Lesson Plan - Geography Unit Study

In our homeschool group this year, we participated in themed studies classes. These classes were offered as a cooperative, with parents attending with their children. This particular geography lesson objective was to cover as much material about every state within the continental United States in an hour and a half lesson. I figured with more people present, this would be a fun geography lesson and we would cover a great deal of information. My expectations were exceeded (and even the parents had fun).

I started the lesson by passing out large maps of the United States. My large map was colored, but I wanted the students' maps to be black and white. I made large maps out of two 8 ½ by 11 sheets of paper, so they could be folded in half when they were finished with the class and could hang at home on their walls.

I wanted to read a few books that discussed the traveling of characters, and ended up working with Oregon's Journey, by Rascall; and Manatee on the Move.

These stories worked well because they discussed the travel of individuals (just so happened to be animals) from place to place, and they covered more than one state. In Manatee on the move, a manatee travels in the water, from Florida all the way up to New York.

After these books were finished, we talked about where we grew up, places we'd visited and every person had a chance to tell us one thing they liked about a particular place they traveled, or lived in.

As each person listed a new state, other than where we lived, I placed a sticker on my large colored map. Parents also were able to share stories of places they'd lived or traveled to. I had the students, individually, on their maps, color in the states they'd been to. I asked them to periodically check their maps to see if they'd traveled to a new state and make sure they color it in.

This worked very well within our group, because many families in our homeschool group do travel a great deal, or are coming from military families, who have traveled out of necessity. Out of about 25 people, parents and children; we had traveled to all but two states within the continental US. The kids had so much fun with this geography lesson that every time they have traveled to a new place, they make sure to tell me, and that they've colored in a new state on their map.