A great way to end the year is by doing projects. I like to do longer projects and PBLs after the end of the year testing. By this point, I have already taught my standards and the students are so ready for summer break. Projects are a great way to keep students engaged and they actually enjoy doing them! If you want to read my post about the end of the year and test prep, click here.
I love doing long research projects with my students, and my students love it too! This project is about the different states in the United States. Learning the states is a fifth grade standard, but this is a great project that any upper elementary or middle school student could do.
Research projects is great way to learn how to find information online and in books. Also, most ELA standards include researching and writing an informative essay and long term research projects.
This state project includes the students researching a state, writing an essay, making a tri fold board for the state, and then presenting in front of the class. I also created an event for parents to come into our classroom and see all the projects.
If you want to purchase this resource, you can find it here on our Teachers Pay Teachers store. It includes everything you need to implement this project in the classroom.
Choosing States
For this project, I wanted all states to have a project board to display. I wanted the students and parents to walk through all the 50 states. You do not have to do all the states, you could just assign one state per student.
In my case, we did this project with the whole 4th grade. So, I almost had all states covered by just one state per student. We did have a couple extra states, so I let students decide if they wanted to do another state. I did give some extra credit if they chose to do another state. If a student took another state, they did not have to write an essay, but they did have to complete the Notes Organizer and a board to display.
If you have more than 50 students, you could have students pair up or have multiple projects for each state. Whatever works with your situation.
I also let the students choose what state they wanted to research. I feel like students learn more and are more engaged if they can decide what they want to learn about. To do this, we took all 4th grade outside to the big state map on the playground. I went through all the states and the students raised their hand if they wanted that state. If more than 1 student wanted the state, they would pick a number between 1 and 20 and whoever was closer would get the state.
Class Work
After choosing states, the students started to complete the Notes Organizer. The students had to use one book and one online resource. I also required at least 2 sources. Although, many used 2 online sources along with a book. All information I required in the Notes Organizer was easily found online and in books.
When they completed the Notes Organizer, they started writing the prewrite for the essay. I created a prewrite template for the students to complete so I knew all information I wanted would be in the essay. I matched up the prewrite with the Notes Organizer and included the information that should be in each paragraph and how many sentences I wanted. This essay had to be five paragraphs in length.
When they finished the prewrite, the students had to go through the writing process. So, they wrote a rough draft, revised and edited, and then typed a final draft.
Poster Board
After this they started working on the poster board. I listed the specific information I wanted on the board and they found pictures online and wrote up sections to put on the board. I also had the students color a map of the state to put in the middle of the board. If you want to print out each state map, I found a great website here for the printable versions of the states. Also, I found printable flags for the students to print out and color here.
When the poster board was completed, the students practiced their presentation. We presented all the projects in our classroom for each student to hear. While they presented, I graded them with the rubric included in my TPT resource.
Parent Involvement
I invited the parents to our school to go on our “Road Trip Across the United States.” We set up the projects according to the regions in the 4th grade classrooms and hallway. The projects were set up around the perimeter of the rooms, so parents could easily walk around. Students stood in front of their project and the parents walked around to view all the projects.
Before the parents came, the students decorated signs for each region. They also decorated road signs and license plates and hung them in the classrooms and hallways.
After the parents walked around and saw the projects, we had some food to sample from the different regions of the United States. This wasn’t a complete meal, I just wanted the students and parents to taste different foods from around the country.
The Southwest region. 
The West region. 
The Midwest region. 
The West region. 
The Southeast region.
The students LOVED this project. They learned all about the different states while practicing ELA skills. Then, the involvement with parents was a great way to show off their learning and a fun day for the parents to bond more with their children over education. Everyone especially loved sampling the food. A lot of parents and students tried food they have never tried before. Overall, it was a great day and I enjoyed the whole process.
Hopefully, you can use this in your classroom! This is a great way to engage students and even parents at the end of the year.
Remember, if you want to purchase this project, click here.
Thank you for Continually Learning with us!
Kyle and Sarah
