Unit Studies :: Georgia Geography & History

We have been working on a rather large unit studies over the last several weeks. I've mentioned it in several of my most recent Weekly Intentions posts and wanted to take the time to share it with those of you interested.

We began our study at the beginning of February by spending time in our library finding books related to our state. We found a good number of them and checked them out.

One of the library books we've used.

I did some searching online for Georgia History studies for children along with lap books. I found some great free resources and have been using them with my children. I put up a wall time-line specifically for this unit and we've been adding dates/events as we go. Each of the children are keeping their own time-line as well.

A text I used to gather information.

We started with some basic facts: state tree, flower, insect, symbol, nickname, flag, song, coin, capitol, bordering states, bodies of water, famous people (who were born here/who live here), population, weather, etc. I am using several books to piece together a better telling of the history of Georgia (most books like to gloss over the parts of how native people were treated along with the enslaved Africans who arrived on ships. They also paint a complete picture of just who settled here in Georgia.). We are still learning and will probably spend the rest of this month on this.

Georgia has diverse landscapes.

Another thing that we're planning to do and to take some day trips beginning in the next couple weeks to see some of the sites around our state.  We've been working on a list and hope to make it through most of it.  This will go for the rest of the year, although we won't necessarily be continuing with the unit study.

Places to Visit: (not necessarily in this order)
Little Grand Canyon of Georgia/Providence Canyon State Park
Etowah Indian Mounds Historic Site
Okefenoke Swamp
Tallulah Gorge State Park
Jekyll Island
Sapelo Island
Chattahoochee Riverwalk
National Civil War Naval Museum
Pine Mountain Wild Animal Park
Flint River Outdoor Center
Jimmy Carter National Historic Site
Tybee Island
Historic Savannah

Sites to see again, now that we know more about them:
MLK Site
Georgia State Capitol
Sweet Auburn Avenue
Macon
Albany
Atlanta History Museum

Here are some of the online resources I found and have been using in part for our lap books and extension activities:

Georgia State History Lapbook
Georgia State Study Grades 2-7
State Lapbook

We've viewed a few of the following documentaries and plan to view the others about Georgia and it's history:

Georgia Outdoors
Chattahoochee River
Georgia Serenade
Georgia On My Mind
Georgia's Civil War
Georgia Stories :: The Battle of Jonesboro
The Geology of Georgia
Civil Rights in the Classroom

We are also beginning our gardens for this season and studying about the whole process with our homeschooling community. In light of this, we watch a documentary on Black farmers that happen to live here in Georgia.

Black Farmers History in American : A Legacy of Landownership

As we're still knee deep in this particular unit studies, I don't have a whole lot of pictures to share at the moment. However, I will be sure to share our completed time-lines and lap books when we do.
(I will also update our list of resources as necessary.)

Have you done a unit studies for your state with your children yet? What resources have you found useful? We have briefly studied several states in the past, when the children were much younger, and I'm looking to revisit a few of them as we continue with learning geography overall. I welcome your insights and suggestions.

Be well.