Our program is FUN!
Your student will construct his very own state history project notebook using state-specific text, maps, and color state symbol pictures that we provide in the Student Booklet for your state. The Student Booklet may be either in perfect bound or spiral format. Both formats have perforated pages for easy removal of the handouts. Choose between three project notebook options:
Options 1 & 2: Use My State Notebook by Abeka (either the current version or the previous version) as the project notebook. My State Notebook is a pre-formatted scrapbook into which the student pastes text and pictures from our Student Booklet. The value of this option is that the student ends up with a beautiful project notebook without spending much time and energy on the notebook itself, allowing the student to focus on the content. This option is recommended for grades 3-6 and can also be beneficial for grades 7-8.
Option 3: Have your student transfer the information and pictures from the Student Booklet to a made-from-scratch project notebook using his own 3-ring binder. This option teaches organizational skills, offers opportunity for creativity of original pages if desired, and allows for easy expansion of the depth and length of the course through the use of the expansion suggestions given in the Master Lesson Plan Book. This option is recommended for grades 9-12. For parents of students in grades 3-8 who prefer notebooking in a binder, this option will work well but will require more parental supervision than the use of My State Notebook (Option 1 above).
Instructions are given in the Master Lesson Plan Book for all three options, and it is very simple to teach different options simultaneously for students of varying ages. Note: You do not need to be using Abeka to use the My State Notebook option. However, for those who do use Abeka 4th grade history, our 30-lesson plan is correlated to that curriculum and will provide the state history material needed for Lessons 86-115. INCLUDE YOUR LITTLES IN YOUR STATE HISTORY STUDY! OUR MASTER LESSON PLAN CORRELATES THIS LEVEL (GRADES 3-12) WITH THE YOUNGER LEVEL (AGE 4 - GRADE 2). SEE MY STATE HISTORY FUNBOOK.
Our program is SIMPLE and FLEXIBLE!
Almost no teacher preparation is required. The Student Booklet includes text, maps, color state symbol pictures, 6 quizzes, 2 tests, and an answer key. The Master Lesson Plan provides a Basic 30-Lesson Course that adapts easily to YOUR desired time schedule. Each lesson takes approximately 20-30 minutes. Options within the lessons and Expansion suggestions at the end of each lesson allow you to easily and individually adjust the difficulty level as desired. For example, you may assign a 3rd grader to simply paste in a free tourist brochure on the historical landmark page while you might require a 10th grader to write a short research report for that particular page.
For classroom settings and independent study projects, where 7th through 12th graders will be using the 3-ring-binder option, we provide a Six-Week Independent Study Guide and a One-Semester Independent Study Guide in the Appendix of the Master Lesson Plan Book. These guides simplify the instructions and options and are the only part of our materials that you may reproduce. We allow one teacher to make enough copies of one of these study-guide options to distribute to his/or her own students. For more information on using our materials in a classroom setting and adapting to secondary level students, see Using Our State History Course for Secondary Students.
What do I need to Purchase?
- Purchase one Student Booklet on the state of your choice per student (grades 3-12)
- Purchase one copy of the Master Lesson Plan Book for the parent or teacher
- Optional: Purchase one My State Notebook for each student (grades 3-8) for whom you will use Option 1
For younger children (age 3 through 2nd grade), we recommend purchasing My State History Funbook. The Funbook can be used by 3rd graders as well; however, most 3rd graders will do well with the older level course.
Check the FEATURED PRODUCTS link at the left to SAVE $8.00 when you purchase Fifty States Under God and Geography of the Fifty States as a SET!
You can use our state history course in combination with these two self-contained workbooks for a fun one- or two-year US History and Geography course!
