Journey Across America Celebration!

After teaching about each of the regions of the United States, I planned a "Journey Across America" celebration for my class.  Several parent volunteers helped to run the stations for a creative project: create your own state!  Each student thought up a new state to add to the United States.

At one station, students had to draw the outlines of their states and place them on the map.

At another station, they recorded facts about their state, such as state bird, flower, motto...

Students also had to think through what someone could do if they visited the new state.  They named new cities, landmarks, mountains, and lakes.  Some sports aficionados even created sports teams for their new states.

Finally, students also created their states' flags out of colored construction paper.

To continue our North America unit, we are in the midst of a two-week unit on Canada, and we'll travel to Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean after that.  The journey continues!