Pennsylvania Unit Study

Below is our plan for a wonderful unit study to prepare us for our trip.  My 8 yo will be doing a notebook.  The 7 yo and 5 yo will be doing lapbooks.  I got a lot of ideas for our study by simply reading through some travel guides as I was trying to decide what to visit while there.  There is also a free lapbook here and some neat pages here, as well as lots of free stuff all over the internet.  I also have some notebooking pages that I have received free over the past few years.

Day 1–Pennsylvania overview:  Read "K is For Keystone" by Kane (see sidebar); draw cities and major areas on a Pennsylvania map; pages on the motto, state tree, bird, seal, etc.

Day 2–The Amish:  Read "What Makes Me Amish?" by George, "Amish Horses" by Ammon (his books are wonderful), and "The World of Amish Quilts" by Pellman; do page on comparing cars to buggies; look at quilts (Picturing America) ; hex designs–see some on internet; make shoo-fly pie; sew a nine-patch or crazy quilt square

Day 3–William Penn/ Quakers:  read "William Penn" by Walsh and do page on Penn

Day 4–Milton Hershey:  read "Milton Hershey: Chocolate King, Town Builder" by Simon and write page on Milton Hershey, look at Hershey website, make S’Mores

Day 5–John Audubon:  Look at his book "Birds of America" (miniature copy found at library), see poster in Picturing America, draw birds, and listen to bird sounds (have on my iPod)

Day 6–Mary Cassatt: read "Mary Cassatt" by Mattern, look at her works (Picturing America) and write a page

Day 7–Louisa May Alcott and Stephen Foster:  read "Louisa May Alcott" by Ditchfield and "Lives and Times: Stephen Foster" by Pancella , listen to CD "The Stories of Foster and Sousa", finish listening to "Little Women" on CD, listen to and sing some of Stephen Foster’s songs (have on my iPod), write pages on Alcott and Foster

Day 8–Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence:  read "The Declaration of Independence" by Landau, do copywork of parts of the Declaration

Day 9–Constitutional Congress/ Constitution of the U.S.:  do copywork of the Preamble, study the Bill of Rights, watch "A More Perfect Union" on DVD (see sidebar)

Day 10–Daniel Boone:  read "Who Was Daniel Boone?" by Kramer and do page, act out scenes from his life

Day 11–Ben Franklin:  Read "Ben and Me", look at copy of Poor Richard’s Almanack, do pages about him and his inventions, copywork of his maxims, study statue of him (Picturing America)

Day 12–Frank Lloyd Wright/ Fallingwater:  read "The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: Understanding the Concepts of Parallel and Perpendicular" by Levy,  study picture of Fallingwater (Picturing America), do some drawings/ pretend to be an architect

Day 13–Civil War/ Battle of Gettysburg/ Gettysburg Address:  read "The Battle of Gettysburg: Would You Lead the Fight?" by Landau and "The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary" by Fleming, study photo of Lincoln (Picturing America), finish reading Lincoln biography  by Benge, copywork of the Gettysburg Address, say the Gettysburg address as a speech

Day 14–Revolutionary War/ Crossing of Delaware/ Valley Forge:  do some activities from "The Revolutionary War Book of Games and Puzzles", study painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware (Picturing America)

Day 15–Betsy Ross:  read "Betsy Ross: A Flag for a New Nation" by Cox, study the history of the U. S. flag; link it to Fort McHenry/ read "Fort McHenry" by Maynard, Star-Spangled Banner/ read about it in "The Star-Spangled Banner: The Making of an American Icon" by Taylor and sing it, and Francis Scott Key/ listen to story about him on iPod

Now, we just have to finish this study before my mom, sister, nephew, and niece come to visit at the end of May!