three days so you can deep dive into the activities.

Here is a quick list of some resources your students can use when studying the United States and that you can incorporate into your homeschool, especially if you have even younger kids.

Because some off site resources can “magically” disappear over time, I listed only a few. It is not hard to find more out there with a quick search.

Safe kid friendly websites

• Learn the fifty states and more! Parents, this site has more than just the 50 states, and its kid friendly.
• Alphabetical List of 50 States This site list all the states and every piece of information available about the state. It does have ads, that might be geared towards your search preferences. Ideal for older kids.
• The United States: Information & Statistics By State Same as above, really awesome resource.

Kid Friendly YouTube Videos

(WARNING: If you do not have YouTube Kids or YouTube Premium, be cautious of unwanted commercials and ads!!!!!

There are plenty of great YouTube videos out there, our rule of thumb, watch everything before you sit your children or students down to watch them.

We hope you enjoy this unit as much as we have! Till next time.

Randomnestfamily.

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