Lesson Plans
(Each lesson is designed to take about 40 minutes.)
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Week 1:
Before discussing a specific region within the USA with kids, it is a good idea to make sure they understand the concepts of “country” “region” and “cardinal directions,” so you will go over these concepts during the first two lessons.
For this week’s lesson you will need maps of the USA and the world, Three Little Javelinas, and the optional javelina coloring pages, link below.
Prepare for the class by printing out free javelina coloring pages at https://tpwd.texas.gov/kids/fun_stuff/color/color_javelina.phtml
Display the USA map for kids. Ask the kids if they know which country it is a map of.
Ask the kids “What is a country?” and wait for their responses.
Now you’ll start to lead the kids in an exercise to narrow things down to make sure they understand the concept of region within a country. Ask: “How many people live in the world?” Wait for guesses. Tell the kids “there are more than 7,590,000,000 people in the whole world!” You can show the kids the U.S. Census Bureau “U.S. and World Population Clock.”
(Indicate the United States on your map) Ask the kids how many people live in the United States. Answer: about 329,390,000 people live in the United States. You can show the kids the U.S.Census Bureau “U.S. and World Population Clock.”
Show the kids the world map. Tell the kids, of the more than 7 billion people on Earth, only about 329 million live in the United States. All of the other people live in countries other than the United States. There are countries on every continent except for Antarctica. There are 195 countries in the world. (source: worldatlas.com) Every country has its own laws, governments, and customs.
Tell the kids “The United States is on the continent of North America.” The largest countries in North America are: The United States of America, Canada, and Mexico. There are several other countries, territories, and possessions, too.
(Indicating the United States map) Tell the kids that the United States is a big country that is divided into fifty states and five territories (Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, The U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa). If you are in the U.S., ask the kids which state or territory they are in. Ask the kids how many miles it would be to drive from Maine to Washington state. Answer: About 3,600 miles.
Explain to the kids that since the United States is such a big country, people often talk about “regions” of the country. “Region” is a way of saying a large part of a country. In the United Sates a region usually has several states in it. In this class we will learn about a region of the United States called the Southwest.
(Indicate on the states on the map of the United States) The Southwest includes: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, Oklahoma, parts of Utah, parts of Colorado, parts of Kansas, and parts of California
If there is time left in your class, have the kids color the javelina coloring page.
Week 2
This week covers the Grand Canyon. At the end of the lesson the children will play a game to learn about cardinal directions. For this lesson you will need The 50 States and Grand Canyon, as well as the optional coloring print out of the Grand Canyon from education.com.
Go over important vocabulary before reading Grand Canyon. Ask the kids if they know what a canyon is. Answer: (definition from dictionary.com) A canyon is a deep valley with steep sides, often with a stream flowing through it.
Ask the kids if they know what a valley is. Answer: “A valley is a long depression, or ditch, in Earth’s surface. It usually lies between ranges of hills or mountains.” ( Source: https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/valley/435802)
Explain that today we will learn about one of the most famous canyons in the world, the Grand Canyon, which is located in Arizona.
If you have an internet connection and device in your classroom, show the kids Online Expeditions: Explorer Kids Grand Canyon Expedition. https://youtu.be/vFX49YQvpfs
Have the kids color in the Grand Canyon coloring pages for a few minutes. https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/national-parks-5/
Activity Now lets learn about cardinal directions. It’s important to make sure the kids know what the term “Southwest” means, after all. Since it’s the end of class and the kids are probably getting fidgety, it’s time for a kinesthetic game. If possible, this would be a good game to play outside. Draw a compass rose on your board or a piece of paper and teach the kids the mnemonic “Never Eat Soggy Waffles.” Explain that Southwest means in- between South and West, Northeast means in-between North and East, etc. Show them which way to jump for the directions. If you are on a playground you can mark the directions on the ground with sidewalk chalk. Yell out directions (North, South, East, West, Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest) and the kids jump in that direction.
Week 3
This week we will learn about the Sonoran Desert. For this week’s lesson you will need Deserts, The 50 States, Cactus Hotel and Don’t Call Me Pig a Javelina Story and an assortment of cut up fruits and vegetables cut so that the seeds are easy to see. (With any activity involving food, be sure to check with parents about food allergies.)
Read the class Deserts. Lead the students through a discussion of the book.
You can display the map of North American deserts from https://www.desertmuseum.org/books/nhsd_northamerica.php
Tell the students there are four deserts in North America. They are: Great Basin, Mohave, Chiuahuan, Sonoran. Today we are going to talk about the Sonoran Desert. The Sonoran Desert is in Arizona and California, and parts of Mexico.
Explain that people live in the Sonoran Desert. Some of the cities located in the Sonoran Desert are Phoenix, Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, and Palm Springs, California. Encourage the students to look at the North America deserts map and use it to figure out where the Sonoran Desert is located on the maps of Arizona and California in The Fifty States. Notice Saguaro National Park on the Arizona map, as well as the picture of a javelina with the caption “Don’t Call Me Pig!”
Activity: Examining Seeds You can do this activity before or after reading Cactus Hotel. Put out a variety of cut up fruit and vegetables with their seeds or pits showing. You don’t have to cut up berries that have their seeds on the outside. Coconuts are good for this activity because the entire fruit is a seed. Lead the class through a discussion. For example, Ask: Why do fruits and vegetables have seeds? (To reproduce and grow new plants.) How are the seeds spread? Why are some covered up by the fruit’s flesh, and others are on the outside, as with many berries? How do birds help to spread berry seeds? How do people and animals help to spread seeds after eating fruit? What happens when a piece of fruit falls from a tree?
Week 4
This week we will learn some of the history of the Southwest, and learn about Native American culture. For this week’s lesson you will need How The Stars Fell Into The Sky.
Before class, review this link to learn how to make a rainstick. Since it involves scrunching up wire, it’s better to premake the rainstick at home and bring it into class already assembled. https://makingmulticulturalmusic.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/make-your-own-rainstick/
If you don’t feel like making a homemade rain stick, you can purchase one through the Amazon link above.
Show your students this introductory YouTube video about Native Americans of the Southwest, Pueblo- Native Americans of the Southwest: https://youtu.be/S7IOowc544U
Explain the history of the rainstick to your class. They were probably originally invented by indigenous people in Chile a long time ago, and were used to help summon rain. They are made from dead cactus tubes. Let the kids have making music with the rain stick.
If there is time left in class read the poem The Rainstick by Seamus Heaney.
by Seamus Heaney
Upend the rainstick and what happens next
is a music that you never would have known
To listen for. In a cactus stalk
Downpour, sluice-rush, spillage and backwash
Come flowing through. You stand there like a pipe
Being played by water, you shake it again lightly
And diminuendo runs through all its sclaes
Like a gutter stopping trickling. And now here comes
A sprinkle of drops out of the freshened leaves,
Then subtle little wets off grass and daisies;
Then glitter-drizzle, almost-breaths of air.
Upend the stick again. What happens next
Is undiminished for having happened once.
Twice, ten, a thousand times before.
Who cares if the music that transpires
Is the fall of grit or dry seeds through a cactus?
You are like a rich man entering heaven
Through the ear of a shower. Listen now again.
Week 5
This week we will learn more about the history of the Southwest, and about the Mexican-American heritage of the region. We touch upon the Mexican-American War because it is important to understand the history of the Southwest. I have chosen resources that won’t be frightening to most kids.
For this week’s lesson you will need The Day it Snowed Tortillas
Read your students information about the Mexican-American War from Ducksters https://www.ducksters.com/history/westward_expansion/mexican-american_war.php
Show your students this YouTube video from the History Channel about the Mexican-American War. https://youtu.be/8U9vbZwFZL4
Week 6
This week we will tour Oklahoma and Nevada, learning about interesting places and people.
For this week’s lesson you will need The 50 States. For the optional butter making activity you will need a clean glass jar, such as a ball jar, 1 pint heavy whipping cream, and 1/8 teaspoon salt.
The Woody Guthrie Center is located in Tulsa. Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) was a famous and influential singer and songwriter who was born in Oklahoma. Watch this YouTube video of Woody Guthrie singing This Land is Your Land. The lyrics are available here: https://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/This_Land.htm
The Pioneer Woman Monument in Ponca City is a famous statue of a pioneer woman and her son. https://www.okhistory.org/sites/pioneerwoman Have a brief class discussion with your students. What do they think life was like for the Oklahoma pioneers?
Activity: In pioneer times, people made homemade butter with butter churns. Your students can replicate this process by making butter in a jar. It can take awhile to get the butter formed, so you might want to start passing the jar around at the beginning of class. Fill the glass jar halfway with cream, add the salt, and close the lid tightly. Let everyone take turns shaking the jar. After about 20 minutes of continuous shaking you should have butter. You can strain it with a fine mesh strainer to separate the butter and butter milk.
Now turn to pages 58-59 in The 50 States, Nevada. Look over the map with your students and read them the Welcome To The Silver State section, and the Key Facts Section. Point out the Basque Festival heading toward the top of the Nevada map. Let’s learn more about the Basque people . Show your class these YouTube videos: https://youtu.be/89IOCf_mQnc https://youtu.be/yGtzxNjGZ1k
Great Basin National Park is one of the few places stargazers can still view the Milky Way. Show your students a picture of this amazing sight: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/photocontest/detail/altered-images/milky-way-over-great-basin-national-park-nevada/
Week 7
This week we will travel to New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona, learning about interesting places and people.
Carlsbad Caverns are amazing to behold. Show your class this Go Traveler YouTube video about the caverns. https://youtu.be/UvxOy-6BWrs
Read The Legend of the Bluebonnet to your class.
Many famous musicians hail from Texas, including Willie Nelson. Here is a YouTube video of Willie Nelson singing Rainbow Connection. https://youtu.be/deebKNI-dTE
Where else in the world but in Tucson, Arizona would you see a pedestrian bridge built to look like a diamondback rattlesnake? https://www.visittucson.org/business/rattlesnake-bridge?clientid=27557
EXPLORE THE SOUTHWEST
This is a seven week curriculum for a homeschool co-op class. The class is suitable for kids from 4-7 years old, and assumes a class time of forty minutes. You can stretch things out or take away if you need more or less time. The lesson plans are free. All I ask is that you give Literary Homeschool credit somewhere in your course description. For example, this session our class will be Exploring the Southwest, Literary Homeschool. This is to help spread word of mouth about Literary Homeschool. Outside links to websites and YouTube channels are, of course, copyrighted by their own authors and are not a part of Literary Homeschool.
Note To Teacher: Some states are considered to be in more than one region of the United States. Also, some sources disagree on which state belongs in which region. For instance, The 50 States includes Nevada in the Southwest, but various online sources put it in “The West.”
I’ll be adding additional lesson plans for classes on other regions of the United States.