Lesson 2:  Where is Wyoming?

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Subjects:  Social Studies; English/Language Arts

Learner Outcomes:

• Students will locate Wyoming on the United States map.
• Students will learn Wyoming state facts.
• Students will describe how the weather/climate affects the way people in Wyoming live.
• Students will compare and contrast rural and urban living.
• Students will be able to use the Wyoming facts to write complete sentences in their Stone Fox Journal.

Materials:

• computer with Internet access
• shoe boxes
• requirements handout
• Wyoming state resource books
• Stone Fox Journal

Teacher Notes:

• Have internet permission slips filled out and on hand
• Have resource books from the library available in the classroom

1. Have each student bring in a shoe box and decorate  the outside with construction paper
2. Have the students do research on the state of Wyoming using resource books and the internet sites listed:  Kids Page and 50 states
3. Students will be responsible for then decorating the inside and outside of their shoe box with Wyoming state information using the Requirements handout.
4. After boxes are completed, have students find and put in their boxes three objects that would represent the state of Wyoming (e.g., a potato, cotton to represent state tree - cottonwood tree, etc.)
5. When boxes are complete, each student will display their box and give an oral presentation explaining the pictures and information on their boxes and why their three objects represent Wyoming.
6. Students will then write in their Stone Fox Journal in full sentences and with correct capitalization and punctuation in response to the prompt "Compare and contrast life in rural Wyoming to your more urban life in the city of Fairmont."

• Handouts printed in large text as well as on non glare blue paper for the visually impaired
• Use of overhead projector for visually impaired
• Cooperative grouping peer tutoring

• Students could make a salt dough map of the state of Wyoming with its major land forms identified.
• Students could make a tourism pamphlet for Wyoming in desktop publishing program.
• Students could read one of the following children's books about life in the western states and write a review of it for other classmates:
• Cowboys by G. Rounds - grades 1-3
• Cowboys and Cattle Ranching by Patricia Lauber - grades 3-4
• Cowboys by Philip Scott - grades 1-2
• Desert Giant by Barbara Bash - grades 1-4
• The Changing Desert by Ada Graham and Frank Graham - grades 3-4
• Desert Voices by Byrd Balor and Peter Parnall - grades 1-4
• The Goat in the Rug by Charles L. Blood and Martin Link - grades 1-3
• Let's Take a Trip:  Yellowstone Park by Frank Staub - grades 2-4
• Paul Bunyan by Steven Kellogg - grades 1-4
• Mr. Jordan in the Park by Laura Lane Coats - grades 1-3
• Meanwhile Back at the Ranch by Trinka Noble - grades 2-3

West Virginia IGO's:
English Language Arts
1.40, 1.42, 1.43, 1.44, 1.55, 1.70, 1.92, 1.93, 2.20, 2.21, 2.22, 2.40, 2.43, 2.44, 2.67, 2.95, 2.96, 2.99, 3.18, 3.28, 3.29, 3.44, 3.45, 3.57, 3.58, 3.59,
Social Studies
1.15, 1.17, 2.19, 3.29, 3.30, 3.34,

National Standards:
Language Arts
1.  Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process
3.  Uses grammatical and mechanical  conventions in written compositions
4.  Gathers and uses information for research purposes
5.  Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process
7.  Uses reading skills and strategies to understand and interpret a variety of informational texts
Geography
2.  Knows the location of places, geographic features, and patterns of the environment
5.  Understands the concepts of regions
6.  Understands that culture and experienced influence people's perceptions of places and regions
15.  Understands how physical systems affect human systems

References:

• Kids Place
• 50 States
• Stately Knowledge, Facts about the United States
• Flags of Fifty States and One District

Created by:  Debbie Conover
                      Barb Haney
                      Margie Suder

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