Texas has become near and dear to our hearts with Gammie and Aunty Holly and Cousin Jimmie. So of course we had to jump in all the way and get going with a full on month long unit. Here are most (I hope) of the resources we used for our binder! Enjoy! Also check out our DINOSAUR related resource page HERE.

BOOKS!

• Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch by Anne Isaacs
• Texas by Jim Ollhoff
• Texas by AV2
• Texas by Ann Heinrichs
• Dinosaur Hunt by Karen Carr
• Life at the Alamo by Sally Senzell Isaacs
• Texas Facts and Symbols by Emily McAuliffe
• America the Beautiful: Texas by Ann Heinrichs
• Texas Rangers’ Legendary Lawmen by Michael P. Spradlin
• How to Get Rich on a Texas Cattle Drive by Tod Olson

VIDEOS!

• Smithsonian Aerial America Texas HERE.
• A special thanks to sisters Holly (my sister in law) and Heather (her sister) who are Texans to the core for these!

Davy Crockett thanks to Hanna Barbera… I did have to tell the kids that some of the terms and such was …. old fashioned? But you really got a feeling of how a person becomes a legend.

Ballad of the Alamo WITH LYRICS.

Confederate Song – The Yellow Rose of Texas

Fess Parker – Ballad of Davy Crockett (1955)

WORKSHEETS!

• I have my Texas worksheets on Education.com collected under my Minnesota folder HERE (I know confusing but I never did get around to trying to rename it US States)
• We covered a little bit of weather  too… mainly comparing our week to a week in Texas and talking about seasons but I have a few jr. print outs… From Worksheetplace.com HERE and Kinderhelper.com HERE
• Colouring pages by TexasBob.com HERE
• Texas – a Mini Unit Study by Learning Treasures HERE
• State flag with EnchantedLearning HERE
• Symbols of Texas with Kids’ House HERE
• Homeschooling.About.com Texas unit study HERE
• John Tyler worksheet thanks to Activity Village. In fact you can find other state heroes on this site just search under Texas (link to site on right)
• Learning Treasures Mini Unit Study HERE

HELPFUL SITES!

• We found an excellent definition for BIOMES when covering the different landscapes in Texas thanks to Geography4Kids.com HERE.
• Lists of endangered and threatened animals in Texas. The boys loved some of the wild names on these! Texas Parks and Wildlife HERE.
• We had a wonderful fact or fiction worksheet on Education.com (link above to folder) on Pecos Bill but were sent along to the Legends of America site HERE for another version of the legend which totally tickled the boys after our discussions about exaggeration and how “things are always bigger in Texas!”
• A little summary on Davy Crockett… We wanted to find him in our books but really beyond him dying at the Alamo (or at least within some portion of the conflict) we had to go to the internet to learn more HERE thanks to The History Channel.
• An overview with the climate in Texas (we supplemented with searching for pictures of each season) thanks to Wiki HERE.
• The Alamo.org HERE… about… The Alamo!
• The Legend of the Bluebonnets thanks to the site Multicultural Education Through Miniatures HERE.
• What Are Myths, Legends and Folktales? Definitions thanks to Myths and Legends HERE.
• Texas State Song: Texas, Our Texas thanks to Lone Star Junction HERE.
• Texas state information page with EnchantedLearning HERE

Downloadables!

• Texas The Lone Star State mini lapbook thanks to Fortunately For You Books (also for purchase on Currclick) HERE
• 

May 24-29

I have to say we have learned from our winter… get those kids OUTSIDE!!!

And on Sunday we joined Matt, Fran and their twins at a local park to have a full on BBQ…

Park…

Lake…

S’mores…

(and dinner)…

We had it all!

And on the Monday we were back to Geocaching… we have had some amazing journal entries regarding our experience with some VERY creative hiding ideas.

We had a lovely print out for a scavenger hunt (HERE) to have the kids looking everywhere for their nature objects.

And a break with snacks and park fun while the twins and Ken hunted that last cache.

Tuesday was much more our work work work on the schoolwork day! We had a rather interesting experience learning about Legends and Pecos Bill. We are working on understanding the difference between true factual stories and what a legend really is. The kids just keep quoting back at me – EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TEXAS and then giggling.

We got back into our classic Treasure Island. I am not sure which book we will read next. BUT we are working on a plan to get us storytime every day.

We are working through our dinosaurs that were in our Texas book… of course links to all of this will be in the Texas resource page (eventually).

And then right back out to burn off the energy… so much discussion of spring, teaching of siblings on the outside toys… so much fun!

On Wednesday I changed it up. Before the mosquitoes can take hold we drug the whole classroom outside to enjoy our grassy backyard. Once we found an ant free spot that is!

Great fun and we didn’t get too badly eaten up.

We fulfilled another additional Scout thing by driving down to a local small airport and checking out the planes. The kids all took turns spotting planes and talking about the different kinds. Family favourite is the seaplane. Though everyone was quite put out they land in LAKES not SEAS.

From there it was on to a park for a Geocache and play about in the sun.

Goofs!

Add in some Texas themed story writing and I think we succeeded with an interesting mid week.

Thursday was another special outside day. Echo had a preschool assessment to go to at our church so she and Ken dropped us off half way with some schoolwork.

A snack…

and a park! It was just really too bad that her session was delayed, we were there over 2 hours in the end and rather warm and cranky. BUT we met some wonderful little kids with their dads and enjoyed a perfect spring day.

Miss Echo did wonderfully with her assessment though they did reinforce that we should get her hearing tested to rule out anything extra in regards to her lisp (not total word forming… lazy girl!) which of course we already had scheduled for later in June.

Spring has sprung and so have we… out into the sunshine!

With super high water levels EVERYWHERE

Can you spot the neighbourhood white squirrel?