Mapping Lessons

Today I took an online workshop called, “Mapping for Your Curriculum: MapMaker, GeoInquiries, and Other Pre-Designed Lessons,” sponsored by the Illinois Geographic Alliance (IGA) and Geographic Society of Chicago (GSC). Here are some of the premade lessons I found most interesting:

Mapping U.S. Watersheds
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/mapping-us-watersheds/

How Deep Is Challenger Deep?
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/0d389600f3464e3185a84c199f04e859

Flattening Earth
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/7d2abd9968b64b96902f72cce12ea5c5

The Dream of the West
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/instant/portfolio/index.html?appid=72b0ce818f6445a2bf39470d28bb3a35&rsource=https%3A%2F%2Flinks.esri.com%2Fworldgeog7

Global Population Growth
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ff463dc0fc83405b9c096a2464ed08c5

Mound Builders and Agriculture
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/3a597ad937b3408ba9b827b6f6db6f9b

Cooking with Kids - Recipes for a Young Family

I was talking this evening with a young mom who is just starting out and has no idea how to cook. She needs ideas of simple things she can try. I thought it would be fun to think about what I would make if I was a new mom all over again. So here goes...

Breakfasts

Applesauce Muffins
Taste of Home

Baked Oatmeal
NYT - gift link

Caramelized Apple Slow Cooker Oatmeal
Nourishing Joy

Mango Nut Bread
Taste of Home

Turmeric Golden Milk Oatmeal
Lively Table

Snacks

Banana Cinnamon Smoothie
The Six Figure Dish

Crockpot Applesauce
from my blog

Easy Fruity Chia Drink
Pretty Bird Kitchen

Overnight Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding
Minimalist Baker

Dinners

Baked Salmon
NYT - gift link

Beef Tinaktak
The Domestic Man

Black Bean Sloppy Joes
Rodale's Basic Natural Foods Cookbook, p.270

Cabbage Parm
NYT - gift link

Coconut Curry Chickpeas With Pumpkin and Lime
NYT - gift link

Crisp Gnocchi with Brussels Sprouts and Brown Butter
NYT - gift link

Gyeran Bap
NYT - gift link

Lentil Soup Made with Honey
Bee Inspired

Pasta Shells with No-Cook Tomato Sauce (video)
Everyday Food

Roast Chicken Salad with Croutons and Shallot Dressing
NYT - gift link

Slow Cooker Chicken Jook
NYT - gift link

Split Pea Dal with Mango
Sunset Magazine

Desserts

Almond Gelatin with Mandarin Oranges
Allrecipes

Cherry Clafouti
from my blog

Coconut Cookies
Lil' Luna

Loaf Pan Peach Cobbler
Angela Lynne

If you have an easy recipe you'd like to recommend, please share the link!

TVI Special Guest

One of the special guests I had hoped to line up for this school year was a TVI (Teacher for the Visually Impaired). In preparation I pulled together a lot of resources for blindness. Here's my list, in case she comes next year!

things we have in the classroom:

Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille by Jen Bryant

Tactile Rubik's Cube

Braille UNO Cards

DK Braille: Animals

DK Braille: On the Move

DK Braille: It Can't Be True! Incredible Tactile Comparisons

Art Beyond Sight: A Resource Guide to Art, Creativity, and Visual Impairment

I absolutely love the section on Tactile Diagrams in Art Beyond Sight and it does have a few pages printed on swell paper.

Here's a video that shows how they are made:


You can find a lesson plan from Art Beyond Sight that includes a Tactile Diagram for Dali's The Persistence of Memory (PDF) and the accompanying narrative for guidance of the hands (PDF).




And here is a narrative for Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase.

other resources:

Sites Unseen: What Travel Is Like for Those Who Can’t See
The New York Times - Apr 7, 2026

Blind Waymo Users Revel in the Joy of Riding Alone
The New York Times - May 24, 2026

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Tall Tales - week 3

Here is the overview of our Tall Tales & U.S. Geography Summer Camp:

Week One

Febold Feboldson

Paul Bunyan

Finn McCool

Pecos Bill

special guest: civil engineers

Week Two

Stormalong

Mose

John Henry

Johnny Appleseed

field trip: fire department

Week Three

Swamp Angel

Mike Fink

Davy Crockett

Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind

field trip: Cave-in-Rock State Park

Notes for

Mon - Swamp Angel

snack - read Swamp Angel

by Anne Isaacs


activity - play Here Is... Where Is? game using the United States Control Map (unlabeled version)

learn the constellation Ursa Major
What We See in the Stars: An Illustrated Tour of the Night Sky, p.69

Find North with the Stars - Ursa Major/Polaris - Celestial Navigation

Find North with the Stars - Cassiopeia - Celestial Navigation


lunch - read Homesteading: Settling America's Heartland by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent


add to MLB


sketch an animal from our taxidermy collection

Tue - Mike Fink

snack - read Mike Fink

by Steven Kellogg


activity - quiz students on the 50 U.S. states

watch Walt Disney's Davy Crockett: "Mike Fink, King of The River"

Keelboats - Encyclopedia Dubuque


lunch - read "Mike Fink and the Outlaws of Cave-in-Rock: A Story Told by Boatmen of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers"
from Heroes, Outlaws & Funny Fellows of American Popular Tales
by Olive Beaupre Miller, p.30


add to MLB


book display - Minn of the Mississippi

by Holling Clancy Holling (Newbery Honor)

Wed - Davy Crockett

activity - field trip to Cave-in-Rock State Park


lunch - read "Davy Crockett"
from American Tall Tales

by Mary Pope Osborne, p.3


book display - Davy Crockett: His Own Story

by David Crockett

Thu - Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind

snack - read "Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind"
from American Tall Tales

by Mary Pope Osborne, p.15


activity - quiz students on the 50 U.S. states

United States Puzzle Map

United States Location Color Set


lunch - read Dandelions

by Eve Bunting


add to and publish MLB

decorate Portfolio Box for the 2025-2026 school year


book display - Bull's-Eye: A Photobiography Of Annie Oakley
by Sue Macy

Calamity Jane: Her Life and Her Legend by Doris Faber

Gold Rush Women by Claire Rudolf Murphy & Jane G. Haigh

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

12 Apple Varieties

Back in October 2007, my daughter Natalie came home from Kindergarten and said that her teacher had given them slices of a new apple variety. The children were to taste it and decide what they would name it if they could. She said the class came up with "Sweet Yummy." That is a great name!

"Sweet Yummy"

"Sweet Yummy" Reprise

Turns out the apple in question was actually Honeycrisp. I've never forgotten that activity, and it made me think of something that we could do tomorrow! I'd love to give the children slices of 12 different apple varieties to compare.

Do all apples taste the same? Which one is your favorite?

This is a great Johnny Appleseed activity, but it also ties in with Botany!

For more on this I recommend Granny Smith Was Not an Apple: The Story of Orchardist Marie Ann Smith by Sarah Glenn Fortson.

We will also likely read the New York Times article from Mar 21, 2026:
After Cosmic Crisp, Scientists Unveil an Apple for the Climate Change Era.

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Tall Tales - week 2

Here is the overview of our Tall Tales & U.S. Geography Summer Camp:

Week One

Febold Feboldson

Paul Bunyan

Finn McCool

Pecos Bill

special guest: civil engineers

Week Two

Stormalong

Mose

John Henry

Johnny Appleseed

field trip: fire department

Week Three

Swamp Angel

Mike Fink

Davy Crockett

Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind

field trip: Cave-in-Rock State Park

Notes for

Mon - Stormalong

snack - read "Stormalong"
from American Tall Tales

by Mary Pope Osborne, p.37


activity - listen to Stormalong (Seán Dagher's Shanty of the Week)

practice knot tying

review the knots the children know:
slipknot
overhand knot
wrap-around-the-needle knot

teach square knot


lunch - read "Old Stormalong: A Yarn of the Yankee Sailors on the Maine to Massachusetts Coast"
from Heroes, Outlaws & Funny Fellows of American Popular Tales
by Olive Beaupre Miller, p.30


add to MLB


read Giant Squid by Candace Fleming

look at picture of giant squid eye in Actual Size by Steve Jenkins



look at 22 inch giant squid plush


book display - Seabird

by Holling Clancy Holling (Newbery Honor)

Tue - Mose

snack -read "Mose"
from American Tall Tales

by Mary Pope Osborne, p.51


activity - quiz students on U.S. states learned last week

continue to add to our maps! find and label states in the
Northeast Region: New England and the Mid-Atlantic
13 states (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD, WV, VA)

field trip to fire station


lunch - read Molly, by Golly! The Legend of Molly Williams, America's First Female Firefighter

by Dianne Ochiltree


add to MLB


book display - The Great Fire

by Jim Murphy (Newbery Honor)

Goliath: Hero of the Great Baltimore Fire by Claudia Friddell

Fire-fighting Vehicles 1840-1950 edited by Bart H. Vanderveen

Wed - John Henry

snack - read "John Henry"
from American Tall Tales

by Mary Pope Osborne, p.87


activity - listen to John Henry Song (Tennessee Ernie Ford)

recall steamship, steam fire engine, steam locomotive (and steam thresher from Great-Grandma Tells of Threshing Day by Verda Cross)


lunch - read John Henry

by Julius Lester


add to MLB


read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

by Virginia Lee Burton


book display - Locomotive

by Brian Floca (Caldecott Winner)

Great Railroad Paintings edited by Robert Goldsborough

Thu - Johnny Appleseed

snack -read "Johnny Appleseed"
from American Tall Tales

by Mary Pope Osborne, p.25


activity - taste 12 apple varieties to see if they really are different

finish our maps! find and label states in the
Southeast Region: Southeast and the Mississippi & Ohio Valleys
15 states (NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MI, LA, AR, TN, KY, OH, IN, MI, WI, IL)


lunch - read Johnny Appleseed

by Steven Kellogg


add to MLB


book display - Abraham Lincoln

by Ingri & Edgar Parin d'Aulaire (Caldecott Winner)

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

The Aqualibrium Challenge

Many thanks to the two SIU faculty, Dr. Prabir Kolay and Dr. Sangmin Shin, who came in today to teach the children about Civil Engineering!

Besides the classic spaghetti-and-marshmallow-tower challenge, they also led the Aqualibrium Challenge. This one was new to me! It was really cool.

Basically the idea is that a reservoir of water is placed at a height above a "city" and three plastic containers are arranged to represent different buildings in the city. There are measurements on the sides of the containers.

YouTube video - How to Run the Aqualibrium Challenge

Given different lengths of plastic tubing (two different diameters are permitted, blue and red) and various connectors, can the children work together to set up a system so that when they turn on the valve from the "water tower," water flows at the same rate to each of the "buildings" and the containers each fill up with water to the same level at the same time?

this group used blocks of different heights to adjust the flow of the water through the pipes!

Both teams were successful in the end, and they had a GREAT time!