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51st
State
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Introduction:
The United States
Agency for Statehood is looking for students who are interested in
creating a new state. Who says that there should be only 50 states??
Why not fifty-one? What would that state be called? Where would it be
located? If you are up to the task and create a new state, a
representative from the agency will visit your classroom to hear a
presentation about your suggestions and then take them back to his
office for consideration. You may be the creator of a brand new state
for our nation!!
Task:
The class needs to
start by learning about their own state-Virginia. Once they know the
following things about their own state, they can go about creating a
suggestion for a new state.
- State
name
- state
flag
- symbols such as
state bird, song, tree/flower
- size and
shape
- location
- landforms
- capital
- sights of
interest
- different kinds of
areas: rural and urban
- state
quarter
Small groups of
students will work together to design a new state and then create a
brochure to present to the agency representative outlining the
information above.
Process:
- Read letter #1 from the U.S. Agency
for Statehood. (** Teachers: we created a Yahoo email account for
Cyrus S. Quigley, the administrator of the U.S.A.S and sent emails
to the teacher's email account. She opened the emails and read
them to her class.)
- Read My Global Address
book.
- Read letter #2 and book on
Virginia. Visit Virginia quilt created by former students hanging
in school lobby.
- Create sentence strips listing
items that need to be researched about Virginia (see list
above.)
- Create two class books on Virginia.
Review what was learned from the Virginia book. Give each child a
topic card with one of the items listed above. Introduce resources
that students can use to find their information. Start
research.
- Students come to computer lab and
using a template, write the sentences they've created about their
topic and draw a picture.
- Introduce map concepts using a maps
big book and What is a Map? by Lauren
Weidenman.
- With a large grid created with Tom
Snyder's Neighborhood MapMachine, students practice placing
objects on the grid with directions. (ie. Place the pencil to the
east of the eraser. Place the crayon above the
pencil.)
- Post large N,E,S, and W high up on
the classroom walls with the help of the students and a
compass.
- (** Teachers: create grids on trays
by drawing a 9 box grid and labeling them with A,B,C across the
top and 1,2,3 along the side. You could use a large 12x18 piece of
paper for this activity but these teachers used trays from FCPS
first grade science kits.)
- Using trays play a desktop tray
activity. Students place objects on the grid and then create a key
with the grid key handout. Remove the objects from the tray and
students move to another desk where they try to place the objects
in the correct location according to the grid key. Keep
switching.
- Computer lab activity: Students
discuss the meaning of rural and urban. Using Tom Snyder's
Community Construction Kit, they create buildings that
represent rural and urban settings. Then they bring them back to
their classroom and set them up on the large floor grid to
represent a rural and urban community.
- Read Me on the Map by Joan
Sweeney and Blast off to Earth by Loreen Leedy. Complete a
world map cut and paste activity and a KidPix continents
computer lab lesson. Learn a continent song in music.
- Introduce landforms with Our
Earth by Anne Rockwell and Hottest, Coldest, Highest,
Deepest by Steve Jenkins. Create landforms out of clay.
- In art class, make 3-D landforms
with paper.
- Read letter #3. Form state
groups.
- Decide on state names. Each group
has a folder to keep all of their drawings, notes,
etc.
- Spend a week or more creating the
new state and designing text and pictures to go on the
brochure.
- Discuss possible interesting
sights. Read Hiking in the USA. Using a camera reproducible
from DK's My Amazing First World Explorer, introduce the
concept of drawing a series of pictures to look like they are
being taken by the camera.
- Glue all of the new state
information on the brochures.
- Practice the presentations in front
of your class and one other.
- Have Cyrus S. Quigley
visit.
- Take the unit
assessment.
Opportunities
to share:
- Students share their knowledge of
Virginia through the creation of a book about the
state.
- K,W, L charts are used throughout
the unit.
- Students work cooperatively in
their groups to create the books and brochures.
- State presentations for the
U.S.A.S.
- Brochures are hung in the school
halls to share with other teachers, parents and
students.
Assessment:
Ongoing assessment in
the form of anecdotal records are taken as students work together to
create books and brochures. Teachers are looking at how the students
work cooperatively and if they assume their share of the
responsibility of the group. A multiple choice test is administered
to students after the presentations are complete.
Teacher
section: This unit
was completed by two first grade teachers in approximately 3-4 weeks.
During the unit, teachers designed a Think Tac Toe activity to go
along with the concept of mapping. This activity was used to direct
student learning during center time. It could also be used as a
homework calendar. After the presentations were complete, Cyrus S.
Quigley sent one more email (letter #4) stating that, although the
presentations had been superb, a student at another school had been
selected to go forth with their idea for a 51st state. All students
were sent a pencil with Virginia pencil topper for their efforts.
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To see pictures from the unit,
click on the globe.
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Main Page
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Unit designed by
Sunny
Heinrichs and
Amy
Lasich
Page created by Brooks
Widmaier
January 30, 2003
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51st State 