An appeal to American Sprite Stitchers

[smoni]

So, the curriculum in the UK is changing to a more cross-curricular, creative approach.

As part of this, our first topic as a school is the World Cup 2014 - we have to choose a country who are in the finals of the World Cup. I thought I'd choose the USA - my idea being '25 Days Around the USA' - possibly learning about 2 states a day. It's ambitious, but I reckon we could possibly give it a go...

So, I would love contributions from you, who know the states better than I do! A learning experience could be anything, art, food, history, geography, a variety would be fantastic (and, obviously, important)

To give you my current, not-very-well-thought-through ideas:
Florida - design a theme park/map (Disney/Universal Studios) or something to do with space missions (Cape Canaveral)
South Dakota - make your own Mt. Rushmore
New York - something based around architecture
North Carolina - flight?

I also thought, as an ongoing project we add to a jigsaw-esque map of the US, building up to a final display. Also, I thought once we'd learnt about a state we could design our own state quarter...

Please then, if you know a state well, and you could possibly provide some ideas, I'd be very very grateful!

[Kareesh]

I've lived in Iowa for the past 14 years, so I know quite a bit about it. What sort of stuff were you wanting to go over? Here's a little list of somewhat basic thingies about Iowa:

-> State capital is Des Moines
-> State bird is the Gold Finch
->We're known for corn and pigs
-> One of the largest state fairs in the world (people come from all over the world to it!)
-> Where the movie "Field of Dreams" was filmed. They still have the place up and running and have old-timey baseballs games played there on occasion

Hope that helps. I also know a bit about Illinois as well, so lemme know if you need anything else. I could also get a hold of some postcards from Iowa if you would like them.

[smoni]

Well, ideally I was looking for an activity that might be related to your state which I could do with a class of 10 year olds...

The state fair sounds like an interesting idea, but I don't really know what's involved in a state fair!

Postcards would be amazing! If you're happy to send me some, pm me and I'll give you my address

[Kareesh]

The state fair sounds like an interesting idea, but I don't really know what's involved in a state fair!

Well, it's like a county fair, but on a state-wide level. Erm...let's see....they have contests for baking, cooking, produce, animals, singing, etc. There are also demonstrations for various things, and information on things that happen in the state, mainly agriculturally based. Here's a link to the website for the fair to give you some ideas as to what goes on.

Postcards would be amazing! If you're happy to send me some, pm me and I'll give you my address

Yup. There's a store where I live that's all about the state of Iowa, so I'm sure they'll have different ones show-casing various things about our state.

I'll think about the activities. Something farm related, but I dunno...I'll have to get back to you about that.

[SofaraStarfyre]

Being originally from Maine and having spent the first 20 years of my life there, I think I know it pretty well but it's been over a decade since I last lived there.

It's state capital is Augusta, and the bird is the Black-capped Chickadee.

Maine is VERY well known for it's seafood, particualarly it's lobsters and clams, as well as it's wild Maine blueberries, which happen to be the state fruit, and pies made from them, the state dessert.

It's largest city population wise is Portland with over 66 thousand residents, and overall Maine has an estimated 1,328,302 population as of a July 1st 2013 census.

Most of the above info came from the Wikipedia site about Maine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine


I currently live in Pennsylvania and have for almost 13 years now. It is one of the original 13 states that founded the US.

It's capital is Harrisburg.

It is ranked 9th in overall population of the 50 states, with an estimated overall population of 12,773,801 in a 2013 census.

Pennsylvania is known for Mushrooms first and foremost, secondly it's apples and 3rdly it's Christmas trees.

It is home to 50 Fortune 500 companies, some of which are U.S. Steel, PPG Industries, and H.J. Heinz (think ketchup), and also GE Transportation Systems which is the largest producer of train locomotives in the US. It's also home to Crayola (crayons, etc) and Hershey's Chocolate Factory.

All of this came from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania

There is a LOT more info about both states on the wiki pages I linked for each.

[kuja.girl]

I've lived in Iowa for the past 14 years, so I know quite a bit about it. What sort of stuff were you wanting to go over? Here's a little list of somewhat basic thingies about Iowa:

-> State capital is Des Moines
-> State bird is the Gold Finch
->We're known for corn and pigs
-> One of the largest state fairs in the world (people come from all over the world to it!)
-> Where the movie "Field of Dreams" was filmed. They still have the place up and running and have old-timey baseballs games played there on occasion

I now live in Iowa but grew up in California and have also lived in Oregon and Illinois.
Iowa: the state fair is pretty special. The ones in California were always crowded and dirty, Iowa's was clean and comfortable and oh boy, that butter cow. I think you could have a lot of fun with this theme.

California: State and National parks could be fun we have a ton. 26 National and I'm not even sure how many state parks... maybe stick with National lol. The great part is they are all different types: coastal, desert, forest, mountain, etc.

[Batboard]

I'm born and raised in Florida, almost 30 yrs, gosh I'm getting old, any who, anything you want to know or need just pm me and I'll do what I can. St Augustine is the nations oldest city and has a nice old fort that is really interesting. And the am parks, beaches, space cost, hurricanes, gators, all that stuff. Really, it seems everything is trying to kill you every day, , lighting, sharks, tornados, snakes, heat heat and more heat, ugggggg but it's not really that bad.

[carand88]

lived in New York most of my life and have been living in Ohio for the last 2-3 years, so i know a bit about both.

New York: two of the great lakes border it, which makes the areas around it experience quite a bit of snow in the winter due to lake effect snow. however, NY is also home to the finger lakes, which were created by glaciers in one of the ice ages. Rochester, NY is where the headquarters of the Eastman Kodak company is. The Erie Canal runs through the entire starts. It starts in Buffalo and ends in Albany, where it connects to the Hudson River, making it easier for the transportation of goods back in the good old days before trains were so heavily relied upon. Albany is the state capital, and NYC used to be the nations capitol until it was later decided to move it more south to help unionize the country in the brink of civil war.....or something along those lines.

Ohio: the birthplace of aviation. the wright brothers had their first flight in this state and Neil Armstrong also lived in this state for most of his life. annie oakley, a woman who was very good with a gun, also lived in OH.

drawing a blank on some other things, but if i come up with more i will definitely post it or you could pm me.

[jadely]

KENTUCKY! The Bluegrass state. For real. We have blue grass... Well, if it starts to grow waist high. But it's still blue

The two things we are the most well-known for are Bourbon (not really 10 year old appropriate, but still fun ) and the Kentucky Derby... well, horse racing in general. The Kentucky Derby is held in Louisville, KY at Churchill Downs, and there are tons of horse farms around my stomping ground of Lexington and Versailles. I remember, during my elementary school days, we would all "bet" on a horse that was running, we would talk about statistics for horses (I don't know how your age group would be with this... But it's math-y), and then we would watch the race, which is all of 2 minutes. One year, we even made our own ponies out of those big dowel rods and stuffed socks we decorated with markers, paint, and yarn, and then we had our own little race on the playground.

To kickoff the Derby, there is what we call "Thunder Over Louisville" which is the largest annual fireworks display in North America. Do I need to say it? Set off things that go BOOM! Watch kids be entertained!

We also have Mammoth Cave, which is the longest cave system in the world. We took a tour there once, but the build up to the trip we had all sorts of fun talking about all the cool things about caves and how they're formed. Maybe you could do some science-y things, like growing rock candy to show how minerals can build up in a cave system.

KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken, was started by Colonel Sanders in Corbin, KY. I don't really know what you can do with that... but maybe eat chicken?

Cumberland, KY is the only waterfall in the world to regularly display a Moonbow. You could talk about light refraction and what makes rainbows, and do some activity or artsy thing where kids make rain/moonbows.

To tie in all of the USA to Kentucky, during the Civil War period, Kentucky was the birth place of both presidents: Abraham Lincoln, President of the USA (Union) and Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy (Rebels). They were born less than one hundred miles apart.

OOOOO! The song "Happy Birthday to You" was written by two Louisville sisters in 1893. Any excuse to eat cake is a good one

Cyntiana, KY makes almost (if not all) of the Post-it brand sticky notes. It's something quick and easy you can show the kiddos.

Our song, "My Old Kentucky Home" is pretty awesome. Written by Stephen Foster. It's beautiful.

Daniel Boone is buried here. He is a famous Folk Hero in America. You could have your kiddos read some of the folk stories and the real biography of Daniel Boone. He also traveled a lot of places, so you could even tie him into some other states.

Thomas Edison lived and worked in Louisville for a time. His incandescent light bulb was first shown in Louisville in 1883. You could do an pretty awesome science experiment about generating electricity with lemons or potatoes.

In Fort Knox, KY, there is an estimated $6 billion worth of gold held in underground vaults-- this is the largest amount of gold stored anywhere in the world.

We might not be "famous" for it, but we're pretty obsessed with college basketball here. We have out two state universities, University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky, that are big names in the NCAA. In 2012, UK won, and last year U of L won. It was pretty cool to have two wins back to back. NCAA tournament starts with March Madness and you could actually talk about the Universities in a lot of different states while talking basketball with your kiddos.

And you cannot talk about Kentucky without bringing up good ol' Appalachia. There are the coal mines there, with a lot of fighting over sustainable energy. There is the famous (at least in America) Hatfield-McCoy feud that lasted from the Civil War into the 1890s. And most of the stereotypes associated with Kentucky come out of the Appalachia region and its "hill folk."

It would be SUPER cool to do a little linguistic study with your kids about how people speak English different across the globe. People in America think Kentuckians sound really funny, so it would be neat to let some of your kiddos hear how Kentuckians talk, versus someone from Texas (or another deep South State like Georgia or Alabama) and compare that to someone from the New England area. I'm a high school teacher, and I'm sure I could convince some of my kiddos to record/video how they pronounce certain words or what we Kentuckians call certain things-- like cantaloupe for a lot of Eastern KY people is "mush melon."

I totally dorked out on that. Sorry. I love my state!

[funkymonkey]

What a cool idea! Sounds like a fun activity for your class!

I'm from Texas, which is the largest of the contiguous (touching) states, Alaska is technically bigger. It was actually its own country, the Republic of Texas, from 1836 - 1845. While there is a lot of agriculture in Texas (because of all the land) and people relate Texas with cowboys, most people in cities DON'T wear cowboy hats all the time, or ride horses to work. One of the most annoying stereotypes of Texans, IMHO. Houston is the largest city (4th largest in the US), but Austin is the capitol.

There are tons of songs about Texas, more than most other states I would say. "Texas, Our Texas", "Deep In The Heart of Texas", "The Yellow Rose of Texas", for example. We used to sing these in elementary school, maybe that would be a fun Texas activity that isn't entirely cowboy related? Or at least, provide you some background music while you draw pictures of cowboys. Nowadays, Texas is also known for energy (oil, and wind energy), technology, and medical research. We also have a pretty sweet flag, as state flags go.