MLB Planning: Local History & Geography

I have been collecting notes all summer long as to what I might incorporate into our Local History & Geography block, plus I have my notes from introducing this topic last year in Science Club. (This was by request. The Science Club kids said they wanted to learn about what was in their very own backyard and surprise and teach their parents things they hadn't slowed down enough to notice. How perceptive of them!!!)

When we worked on this topic last year it didn't work at all well to start with the present and go backwards in time, so we will begin with the very formation of the land we are living on today. I know that there will be lots of events this year celebrating the bicentennial of Illinois, so I expect that we will continue to dip into this topic even after the main lesson is formally over. It's fascinating for me to study Illinois since I didn't grow up here.

Here are collected my notes and musings in a rough chronological order and I'm open to additional suggestions!

Of course I will also share the actual lessons as they unfold all month long.

Into the Field: A Guide to Locally Focused Teaching by Clare Walker Leslie

How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World by Faith McNulty

layers of earth tapestry, weaving on the loom our backyard meadow with the layers of soil under it, biome jars

nomenclature booklets for parts of the biomes, parts of the soil, layers of the soil

"The World Beneath Our Feet" poster, IDNR

Mountain Dance by Thomas Locker

Appalachian vs. Rocky mtns, what is the oldest mountain range on earth, plate tectonics, This Dynamic Planet map, video of new ocean floor being formed as molten rock bubbles up

Pangea puzzle, IDNR fossils bin, fossils book, Tully monster (IL state fossil), modeling beeswax

fossils IL special guest Laurel?

Grand Canyon by Jason Chin

coal, fern forests, IL mining

Illinois Topographic State Wall Map

field trip to Little River

IDNR prairies bin

petroglyphs field trip - Fountain Bluff, Piney Creek Ravine

Journey to Cahokia: A Boy's Visit to the Great Mound City by Albert Lorenz

mound builders

French, fur traders, beaver, Mississippi River, shape of Illinois, map making, compass rose, scale

Looking Down by Steve Jenkins

Ste. Genevieve field trip - links from Hilary

Louisisiana Purchase - Lewis & Clark

Fort de Chartres

Fort Massac (Encampment weekend Oct 20/21)

French & Indian War

when did IL become a state

local history, Lincoln, debates, John A Logan museum
one room schoolhouse at John A Logan college (Oct 12)
Lincoln museum springfield

Jackson County Historical Society, Jackson County Memories: The Early Years book

bricks made in Murphysboro were used in the construction of the Panama Canal

onthemedia.org/names

Illinois 200 articles

Leslie cave Underground Railroad

L is for Lincoln: An Illinois Alphabet by Kathy-Jo Wargin

Illinois: A History in Pictures by Gerald Danzer

The Great Fire by Jim Murphy

The Voyageur in the Illinois Country: The Fur Trade’s Professional Boatmen in Mid America by Margaret Kimball Brown

Colonial Ste. Genevieve: An Adventure on the Mississippi Frontier by Carl Ekberg

IDNR state symbols bin

corn watercolor painting

Thu Sep 27
pumpkin patch visit

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