My activity today is an extension of the Montessori continent box. If you’d like to do a unit study of a specific state or the entire United States, a state box, basket, or tray would work well to highlight each state you study.
My Montessori-inspired state box is my activity for both Montessori Monday (Montessori Monday link-up is at the end of the post) and Booking Across the USA. I’m not a native Coloradan, but my family moved to Colorado in 1996. I’ve loved living in Colorado ever since!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Montessori-Inspired Colorado State Box
For my state box, I used a beautiful wooden Nienhuis box that I couldn’t bear to sell from my Montessori school that I owned in the 1980s. The box worked well over the years of homeschooling for hands-on materials I wanted to highlight (such as materials for my Montessori-based Lenten tray/box). I just placed the box on the shelf without the lid for special activities I wanted to focus on, such as a study of a particular state.
I always include books in any unit study. The book I’m featuring for my Colorado state box is C Is for Centennial: A Colorado Alphabet
by Louise Doak Whitney (illustrated by Helle Urban). What I especially like about the book is that it can be used for any age. For preschoolers, there’s a short verse for each letter of the alphabet.
For older readers, you’ll find additional text for each letter with lots of information about Colorado. I enjoyed reading the book and learned many interesting facts. I can’t give any first-hand experience about using the book with my kids, though. It wasn’t published until a few months after my son graduated from homeschool high school! 😉
The state box is an activity you can personalize for your unique family or classroom. My family was able to visit many states because of figure skating competitions, and I always saved souvenirs from each trip we took. Some of our Colorado souvenirs were from trips before we moved here and others from mini-vacations and field trips while we lived in Colorado.
I included Colorado postcards, brochures, maps, souvenir spoons, and Christmas ornaments. A small photo album would have been a nice addition, too.
We had a 3 -D puzzle of the United States from the 1990s that we loved. I included the Colorado state piece along with the Rocky Mountains and ski pieces that fit into the state piece. I looked online, and, unfortunately, I can’t find either the company or the puzzle map. Melissa & Doug has a nice U.S.A. map wooden puzzle, though. You could always add the state map piece from your favorite puzzle map for each state you study.
Booking Across the USA
Special thanks to Jodie from Growing Book by Book for organizing Booking Across the USA. Also, thanks to Erika from The Honey Bunch and Misty from Think, Wonder & Teach for working on creating a button. And thanks to Carolyn from Wise Owl Factory for creating the lovely table of flag links to each blogger.
Learn more about Booking across the USA and its associated giveaways at Growing Book by Book.
Check out the participating blogs below for a fun tour/unit study of the United States!
Alaska Blog Post by Little Wonders’ Days Blog
Arizona Blog Post by Simply Kinder
California Blog Post by Juggling with Kids 
Delaware Blog Post by Mama Miss
Illinois State Post by Growing Book by Book
Iowa Blog Post by Surviving a Teacher Salary Blog
North Dakota Post by ND Health Works
Montessori Monday Link-Up
If you have some Montessori activity trays/lessons to share, please link up below. It’s fine to link up a post from your archives – and you may link up anytime during the week! Your post may be any Montessori-inspired activity or idea. It doesn’t need to be related to my Montessori Monday post.
Link up your exact post URL so that we can find your activity if we return to the linky at a later date (which I often do when I’m looking for activities for a roundup post). I publish the Montessori Monday post and linky at 6:00 a.m. EST each Monday and keep the linky open throughout the week.
Please place the Montessori Monday button (using the code from the right sidebar) in your post or put a link back to this post. Let’s use Montessori Monday to gain inspiration/ideas and to encourage each other! If you would leave an encouraging comment on the post linked up ahead of you (along with any other posts you’re drawn to), that would be awesome! Thanks for participating!
Notes:
You’ll find a Pinterest Pinning Party in our Living Montessori Now Community (featured on the welcome page). That’s for any kid-related posts whether they’re Montessori-inspired or not. Please feel free to add posts there as well! (If you join our Living Montessori Now Community, your blog feed (post excerpts) will show up on the Living Montessori Now Community Welcome Page if you add your blog link when you sign up. It’s an easy way to get extra attention for your blog posts.)
If you have a giveaway on your blog, please add it to my Family-Friendly Giveaway Linky Page! If you enjoy entering giveaways, you’ll always find some great giveaways there.
Also, if you’ve ever been linked to in one of my roundup posts, please feel free to grab the “Featured on” badge.
Have you added the Montessori Monday button or a text link? Please be sure you’ve done one or the other so that others can find the link-up, too! Thank you!
This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
If this is your first time visiting Living Montessori Now, welcome! If you haven’t already, please join us on our Living Montessori Now Facebook page where you’ll find a Free Printable of the Day and lots of inspiration and ideas for parenting and teaching!
Linked to Tuesday Tots, Tactile Tuesday, The Mommy Club Resources and Solutions at Milk and Cuddles and Crystal & Co., The Weekly Kid’s Co-op, Hearts for Home Blog Hop, Learn & Link, Living Life Intentionally Linky Party, Preschool Corner, Sharing Saturday, Saturday Show & Tell, Share It Saturday, Show-and-Share Saturday, The Sunday Showcase, Link & Learn, Afterschool Express, and The Children’s Bookshelf.
Wonderful resources! I like the idea of a State Box. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, Discovering Montessori! I always love reliving vacation memories, and the state box was a fun way to do that! 🙂
Another interesting state ABC book sent me off to check if similar resource for Maine. Found one: Journey Around Maine from A to Z by Martha Zschock. Think we might do a month of ABC state books to explore and compare.
Thanks for your comment! I love your idea of a month of ABC state books! 🙂
Hi Deb!
I have a few State specific posts that you might like…however we haven’t explored too much yet given my boys are 3.5 and 2. Love this round up!
Hi Marnie! Thanks so much! This was a fun and easy project to do, since I just had to find my book and create a Colorado activity. It’s been great fun to see the amazing activities from around the country. My husband and I really did most of our U.S. explorations when our kids were elementary age and up. It’s so much fun to explore the USA with kids! 🙂
This is a great post! Thank you!
Thanks for your kind comment … I had a lot of fun with it … I always love looking through our mementos. 🙂
Wow! What an awesome list of links!!! I always look to see if you have what I need and have been using your Pinterest board a lot lately. Thanks for all the help you provide us moms!!!
Thanks for your kind comment, Lisa! I’m so glad I’m able to help. 🙂
I love this idea and it can easily be adapted to fit any state your are learning about. Thank you so much for participating in the Booking Across the USA project.
Thanks, Jodie! Booking Across the US was an awesome idea, and I really appreciate all the work you did organizing it! 🙂
Thanks for featuring me on your Facebook roundup! And another shout out to Meg McElwee of Sewliberated.com for the apron pattern.
My pleasure, Lisa! I loved your apron … so perfect for Montessori at home. 🙂
How cool is the Booking Across the USA idea? I love it! Of course the Colorado girl in me is crazy over your box, too. I’m definitely going to have to track down a copy of C is for Centennial for my poor children who don’t get to see nearly enough of that beautiful state. Maybe I’ll bring one home with us from our summer visit! 🙂
Thanks, Melissa … isn’t this fun?! I’m so glad I got to be part of the Booking Across the USA project. Colorado is an awesome state, isn’t it?! I hope you all get to visit more in the future. 🙂
WoW – what a comprehensive post. I am SO excited to be part of this collaboration and your showcase totally puts Colorado on my list of must-see places! (I did visit Estes Park when I was younger and have very fond memories from that family trip.)
Barbara
Thanks so much, Barbara! Booking Across the USA has been an amazing collaboration, hasn’t it?! I hope you have a chance to visit Colorado soon … it is a beautiful state! 🙂
I love how you brought it all together with the activity box. 🙂
Thanks so much, Renee! My family always loved going over mementos from our trips, and this was an easy way to showcase each state. 🙂
Making a state box is such a wonderful idea! My kids love to explore materials that I set out in baskets or boxes, so this idea would work well for us. I appreciate that you share your expertise of Montessori with all of us so freely, thank you!
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Kelly! I love the way you often have such attractive baskets and areas with activities for your kids. 🙂
I love the idea of a State Box. Thanks for linking your ideas up at The Children’s Bookshelf.
Thanks for your kind words, Erica! And thanks for hosting The Children’s Bookshelf. 🙂
Thanks Deb for this great post! My family is doing the same about saving souvenirs whenever we travel (mostly Daddy!) and it is the way that Pinky has been learning her geography so far with such a joyful way. She loves to explore each souvenir or book. After exploring the continents, we are getting to explore each state. Thanks for all the links!!! It will make my research much easy.
Thanks, Airamty! It’s awesome that your family is saving souvenirs. They do make the study of geography so much more fun and meaningful. 🙂
Looks like a great book! I covered Michigan for the Booking Across the USA and used a book from the same publisher … Sleeping Bear press (actually it’s a Michigan company named after the Sleeping Bear Dunes!). Love the post, Deb!
Thanks for your kind comment! That publisher has some great books … I was amazed at how much I learned by reading the C is for Centennial book! 😉
LOVE this! And your pin-able image is beautiful – I had to see what it was all about =-)
Thanks for linking up to TGIF! Hope to see you again tomorrow,
Beth
Thanks so much, Beth! I really had fun with this … an activity for my future grandkids! 🙂
Great article. Amazing details and information. thank you for sharing this with us.