One of our current notebooks this school year is one state history. The resources fell together pretty quickly and very inexpensively. It all started with a a state of Colorado coloring bk from the souvenir section at Walmart. I figured it would be extremely easy to take the color book apart and build a notebook around it by adding library books and narrations. The girls are loving this and willingly check off state history from their goal charts each week.

Here is what we are using:

State coloring book  you can purchase locally or use these online.  If you google your particular state for its coloring book you are sure to unearth one in no time. There appears to be one for each at the state gov. sites.

C is for Centennial a Colorado alphabet bk.  You can find free study guides for each book in this series here.

Mr Donn has a set of links to state history lessons and games online. These include geography, history, webquests, and folktales.  One of those links is particularly helpful for notebook printables – ABCteach   Enchanted Learning would be a similar resource. More interactive map games here  and here and especially here.

About.com has a set of state history plans as well. I honestly didn’t find much here that we would not have gleaned from the coloring book so don’t feel you need all of these resources. Go with whichever is easiest to access.

Be sure to surf your library for real books to flesh out the topics in the guides. We are focusing on the shorter bios and fact books that can be finished in one sitting. The encyclopedia is a good resource as well. A short entry for each page in the color book suffices.

Black and white state flags to print.

We are adding short narrations and pics from places we have visited around our state and that would be it!  Simple, fast, cheap, fun. If you take off with state history you may end up rabbit trailing to world geography. Elizabeth found P is for Passport which looks every bit as good! A is for America is another of his titles. Or try M is for Majestic (national parks) or any one of the dozens in this series.  I am so taken with these we may end up spelling our way through geography and history this year : D