[moniquita]

Hi everybody!
I was wondering if anybody had any ideas for centers to teach the 50 states. I teach 4th grade. I would really appreciate your help.

Thank you!
Monica

[Phyllis]

I see that you teach in the SE. I would make a little map of the SE and do a pretest to see how many states in that region each student knows. Then I would make a two person game where one student has the states numbered and labeled and the other student only has the outline map of the region with states numbered. They could take turns testing each other on the states.

Then I would go to the NE. It's actually the hardest probably. Again, I would pretest to see which ones each student already knows. Let them color in the ones that are correct and use a labeled map to correctly name the others. Then they should study the ones they do not know.

If you could have a center on computer, there are interactive maps for checking yourself out on identifying the states.

A center with a labeled outline map of the states could be used with a set of questions to answer. Some examples are: What state is west of Alabama? To go from TN to SC, through what state would you travel? Which two states have only one neighbor (bordering state? TN has 8 neighbors. Name them. Which other state has 8 nighbors? Name them. If you traveled from FL to DC, through which states would you travel? Two states west of the Mississippi River have a rectangular shape. Name them. (Well, you get the idea AND can tell I don't have enough to do.)

List the states in ABC order. This will help:
A (4)
B (0)
C (3)
D (1)
E (0)
F (1)
G (1)
H (1)
I (4)
J (0)
K (2)
L (1)
M (8)
N and so on

You could also have outline maps of the US and have them find and label the states that border the Mississippi River.

I played a game of 20 questions with my class. Using a big outline map of the states, I would say: Twenty Questions - it's a state. They could ask questioned answerable with yes or no. They soon learned the best question was: Is it east (or west) of the Mississippi River? Other good ones: Does it border a foreign country? Does it border a body of water? If they guessed the wrong state, they were OUT for the rest of the game. They loved doing this. (one student kept count of the questions as they were asked, and I made a big deal of it if they won (guessed before using all the questions).

Sorry this is so long.

[ajmm115]

Two worksheets for the US

[Luckydog]

There's a song called Fifty Nifty United States that all the kids here know. Google it and do a listening center. I've also seen clickable maps that they can do on the computer.

[LRRichardson]

Thanks for attaching those worksheets. I will save them for later use!

[trishg1]

Here is a ws I made to use with my 3rd grade postcard exchange. we bound them into a book

[katie8170]

thanks ajmm for those papers!