Unit Opener General Resources Page

I try to include social studies with this unit. I put a large sheet of paper and label with the alphabet. For each letter we try to include a fact about our country. I have lots of America books that the students are encouraged to read and share.

For our whole unit, we discuss the United States. We begin by introducing The Great Mail Race. The basic concept is to learn a little bit about each of our states. We have a general letter explaining what we are doing along with a questionnaire filled out by our class informing another class what our town and school is like. The children also write a personal letter telling briefly what they like to do in our town during the different seasons, a little bit about their family, and perhaps a school interest. This is an open area. Each child then randomly chooses two states. The children complete 2 identical questionnaires as well as 2 identical "All About Me" letters. These will be put in an envelope with a blank questionnaire that we hope to have returned to us. We ask for a postcard or perhaps some information from their Chamber of Commerce to help us learn more about their state. The children learn how to address and envelope and stuff them. The teachers or famili!
es locate a town, preferably similar in size to their own, and write down the town name and the zip code. We have had good luck addressing the envelope like the following:

Any School
Any Second Grade
Smallville, Wherever 90021

Be sure to have your return address and classroom teacher name on the the "general" letter so that the responding teacher knows where and to whom to send the letter back to.

At school, we draw a huge map of the U.S. and hang it in the hallway. As letters come back to us, we read it aloud, discuss it, find it on our classroom map, and will delve a little deeper into it if there was not sufficient information in the response. The child that had that state may then go into the hallway with a color crayon of their choice and color in their state. We even try to locate the town that responded to us. In the classroom all the children have a small labled U.S. map that they may color in as we receive letters as well.

The children love this activity. It is very motivating for them to learn more about our states and country. This year we are going to have the children do a little research on their state by drawing the state flower, tree, bird, and flag, and draw the state itself and labeling them. They will then share this information with the class.

Return to Our Country and Its People Unit