Wikki Stix Geography

Strawberry playing with Wikki Stix and the pile of butterflies made by Butterfly and Pumpkin Pie

I pulled out a large laminated map of the US. The children were exploring Wikki Stix modeling and had drawn scenes from movies like Star Wars and Toy Story on the door. So, I hung up the map and mentioned that we could use Wikki Stix to make our own map... Fast forward and all the kids were busy exploring the states. Right away we learned that the length of the western side of Washington wrapping down and around the Puget Sound was as long a distance as that of the entire southern board of Nebraska plus a tiny bit north on the eastern side! Since all the stix are the same size, comparing distances is really visual. Pumpkin Pie practiced sounding out the letters of state names. Strawberry named colors, and every one was working on the same project but learning something relevant to their own abilities and needs.

Tiger started with Washington...

I love Strawberry's baby hand! She wanted to help.

After a while, Butterfly asked me, "Why is there a North and South Carolina?" and then others asked about the Virginias and the Dakotas. We got to have a brief history lesson about the states. Then, we started on Arizona and I was reminded of the song Oceanfront Property by George Strait so we talked about why he might have said that in a song when there is no oceanfront property in Arizona. We talked about how in a general sense the lyrics were talking about believing the unbelievable and false.

Almost done...