The Plan for Maine

The plans for our Maine state study have changed and evolved a few times.  I started out firmly convinced that a lapbook was the way to go.  I like lapbooks, they are portable, span a variety of age groups and are fairly easy to accomplish.  So we started reading and I began to re-think the lapbook idea. It occurred to me that I would like to make up notebooks for the children to use on our trip and to learn and record our journey. So I started with the Love2learn state by state booklist. This is an amazing resource put together by the homeschooling moms of the Love2learn.net website. I highly recommend checking it out.

I used the books over there in my sidebar and we have read and enjoyed them all except for Calico Bush which we haven’t gotten around to yet. I will probably bring it and start it around the bonfire next to the lake in the evenings.  At least that’s my idyllic view of what will happen. I’ll probably end up in a mucky tide pool looking for crawfish in the evenings.

All of these books have started little rabbit trails that will eventually end up in that lapbook. I decided the lapbook would comprise our literary pursuits and the notebook our actual travels. This might be a bit ambitious but I"m giving it a whirl.

Next I plan to download Newberry: The Life and Times of a Maine Clam onto the iPod for the ride up there. It just looks like fun.

Now for the notebooks.

 

These are in reverse order since I am new to this Photobucket stuff. I downloaded the first page first, silly me. The first page in everyone’s binders is a google map of our route, then a satellite picture of the place where we are staying. Next is directions. These are only in the big kids binders and I put them in in order to squash the "are we there yet?" monster. Then there is a timeline of Maine that I culled from a variety of resources. It is very broad and in fact, skips a whole 11,000 years at one point. That’s ok because I’m sure nothing too important happened then. (:)). Then there is a Fact Tree and a bunch of cool coloring pages featuring the wildlife, flora and fauna particular to Maine. These I got from Maine’s Secretary of State Kids Page. This website was an invaluable resource. It had so many fun facts, ideas, games and history. I wish every state was as accomodating to children with their online information. Not pictured in the binder yet but I will include are a bunch of pages from EdHelper. EdHelper has a fifty states unit and lots of games and puzzles for each state. You can make word searches, math questions, crossword puzzles and download reading comprehension stories. Next will be some stuff from:

State Flag
Map to be labled
Lobster Clams and Crab Book
Moose Info
Lighthouse Coloring Page

Now I am hoping to be able to get the binders all put together along
with the accompanying goody bags and get it all up here for you all to
see before we leave. Just in case I don’t have time I wanted to leave
you with the bulk of the project while I had time and then I will fill
in all the fun stuff later.

I’ll leave you all with a poem from Maine native Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that will be printed on pretty paper and kept in the binders. We will spend the rest of the summer memorizing it.

The Children’s Hour

Between the dark and the daylight,
  When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day’s occupations,
That is known as the Children’s Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me
  The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
  And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,
  Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
  And Edith with golden hair.

A whisper, and then a silence:
  Yet I know by their merry eyes
They are plotting and planning together
  To take me by surprise.

A sudden rush from the stairway,
  A sudden raid from the hall!
By three doors left unguarded
  They enter my castle wall!

They climb up into my turret
  O’er the arms and back of my chair;
If I try to escape, they surround me;
  They seem to be everywhere.

They almost devour me with kisses,
  Their arms about me entwine,
Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen
  In his Mouse-Tower on the

Rhine

!

Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
  Because you have scaled the wall,
Such an old mustache as I am
  Is not a match for you all!

I have you fast in my fortress,
  And will not let you depart,
But put you down into the dungeon
  In the round-tower of my heart.

And there will I keep you forever,
  Yes, forever and a day,
Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
  And moulder in dust away!

Have a blessed evening!