This year for 3rd grade we have been studying U.S. Geography as part of our history studies. Recently we started using a cool hands-on-project option called Make-A-State Activity Pak from Home School in the Woods.

{Disclosure: I received Make-A-State Activity Pak for free and was compensated for my time in writing this review. All my opinions are my own, honest thoughts and I was not required to post a positive review. Your experience may vary. Please see my full Disclosure Policy for more details.}

Hands-On History: Make-A-State Activity Pak

The Make-A-State Activity Pak from Home School in the Woods is a hands-on lap book loaded with 20 projects. With this pak you can study any state in the U.S. (plus Washington, D.C.).

We chose to start with New York State since that is the state we live in. Next we are going to do Florida because we are taking a vacation there soon!

What’s Inside the Make-A-State Activity Pak

Make-A-State Activity Pak is a downloadable resource that includes the directions, photos, and printables you need to learn about all 50 states, creating a lap-book for each as you go. This pak is intended to be used alongside the curriculum, text, or research you are doing. But there are State Pages provided for each state.

State Pages include basic information about each state such as:

• symbols (bird, flower, etc.)
• basic facts (size, population, etc.)
• a brief timeline
• some prominent people who were born in that state

20 Activity Topics make up the core of this lap-book activity-pak. They incorporate creative writing, illustration, coloring, research, mapping, and more. We loved being able to pick a couple for each day, focusing on those specific facts and information.

Some of the activities are:

• State motto
• Key Facts
• State Quarter
• Mapping the state
• Recipes
• State Government
• and more!

When you first download this project pak it can seem overwhelming. But trust me when I say, “there are DETAILED written instructions, as well as amazing photos to follow when creating these lapbooks!“ I like to pull up the instructions and photos on my iPad so I can have them right with us while we are putting the lap-book together.

Once I downloaded everything, I went through and printed ALL the things we would need to make our New York State Lap-Book, and gathered the supplies we would need. Keeping everything together in one spot made it so much easier to simply pull it out and continue from where we left off!

A note about printing: We have a black and white printer at home, making it easy for us to print whatever we need. While the samples from this pak used colored paper to print on, we chose to use white. Why? Because we like to color with colored pencils. So I let my grandson color each lap-book element instead of printing it on colored paper.

State Book, Video & Web Resources

Also included in the Make-A-State Activity Pak is a page of suggested resources including books, websites, and videos. I’ll include a few of our favorites here:

The 50 States: Explore the U.S.A. with 50 fact filled maps! – In 51 charmingly illustrated infographic maps, explore every state of the USA from Alabama to Wyoming and the nation’s capital to discover more than 2,000 facts that celebrate the people, cities, nature, and historic events that have helped make America what it is today. You’ll also get an expansive guide to the state flags and US presidents.

What’s So Great About This State – This is a series of books where there is one for each state. This series of fun, colorful, easy-to-read books for children ages 7-11 features attention-grabbing cover art, inviting conversational style content, and vivid full-color images of landmarks and geography.

The Scrambled States of America – a short, fun, kids video based on the book

Ducksters United States Geography – a website with everything from state symbols, maps, history and more, for each of the 50 states.

US States Learning Videos from Homeschool Pop – you can find these on YouTube. They are fun 7-8 minute videos geared toward kids.

We also learned all 50 states in our household via song! There are two that we loved most:

• The 50 States That Rhyme – this is all the states in alphabetical order
• Animaniacs Sing-Along – this is a fun one that teaches states and capitals with some fun little tid-bits mixed in!

Other Home School in the Woods Products

Over at The Curriculum Choice I created a break down of the various Home School in the Woods hands-on history resources along with reviews from TCC authors for many of them. Be sure to hop over and check it out if you want an in-depth look at all the wonderful hands-on resources Home School in the Woods has to offer!

I also have personal experience with other Home School in the Woods hands-on projects so be sure to check out my reviews of these other great products from Home School in the Woods:

• Timeline Based Middle School History – the spine for this curriculum I put together is the Home School in the Woods History Through the Ages Timeline Resources
• Middle Ages Passport History Study
• U.S. Elections Lap-Pak
• Project Passport: Ancient Egypt