Teaching Regions of the United States

Today, I watched Tim Burton's Frankenweenie for the first time. It was dark, creepy, and a little sad but an overall good story. It got me thinking about resurrecting lessons I love. Teaching is always about choices and sometimes I feel like I drop "good" lessons because I'm under the dreaded crunch.... so....I'm trying to wrap my head around one our biggest units of the year, United States Regions. We've always taught regions in 5th grade. But now - we have to teach regions more "in depth." This means expanding a 4-5 week unit into the first half of the year! I need to teach not only the states and general geography like in the past but also weave history and economics into my study. It's a lot to teach and since we have FIVE regions... I'm worried it'll get repetitive to the students. 

I thought I'd share what I've dug up from past lessons so far... sorry for the terrible Frankenweenie pun! I couldn't resist.

First, here is a great You Tube Video to introduce the 50 states or serve as a review! My students absolutely LOVED, begged for, adored this video last year. I'm definitely using it again next year.

Second, I used to have students create Regional Amusement Parks after our regions study. I've been so pressed for time the last few years, I've skipped over the project. But I thought about bringing it back to life. It would definitely hit all the standards plus be a fun way to review regions. I would want to redo my grading sheet and also create a peer grading sheet - but my students used to love this project! With the extra time for regions this year, I think it would be a fun hands-on project to bring back! I wish I could find a picture of the finished parks to share...

You can snag the entire handout here...

 Another activity was from a co-worker. I work with fantastic teachers. The teacher came up with an Amazing Race style competition to get post-cards from all 50 states. It's a great way to reinforce regions and states while also working on networking skills! Last year, we simply ran out of time... although, it really only takes ONE day to introduce and answer questions. The rest is at home. It's a great way to learn more about the states and have some team competition. You can get the rules handout I give my students from here.

Here are the rules:

1) Postcards must be mailed/postmarked FROM the state.

2) ONE FACT about the state needs to be on the postcard.

* Anything else is fair game! Quite a few governors/sports teams/travel sites have given my students neat "state" packs for writing!

Lastly, I'm hoping to add some picture books to my Regions Unit. Here are two I will definitely be using next year! Check out the titles by clicking the pictures below!

Do you teach regions? What are your must haves? Any hidden gem lesson plans you're willing to share???