By : admin

“When you say blizzard, we think Dairy Queen.”

-Florida
Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

There is so much to learn about our home state of Florida! If you are looking for a homeschool unit study for your K-4th grade student(s), you have come to the right place! For our Florida unit, we combined science, history, art, and reading comprehension all together. We did a few hands on activities, and we even caught a rocket launch! I broke this unit down into sections, in order to make it easier for my kids to understand. These are the topics we planned to cover:

  • The Kennedy Space Center
  • The Florida Everglades
  • St. Augustine and the Castillo de San Marco
  • Geography and Map of Florida

If you are putting together your own Florida unit, you could start with the map instead of ending with it. However, I started out by reading a book that overviews all the aspects of the state called: “My True Book: My United States: Florida“. by Tamra B. Orr. You can find this book at the library, or click the link to see it on Amazon. This book over-viewed the concepts we were going to go over in the next few days! Also for my Kindergartner, we read “F is for Florida” – a cute book with lots of information about Florida for each letter of the alphabet!

The Kennedy Space Center

The first topic we started out with was rockets and the Kennedy space center. Here are some books and videos about the space center and about Neil Armstrong that we used:

  • “I am Neil Armstrong” – Brad Meltzer – Book about the life of Neil Armstrong
  • “Neil Armstrong” – by Dana Meachen Rau – This is a brief and concise book about the life of Neil Armstrong, you would only need to read one of these two books. I found this one at the library.
  • “Neil Armstrong History” – a 12 minute you tube video about the space program in the US
  • “Dr. Binoc” – Rockets. A 4 minute video about how rockets work- this carried over a little from our unit study on Forces and Motion
  • “Kennedy Space Center Tour” – this family toured the center and made a nice 20 min video
Bottle Rocket

The space center itself is very expensive to visit, but worth it if it fits into your budget! You can visit their website here and while you’re there, you can check out the launch schedule. We happened to be very lucky, our Florida Unit coincided with a super exciting launch, SpaceX’s first astronaut launch. We caught this launch right from our driveway!

For science, my kids wanted to launch their own rocket. You can make a simple one at home with a 2 liter bottle, a cork, 4 pencils, tape, baking soda, and vinegar. You can find the instructions to make a cork bottle rocket here. I will say, this rocket took us a few tries to get it right. We filled the bottle with only 2 inches of vinegar, and we used more baking soda! We did get one to launch and it went past our roof.

Florida Unit Wildlife and the Florida Everglades

Florida Unit Alligator

Next, we studied the Florida Everglades and the different wildlife in Florida. We specifically studied the different types of birds in the area, too. There is a page here that shows all the different coastal and wetland birds with photos. Although we couldn’t visit the Everglades, we traveled to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in order to view some of these animals and birds up close (see the baby alligator in the picture!) You can view my post on my travel website about the refuge here.

These are the books and videos we used for the Everglades:

Florida Unit Reading Comprehension

I also put together my own reading comprehension packet for my 2nd grader about the Everglades. (I have since made a second version for 3rd/4th graders here!) It includes a three page passage and 10 response questions about the passage. I also read this to my Kindergarten girl and had her to a write and draw about the Everglades. If you would like to use it, you can find in on my teachers pay teachers store for only $.99! You can click here to view the packet.

Also in our wildlife study, we created a habitat for an animal in the Everglades. My younger daughter brought her habitat home from a local nature group that she attends, and thus my older daughter wanted to make one too! Here are their habitats, made from supplies easily found in any backyard and some water.

St. Augustine

St. Augustine is by far my favorite city in Florida. It is SO rich in history. If you have a chance to take a field trip there in your home school journey, do it! It has many things to offer for people of all ages. (View my blog post on my travel site here about St. Augustine). We visited the inside of the fort for free with my daughter’s fourth grade National Parks Pass. I highly recommend this pass if you have a 4th grader!

I also had the girls listen to a book on the history of the St. Augustine. The book was on Epic Books and it’s called “America’s Oldest Colony“. You can also find it at the library or on amazon by clicking the link. If you don’t live nearby the fort, you can watch a cool video tour of the Castillo de San Marco on you tube. The guy who put together this video is great!

Art

Florida Unit Basket Weaving

During our reading about St. Augustine’s history, the book talked about some of the Native Americans that originally occupied Florida. Some of them are still here, and when we are able, we plan to visit the Seminole Indian Reservation at Big Cypress in Hollywood, Fl. But for now, we focused on the Native American tradition of basket weaving. We watched this short video:

Our art for the week was putting together our own version of basket weaving. All you need it yard, felt, glue, a plastic threading needle, and some cereal box cardboard. I printed a template and followed the instructions from this blog. We did make ours a little smaller than the template. The baskets turned out nicely!

Florida Unit Map Project

Florida Unit Map

So in studying about Florida, what I most wanted my kids to learn from the week, was what we have here in our home state and where to find it! I put together a large map of Florida, and labeled the different major cities. I printed picture graphics and made clues for the girls to locate each of the spots on the map. You can find my project on my tpt store – also included is a worksheet size version for a classroom. You could also make your own map of Florida and discuss the following key places: St. Augustine, Walt Disney World, Florida Orange Groves, Kennedy Space Center, Florida Everglades, and Daytona Speedway. I put many more on the map but these would be my top ones to discuss if you are making your own.

As we went through the map, I left my computer on and we watched a few videos that went along with some of the pictures of the places in the State. I decided about an hour to this project so that we could take our time. (Note: most of these videos we did not watch all the way through!)

And that sums up our Florida Unit. We will be moving onto space next week so stay tuned!

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