50 States Unit Study: Natural Attractions

Welcome to Day 7 of 10 Days of Hopscotching Across the USA!  Yesterday I shared the man-made attractions that make me want to jump in an RV for a road trip–today I’m sharing all about the wonders of nature that are worth visiting!

As the third largest country in the world, spanning a continent from ocean to ocean and including among our states Alaska and Hawaii, our country is rich with natural features worth highlighting.

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These two books share an appreciation for the general beauty of the United States:

• Across America, I Love You by Christine Loomis is a unique book that draws parallels between the beauty of the varied landscape of America and a mother’s love for her child.
• America the Beautiful This beautiful book pairs the words to the Katharine Lee Bates song with the illustrations of her great great grandnephew Chris Gall.  She wrote her first draft of the words when she was at Pike’s Peak, which is why I’m listing this book in this post.  I loved the choices for illustrations, many depicting America’s natural beauty, but others showcasing the human aspects of our country (like Ground Zero).  Though it is easily enjoyed by young children I was touched by it as a not-so-young person.

National Parks

One of the obvious natural features to highlight are the national parks, which we enjoyed learning about with books and videos.

These videos from National Geographic were available on Netflix, and some can also be streamed from the National Geographic website.

• Secret Yosemite
• Extreme Alaska: Denali National Park
• Secret Yellowstone
• Big Sur: Wild California

American Wonders:National Parks of the West shared an inside look at the Grand Tetons of Yellowstone, Waterfalls of Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon.  We also read the book Wonders of America: The Grand Canyon.                 

American Serengeti: America’s Great Plains This is not about a current national park, but about efforts to rebuild the prairie and restore its wildlife.

Physical Features

There are many notable physical features and unusual natural features you can point out as you move through the fifty states.  This isn’t an exhaustive list, but are some of the places that intrigued us.

• Rocky Mountains: we read Wonders of America: The Rocky Mountains
• Appalachian Mountains
• Mississippi river
• The Great Lakes (Bordering states in the Midwest and Northeast, Michigan borders four of the five lakes)
• Great Salt Lake (Utah)
• Crater Lake (Crater Lake National Park, Oregon)
• Old Faithful: (Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming) At the National Park service website they have a webcam.  Scroll down for many educational links about geysers.
• Old Man of the Mountain (New Hampshire)  The famous profile collapsed in 2003, a group is working to create a memorial.
• Niagara Falls (New York)
• Devil’s Tower (Wyoming)
• Chimney Rock (Nebraska)
• Mt. McKinley (Alaska) is the highest mountain peak in the U.S.
• Mount Washington (New Hampshire)  We drove up the auto road once, and it scared me half to death!

Come back tomorrow for ideas for nature study to go along with your 50 states study. Subscribe via email or RSS so you don’t miss a post!

Here are the topics from this series:

Day 1: Introduction to the 50 States Unit Study
Day 2: Learning About the States
Day 3: Getting to Know Your Geography
Day 4: Games to Play
Day 5: Recording Your Journey
Day 6: Famous Places in the USA
Day 7: Natural Attractions
Day 8: Nature Study
Day 9: The People of America
Day 10: Food from the 50 States

I’m teaming up with over 25 other iHomeschool Network bloggers. Hop over to iHN for ideas from veteran homeschooling moms on topics ranging from Teaching with Legos to Project Based Learning.