Wednesday, September 15, 2010

State Tree Geography Activity



Wanting to tie our current lessons in fall foliage, and trees, into our geography lesson, I printed a US Forestry page of state trees (you can find a copy, here), for the children (ages 11 and 13), to cut up, and match to a United States map.

We used this map, from Coloring Castle, where there is also one with the state names printed on it. I chose the blank map though, so they'd have to label it themselves.

They cut it out, and glued it to a piece of thin cardboard.


They also cut out the individual pictures of the trees, which are labeled with the tree names, and the states they go with.


Then, they glued those around the outside of the map, and drew lines to the matching states.


I don't really expect them to memorize all the state trees, other than our own, but this gave them a chance to go through them, and review the geography of the states at the same time. And, we learned a few fun facts, like the state tree of Texas is the pecan tree - which the children can relate to, because they've eaten pecans, sent from their auntie's tree in Texas.

Don't forget to check out this week's Geography/History link-up at Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn, for more geographical fun.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

7 comments:

Debbie said...

What a creative way to reinforce the States. Even if they don't remember every tree, this will help them to identify the States.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

It's a neat link to state trees, and it looks like older kids were really into this project.

Kylie said...

yes what a grat way to cover geography and I bet they remember more trees than you expect, well done :)

Unknown said...

This activity has so many possibilities- state animals, state flags, etc.- wonderful inspiration!

Lacey (schoolhousefarm) said...

so neat! can't wait til my kids are ready for more like this!

Christy Killoran said...

I really like the way you did this.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the links. Great activity.
Blessings
Diane