Making a States Book

My son has a fascination with the state quarters. So when I saw The Paper Pony’s blog post about creating rubbings of the quarters, the idea stuck with me.

After finding the amazing printable state bird and state flower cards offered for free download on Step Into 2^ndGrade with Mrs. Lemons, a full-blown activity was born.

I printed and cut apart the state bird cards, mixing them all together. Then I made a States Book for my son, dividing up the states into four geographic regions: Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, and West. I listed all the states on the book’s cover in alphabetical order and printed a map of the United States with the states labeled. (Click on the links in this paragraph to download the cover and pages of the States Book I made.)

I punched holes in the pages, as well as a small manila envelope that holds the unused bird cards. The book and envelope are held together with brads.

When my son got home from school, I handed him the States Book, Loreen Leedy’s book Celebrate the 50 States!, colored pencils, a glue stick, and his piggy bank.

First we found some state quarters in his bank. Then we located those states in Leedy’s book, which told us the state birds for each. He found the bird card, glued it in his book, and made a rubbing of the state quarter.

The rubbings require light pressure and newly sharpened pencils. Practice first!

A line was drawn through the states he completed on the book’s cover and the next day, he was back at it hunting for more quarters so he could keep working on his book!