States and Regions.

We are in using the KONOS curriculum, studying the unit on cooperation, subunit states and regions, sub-sub unit, New England. We will probably only be doing a few days in each region. I'm really not sure. In case you haven't noticed from reading my blog, I don't plan too much in advance. There are probably 30 activities for New England in the book. I chose several that sounded good to me and we did 3 today. First, we sat down and looked at the map and pointed out the New England states, then we named some things that this region is famous for. For lunch, we tasted clam chowder. Then we made a lighthouse. The activity in the book just tells the kids to make a lighthouse, no instructions. They did a good job and the one the 2 little kids made, actually lit up. They used a plastic cake cover and a large round plastic container, covered it in blue paper and then demonstrated how the lighthouse worked by spinning the cake cover on the top so that the flashlight would spin. I'm sure it is hard to picture, but it was a good effort. My older son fashioned a more traditional looking lighthouse out of a paper towel roll.
After the lighthouse activities, we went to the creek to catch crayfish, the freshwater cousin of the lobster. That was fun. Now we are waiting for the mud to settle so we can study them a bit and draw them before we return them to their habitat. We aren't seafood lovers, so we won't be cooking them. ;-p