Fifty Nifty United States

One of the requirements for fifth grade is being able to label all of the states on a map.  When I taught fifth grade we spent about 3 weeks drilling the states.  We played games, sang songs, watched videos- everything I could think of to help them remember these states.  I would often race my kids to fill in a map (and always win, in case you were wondering.)  By the end almost every student could perfectly label a map.

When I saw this map on pinterest it was calling my name.  This would have been perfect in my classroom (pinterest came into my life a year too late.)   I loved picking out different fabrics for the states, I loved that I knew almost all of the states without having to look up their names (Colorado and Wyoming are easy to mix up), I even loved the tedium of stitching around every. single. curve.  It takes a huge nerd to love this map as much as I do.

Of course, I had to add a few special features for our family-

With this map to help I'm planning on Jilly mastering the states by second grade.  :)