This year for our homeschool geography we’re switching between country studies and state studies. Since my Mom took a cruise up in Alaska I thought it’d be fun to study Alaska as our first state.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with how I do our geography lessons, they are primarily literature based. I search my library for any and all books on the country or state and we read as many of them as I can find time for.
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Alaska unit study books
We had some very fun books for Alaska this time. I bolded a few of my favorite books.
- The EXXON Valdez Oil Spill
– which led to a fun discussion about how we can keep nature safe
- Kumak’s House: A Tale of the Far North
– I am totally blanking on this book
- Disappearing Lake
Exploring Glaciers (Geography Zone: Landforms)
– I found the geography quite fascinating
- Exploring Glaciers (Geography Zone: Landforms)
– the kids were especially interested in this because my Mom got to go on a glacier
- River of Life
– I loved the illustrations of this one and the exploration of wildlife
- The Long, Long Journey: The Godwit’s Amazing Migration
– I learned so much about these birds as we read, and discovered the Wondermaps world map was perfect for this activity
- Grizzly Bears of Alaska: Explore the Wild World of Bears
– Batman used this for his Alaskan animal report
- Kali’s Story: An Orphaned Polar Bear Rescue
-and Superman used this one, for his report
- The Incredible Life of Balto
– Princess loved this one, but…
- The Bravest Dog Ever: The True Story of Balto (Step-Into-Reading)
– This was her favorite Balto book
- Big-Enough Anna
– there are a lot of books about the Iditarod
- Up on Denali: Alaska’s Wild Mountain (PAWS IV)
– We studied Alaska shortly after the mountain was renamed
- Big Alaska: Journey Across America’s Most Amazing State
– I loved the aerial tour of Alaska we got with this book
- Akiak: A Tale From the Iditarod
– another book Princess absconded with
Alaska unit study supplies
Alaska unit study lapbook
So, we did our Alaska studied right around when I got my overhead projector, and it was quite handy for some of the activities as I could draw on the projector, and the kids could see what I was drawing much more easily. This was our project for “Big Alaska,” and my freehand drawing of Alaska.
As we took our aerial tour of Alaska we drew pictures to represent what was found there. It made for a very colorful map at the end.
What we put in our Alaska lapbook:
- the super cool notebooking pages I found that look to be discontinued (bummer)
- what’s found in an Alaskan river (to go with River of Life)
- world map for the godwit bird migration
- glacier measurement
- and should be, but is lost, 4 animal reports: polar bear, grizzly bear, sled dog, and bald eagle
Are you looking for more geography resources, then try The Ultimate Homeschool Geography Guide.
This is a great unit. We went to Alaska a couple of years ago and hope to come back again, this time with A.
Both my Mom and my in-laws raved about their Alaska cruises. I keep thinking about how cold it is.
I need to look up some of these books to read with my kids. Johnny loves the idea of Alaska, and my mom grew up there.
Have you shown him the Balto movie? Princess is nuts for that because it’s all about dogs.