Central KY Field Trips for Homeschoolers

Posted by Cindy on November 15, 2012

Police Station

Post Office

Recycling Center

Restaurant

Rock Quarry

Waterworks

One of my sweet co-op friends suggested a wonderful book for making the most of your homeschool field trips…

Kid’s Love Kentucky by Michele Zavatsky

A fun activity book about KY that includes worksheets for a unit study is…

The Big Kentucky Activity Book by Carole Marsh

Pontoon Tour

Posted by Cindy on November 4, 2012

In October, we were blessed to take a *free* pontoon tour of the KY River in Frankfort with my parents.  The city offers this tour weekly late spring through early fall as a unique historical guided tour of Kentucky’s capital city.

Boats, dams, bridges, flood walls, historical sties, historical stories and more made for fascinating science and history lessons!

As a nature study, a boat tour is a great way to observe river life from a new perspective.  Trees, plants, rocks, landforms, erosion, decomposition, evidence of flood, water animals, animals that live near water, predator/prey relationships and many more opportunities presented themselves just during this hour-long trip.

Studying rivers or creeks from the banks is great fun, but if you ever have a chance to take a boat study – go for it!  It’s great fun!

KY Project Presentations

Posted by Cindy on February 1, 2008

Last week we finished up a short, but successful unit on our state.  I think all involved liked the change of pace this time around.  Mahayla practically completed her readings, worksheets and projects on her own, while Caleb and I tackled his work at our own pace.  Here are just a few highlights.

Kentucky Notebooks

Using several resources, I put together activity notebooks to cover much of our study.

A County Scavenger Hunt 

This was fun.  Basically, I just wrote down facts concerning our county that I wanted the kids to know.  We went to the courthouse, city building and tourism office asking different people to help fill in the facts.  Afterward, we visited the cemetery to learn more about some noteable people buried there and visited our local museum.

I’ve created a quick printable of our scavenger hunt which includes the questions below.

• Name three important historical sites.

• Find the names of two famous people from ___ County.  What made them famous?

• What important invention came from ___ County?

• Who holds the following offices?

Mayor

Judge Executive

Chief of Police

Sheriff

District Judge

Circuit Judge

State Representative

State Senator

• What is the purpose of the tourism department?

• What offices are located in the Court House?

• What is ___ County’s largest industry?

• What are three natural resources found in ___ County?

Field Trip Journal

We were blessed to take a family trip to Mammoth Cave during our KY study.  Here’s a field trip journal entry about the visit.

Native Animal Reports and Dioramas

They each had to learn about an animal native to KY.  Mahayla chose the raccoon and Caleb chose the black bear.  After preparing a diorama including the animal in a complete habitat, they had to give an oral presentation telling everything they learned about it.

Famous Kentuckians

They also had to research a famous Kentuckian and give a first-person report.  Mahayla is Jenny Wiley, a pioneer woman taken captive by indians, who bravely escaped.   One of our state parks is named after her.  And of course, Caleb is Daniel Boone, the explorer who basically paved the way for pioneers to settle in Kentucky.

If you’ve studied KY history, I’d love for you to link your blog posts in the comments!

Plans For A Kentucky Unit

Posted by Cindy on January 2, 2008

It’s almost time to get the 2nd half of our school year underway.  This semester holds some exciting studies - units on our state, the Middle Ages, earth science and an artist lapbook.  First up is a study of our state – Kentucky.

I’m straying from the typical sort of unit study we do around here.  This unit will be mostly worksheet-based, with final projects being research-based.  Why?  Well first, I want the unit to be really quick.  Second, Mahayla has covered this topic before at co-op, so it just made more sense to provide them each with worksheets covering different topics.  Third, for Mahayla, I want this unit to be independent as much as possible.  And fourth, remember, I’m whatcha call curriculumADHD – I can’t help myself from bouncing around!    I think it’s good for all of us to learn in different ways.  Each type of learning encourages new and varied skills.

So, the plan is to give them each their own notebook full of worksheets on everything from state symbols to government to industries.  Mahayla will be on her own to complete the assignments as she sees fit.  The only stipulation is that she must be finished by a certain date.  Caleb and I will work through his notebook together over about a week and a half.

Each day will find us reading lots of library books together.  I’ve found several non-fiction, historical fiction and picture books about Kentucky simply by typing “Kentucky” into the library search engine.  I also will be checking out some books by Kentucky authors.  We’ll also do a few projects together like a cookie relief map of the state and making a derby pie (yum!)

After the notebooks are completed, I will give them a list of possible projects from which to choose.  Mahayla will choose three or four (depending on how hard they are) and Caleb will choose one or two.  The choices will range from….

*Research a native american group that lived in KY.  Build a model of their home and present information about the group to your parents.

*Choose a famous Kentuckian to research.  Create a poster-sized body of your person and cut the face out so your face fits in the hole.  You will present first-person information about your famous person as you hold the poster.

*Learn all the words to “My Old Kentucky Home” and sing the song to your family.

And, voila, there’s the unit in a nutshell.  Worksheets, books, a few family projects and a few research projects with presentations.  We should knock this one out in two to three weeks.

Click here to see more of the resources I’m using.

Here are a couple online resources we’ll use.

AWAKE – KY Wildlife Site

USA Geography – states, capitals, geographical features

And finally, here are a few things that will be out for free time fun during the unit.  Books, nature journals with wildlife and bird guides, a US state puzzle, a KY board game, some US board games and a bird concentration game.

Kentucky Unit Study

Posted by Cindy on June 28, 2007

This year we’ll be doing a unit study about Kentucky.  I found a WONDERFUL easyfunschool unit study online that I thought I’d pass along to all you KY gals.

I also plan to use: