Idaho History Week 1: Geography
Idaho Geography went fairly smoothly except for loosing them the last few
minutes. They were tired after a full day of classes and were tired of
maps. So I don’t really blame them!
Our basic lesson was a break down of where in the United states Idaho is, what states surround Idaho–AND what country borders her. We then went in and broke down the Counties. Now this one was a bit harder to teach. I was stumped on it until I looked in an old Idaho History book that I came across in the library. I didn’t check it out so I’m not sure wha tthe name is. The picture in the book had several counties randomly drawn on the page. It really looked like a jigsaw puzzle. I thought that was a great idea. Most kids like jigsaw puzzles. I photocopied, labled, and laminated 4 copies of an Idaho county map, I then cut them out and placed them into ziplock baggies. I also copied 4 blank county maps so they could lay the pieces onto the sheet–to make it easier. During class I divided the tables into teams and had them put the puzzles together. The kids had a lot of fun with this. Be sure to give enough time for everyone to get the puzzle at least mostly done. If you only have an hour like I did, you may not get all the puzzles put together. We still had one that wasn’t quite done, but time dictated that we move on.
After the puzzle I had the kids start on their maps. I gave them all of the maps at once in a packet. Looking back, I really should have handed them out one at a time. In this order:
****Starting with the country� map. Find Idaho and surrounding states/countries. (on the sheet there is easy boxes that state what needs to be done on the page)
****Then moved on to the Gem State map–find the capital, draw in the state borders and country borders etc. (on the sheet there is easy boxes that state what needs to be done on the page)
****Then move on to the County map. I provided a BLANK county map. This worked well for my more advanced students, but my trailers really had a hard time with this. Looking back I should have had a few labeled for my strugglers. there are other tasks to do on this–such as coloring the capital “bearing” county and the county that they live in (some were the same county and so I had them create a pattern with the two colors!)
****the next map is the physical/topography map.Adding in rivers, mountains, lakes, etc. This page again gives directions. Looking back I should have stuck with my original plan of making a playdough/salt dough map. They would have had more fun, and they wouldn’t have burnt out on maps quite so easily.
At this point we were done. Some things I would have changed but I learned a lot since this was my very first Co-op meet since I began homeschooling.
Below are links to the Map packet that I created with help from various sites. (any sites used has the website addy listed) Please feel free to copy as you need them.
Here is the .doc file
Here is the .pdf file
*********Please be aware that there are more maps in this packet then what we used during week one. the rest will be used during week 5.*********
After class I had everyone stick their maps inside their folders and make sure their name was on their folders–just on the tab portion as the cover will be done during week 8.
THE FOLDERS DO NOT GO HOME UNTIL THE END OF THE SESSION!
At home I took 2 page protectors for each student and slid in the maps back to back. (There are 4 maps to be done during this lesson so it worked out perfectly.) I then used large brass brads to secure the page protectors to the inside of the front cover. If you look in the picture you will see them holding the page protectors in.
And that’s it for week one!!
Our basic lesson was a break down of where in the United states Idaho is, what states surround Idaho–AND what country borders her. We then went in and broke down the Counties. Now this one was a bit harder to teach. I was stumped on it until I looked in an old Idaho History book that I came across in the library. I didn’t check it out so I’m not sure wha tthe name is. The picture in the book had several counties randomly drawn on the page. It really looked like a jigsaw puzzle. I thought that was a great idea. Most kids like jigsaw puzzles. I photocopied, labled, and laminated 4 copies of an Idaho county map, I then cut them out and placed them into ziplock baggies. I also copied 4 blank county maps so they could lay the pieces onto the sheet–to make it easier. During class I divided the tables into teams and had them put the puzzles together. The kids had a lot of fun with this. Be sure to give enough time for everyone to get the puzzle at least mostly done. If you only have an hour like I did, you may not get all the puzzles put together. We still had one that wasn’t quite done, but time dictated that we move on.
After the puzzle I had the kids start on their maps. I gave them all of the maps at once in a packet. Looking back, I really should have handed them out one at a time. In this order:
****Starting with the country� map. Find Idaho and surrounding states/countries. (on the sheet there is easy boxes that state what needs to be done on the page)
****Then moved on to the Gem State map–find the capital, draw in the state borders and country borders etc. (on the sheet there is easy boxes that state what needs to be done on the page)
****Then move on to the County map. I provided a BLANK county map. This worked well for my more advanced students, but my trailers really had a hard time with this. Looking back I should have had a few labeled for my strugglers. there are other tasks to do on this–such as coloring the capital “bearing” county and the county that they live in (some were the same county and so I had them create a pattern with the two colors!)
****the next map is the physical/topography map.Adding in rivers, mountains, lakes, etc. This page again gives directions. Looking back I should have stuck with my original plan of making a playdough/salt dough map. They would have had more fun, and they wouldn’t have burnt out on maps quite so easily.
At this point we were done. Some things I would have changed but I learned a lot since this was my very first Co-op meet since I began homeschooling.
Below are links to the Map packet that I created with help from various sites. (any sites used has the website addy listed) Please feel free to copy as you need them.
Here is the .doc file
Here is the .pdf file
*********Please be aware that there are more maps in this packet then what we used during week one. the rest will be used during week 5.*********
After class I had everyone stick their maps inside their folders and make sure their name was on their folders–just on the tab portion as the cover will be done during week 8.
THE FOLDERS DO NOT GO HOME UNTIL THE END OF THE SESSION!
At home I took 2 page protectors for each student and slid in the maps back to back. (There are 4 maps to be done during this lesson so it worked out perfectly.) I then used large brass brads to secure the page protectors to the inside of the front cover. If you look in the picture you will see them holding the page protectors in.
And that’s it for week one!!
