the TEXAS-sized spring break that almost wasn't

So...
For the past 2 weeks, I have been busily working on plans for a fun-filled spring break week.
My little brother, brown-eyed boy, usually homeschools with us, but our brother, J, is in public school and they are on spring break this week. My dad decided to head out of town for the week with them...So... this means we are taking a break from school too.  

...However...

I actually did a little planning ahead (yay me!) and we opted to dig a little deeper into our state studies for MFW-Adventures and focus on our home state all week long. The state studies are great, but my kids were a bit dissapointed that we didn't really get into all the ins and outs of Texas. So, with not much else to do spring break week, we decided to focus on TEXAS.

The sad part of all this is that, despite all my planning, my laptop crashed 3 days prior to spring break and I lost everything... all my plans, lessons, ideas, and the e-Texas-lapbook I purchased, which was to be the focal point of the week. I did scratch a few notes onto notebook paper, and from that, free internet sites, and a Texas unit I saved waaaay back from my student teaching days, I was able to throw something together for our TEXAS week.

{at the end of this post are links to many sites containing *free* pictures, reproducibles, and worksheets you can use for your TEXAS state studies}

Monday

We had a brief overview of what we would be doing all week long. The kids took out their Texas state sheets from their state notebooks they have been making for Adventures in My father's World and reread many of the facts and information on the back of the sheets. The kids told me some of the things they already knew about Texas and some of the things they'd like to learn. We located our little town on the map and marked it with a star. Then, Blue-eyed boy and Brown-eyed girl decorated the covers of their Texas lapbooks.

Some friends of ours joined us for lunch and the kids all played and had a blast together till late afternoon.

Tuesday

Today, the kids made a little flip booklet to go in their lapbooks. We learned about our state bird, flower, motto, mammal, reptile, song, capital, and tree. They also cut out and colored various pictures of these things and glued them in their lapbooks. If you choose to do something like this, I would suggest printing out several that are already pre-colored. My kids were very tired of coloring by the end of the week.

 Wednesday

Before heading to Granny's house, we learned about the Alamo and colored pictures, checked out the Alamo website, and painted our bluebonnet pictures.

Thursday

I had to babysit the neighbor boys all day, so they joined us for our Texas studies today. The kids decorated pecan trees using tissue paper, crayons, construction paper, and glue. That took them quite a while. I was thinking they'd just ball up one huge piece of green tissue paper, slather it with glue, and slap it on, but they actually took their time and they all turned out nice. What to do next? ...Something that would keep them equally busy. Well, I had quite a bit of air dry clay left over from a project we did at the beginning of the school year, so I had the kids make models of the Alamo. They did really well! Not sure how the 'snow theme' got into the picture, but it did and we went with it.

 Friday

This is the very last day for the Texas unit. Today, the kids labeled and colored a little fold out Texas flag. Blue stands for loyalty, red stands for bravery, and white stands for purity. We learned more about the capital building in Austin, Texas and visited the website. Then the kids finished up by coloring, cutting, and gluing a picture of the capital building in their lapbooks. All in all, they had a fun-filled TEXAS-sized spring break week! Hmmm...perhaps we'll have chili for dinner ;) 

Here are their state pictures from Adventures in My Father's World



Links:

http://www.texasbob.com/colorindex.html (various info and symbols for you to color and cut out)

http://homeschooling.about.com/od/unitssubjgeog/ss/texasprint_7.htm (more info and symbols)

http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/texas-coloring-page/ (various pictures and state info)

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/coloring-pages/usa/texas/map-outline.html (Texas map shape, perfect for labeling)

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/coloring-pages/usa/texas/state-flag.html (to make the fold out flag, just measure out from each rectangle and cut the flaps out accordingly)

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108277.html (state information)

http://thealamo.org/ (Alamo website)

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/texas/ (tons of great information and activities: maps, worksheets, color pages, fact wheel, notebook activity, etc) *some of these printable items are only available to members*

http://www.edhelper.com/geography/Texas.htm (more worksheets and info)

http://www.thekcrew.net/rodeo.html (a Texas unit for younger kids)

http://www.tspb.state.tx.us/CVC/home/home.html (Texas capital visitors center)

(this post is linked to Homeschool Highlights in MFW at A Heart Like Water and at WierdUnsocializedHomeschoolers weekly wrap ups)