Louisiana Unit

Louisiana is a fun state to study, we spent a couple of weeks on it and I feel like there is still so much we could have done. Hi! Future Ticia 2023 here, so we’re going back and redoing some of our units from when the kids were really young as a quick review before they graduate high school. That means we redid this geography lesson as a very quick Louisiana Unit. I’ll add in all the resources we originally used, and then what we did for our second Louisiana Unit.

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Louisiana Unit resources

Way back when we first studied Louisiana YouTube wasn’t really a thing, so I had a Louisiana booklist and a quick search of what people might study for the state. However now I have multiple videos, all crazy cheesy. Just wait until I link to them.

Louisiana Unit videos

I enjoy watching my high schoolers groan in pain as we watch these.

In a previous post (Kentucky Unit) I said it was a sock puppet. I guess technically it’s a fuzzy worm, or maybe it’s a sock with a giant fluffball on the end.

I cringe just a little as these videos start.

However, I laugh quite a lot when I start these National Geographic videos. I should go see if they have a playlist so I can add it to my United States geography unit.

Okay those are the videos that give useful information, now on to…

Louisiana booklist

Our library has a lot of Louisiana books, and by a lot I mean over 10, which is quite a lot all things considered.

• Louisiana– it’s a nice general fact book if you want something like this to base your unit on
• Lapin plays possum: trickster tales from the Louisiana Bayou– I’m always happy to see a trickster tale pop up
• Feliciana Feydra LeRoux– an adorable out of print book about a little girl who wants to go alligator hunting with the rest of her family, I like that it includes a cajun translation
• Mr. Williams– the story of an African American boy who grew up in rural Louisiana as told to the author, I highly recommend reading it if you can find it, the illustrations are great, and the story is a great slice of life
• Trombone Shorty– the story of a man who got to play with the greats of jazz as a young boy gets to play with the greats
• My Aunt Came Back from Louisiane– this book takes a classic song and adapts it to a wonderfully illustrated picture book
• Mardi Gras– a quick explanation about this holiday, it looks like there is an updated edition from what my library has
• Trosclair and the Alligator– it has some fun dialogue in this book, and it’s got such a great voice to it
• Chicken Joy on Redbean Road– adorable story where music heals people
• Today is Monday in Louisiana-this author has amazing stories for Louisiana, and several other states, so if you ever see Johnette Downing books pick them up

Our original Louisiana Unit

You can tell this version was completed when Hurricane Katrina was still very much in mind with one of our activities.

Going clockwise, starting in the top left:

• Louisiana state picture
• My plan to save the levies- this is one I never blogged about for some reason, but we talked about how New Orleans is below sea level and the devastation from Hurricane Katrina.  Afterwards the kids drew their plans to fix the levies.  For whatever reason Princess decided they really needed to rebuild it with stronger bricks.
• Down in Louisiana– I seriously love Johnette Downing’s books, and this was one of the first ones we read.  We also did a project with Chef Creole, but that has disappeared into the nether
• Battle for New Orleans- I mentioned this battle and song when we first learned about Andrew Jackson for Tennessee.  This time we talked about it some more and then we drew who they would draft into their army.  My kids were so amused by the crocodiles in the song they all decided to draft crocodiles……
• Blues invented in Louisiana-Any excuse to play big band and blues music to my kids is always welcome.  My kids are going to grow up with very interesting taste in music (as I’m typing this my playlist changed from “Into the Woods” to “Chicago.”).  They drew all in blues to illustrate what it sounded like.  It led to some fun illustrations.

Not shown in the picture because certain 5 year old girls lose things and “forget” to glue them in, I’m not naming any names……..

• Chef Creole from the Johnette Downing books…….
• Study of crawdads
• Mardi Gras masks……  This one has disappeared into their rooms, and has been repaired many many times by me.  I might break down and make one out of fabric.
• A whale for Jean Laffitte (who will reappear when we get to Texas, apparently he founded Galveston)

And one last 3-D project:

Okay that last one wouldn’t have fit in her book anyways, but it has been interesting finding bits and pieces around the house………

Future Ticia 2023 says it’s a shame our library doesn’t have that book anymore

The current Louisiana Unit

Okay, we grabbed our United States notebooking pages (get them for free as part of the welcome cycle when you join my newsletter)

More cool ideas

Let’s see what can I pick….

• Bhutan Unit
• Fool’s Gold game
• Frida Kahlo art history lesson
• Chinese dragon puppet
• bluebonnets art project

“New Orleans, Louisiana” by szeke is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.