US Geography – New Jersey (part 1 of ???)

Since we are finally getting some decent weather and the field trip possibilities are looking bright, I decided to go ahead and start our study of New Jersey.  This is the first state we are covering as we learn about US Geography.  We are starting with NJ because it’s where we live and we will be spending the most time on it.

We started by finding New Jersey on our US street map and highlighting it.   We noted how NJ is found in the Northeast region, and the Mid-Atlantic sub-region.

We then moved over to our large New Jersey map where we noted some of the feature of our state.  We are surrounded on three sides by water, making us a peninsula.    The Hudson river divides the Northeastern part of the state from New York, then the rest of the eastern half is on the Atlantic Ocean.  As you round the tip you enter the Delaware Bay, which narrows into the Delaware River, which separates New Jersey from Pennsylvania.

I asked George if he remembered when we went rafting on the Delaware River and he didn’t.  When I looked up the pictures, I realized why – it was 3 years ago.  (that trip can be seen here)

We marked our house, Grammy Kaye and Pop-pop Hugh’s house, Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Kathy’s house and Granny Franny and Pop-pop Nelson’s house on the map.  Since George knows it takes 2 1/2 hours to get to Granny Franny’s that gave him an idea of how large (or not) the state is.

We read NJ Facts and Symbols and learned some basic information about our state.  After, I had George look through the book to tell me what information to add to our Fact Poster.  We will continue to add to this as we learn more.

I’m not sure how long our New Jersey study will take.  I have to take advantage of living in a state where you can drive from one end to the other in a day, so we will be doing lots of field trips as we learn about the history, the land, and the people of our state.