Maine

 Last week we learned all about Maine, another addition to our post card project.

 

On the front: 

State Flag of Maine, "Where in the United states?" mini book, and the state quarter.  

 On the back is a lighthouse, labeled with all of the parts of a lighthouse.   We spent some time looking at photos of real lighthouses and comparing them, noting their similarities.  We also discussed what lighthouses are for.    To demo the concept, we used a dark room for night time, a flashlight to represent the light house, a box for a ship, and pillows for rocks.   The ship crashed into the rocks without the lighthouse to guide it!

Inside:
Left side has a Maine layer book, a map of Maine, and a coloring book page showing some things found in Maine including the state bird and tree, a map, and a lobster (if we weren't vegetarian, that would have been a fun cooking lesson)
Middle: our Main postcards - we got 2 of them and they both happened to have maps on them!  They also have lots of tiny pictures of all kinds of things found in Maine.  We spent a long time studying these.
The folded page is a compound word worksheet.   "Lighthouse" is a compound word, so that led us to explore other compound words and practice writing them and saying each part of the word.
The boat cards show all kinds of different boats, because there are a lot of boats in Maine!  We used these for various activities: classifying and sorting boats by size, mode of propulsion, function, etc. 
Right: Map of Maine (lots of maps this time), showing the state capital, Augusta.
And a Maine geography activity.  We looked at a map and learned how to use the compass to determine North South East and West

 

And lastly, is Levi's moose!  The antlers were supposed to be oak leaves, but he chose these from a bush in front of our house.  Levi it out on his own, and then decided to make it into a mask by adding eye holes.