Exploring Delaware Through Little Passports

Our family thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Delaware in October. How fun to see some of the same things as we did a virtual exploration of the First State through Little Passports! And, as always, we learned a lot of things we didn't already know. I'm constantly amazed that, despite teaching about the 50 states and grading 32 state reports a year for 11 years, I still learn something new from Little Passports every single time!

We started our study of Delaware by building a catapult, inspired by the World Championship Punkin Chunkin competition held near Bridgeville. We did a logic puzzle to learn fun facts about the state insect, the ladybug. Did you know there are approximately 5000 species of ladybugs? And that they can play dead when in danger? I didn't! Delaware's state marine animal is a horseshoe crab. A rebus activity taught us all about these 'living fossils' that haven't changed much during their 500 million year history. Fascinating!

Trevor made the recipe, Chicken and Slippery Dumplings, for dinner. 

It was SO good! And it was easy to make. 

We'll definitely be including this one in our regular dinner rotation. Yum!

The next day, we finished up the rest of the Delaware activities. We solved a math-based puzzle to learn about the mile-long NASCAR racetrack in Dover called the 'Monster Mile.' Next was an activity about the 13 original colonies and Delaware's pride in being the first to sign the Constitution. This was familiar to Trevor because I taught it to his 5th grade class last year. We read about famous events in Delaware's history and followed grain through the Oliver Evans Mill, invented in 1784 as the first automated flour mill. We followed the step-by-step instructions to draw a C-5A Galaxy plane, which we saw in person during our visit to the Air Mobility Command Museum! We did a cross-out activity to decode Delaware's state motto. 

Finally, we did a neat art project, inspired by the beautiful beaches of Delaware. Their project was called Sand Art Bottles, but we used a different material. Can you tell what it is?

Sugar Sprinkles Art Bottles

Materials:

• small transparent bottle or jar with lid
• sugar sprinkles in various colors
• funnel

Steps:

Wash and thoroughly dry the container. Place the funnel in the container and pour a layer of sugar sprinkles in. Repeat with another color, tilting the funnel to create variation.

Keep adding layers. There's no right or wrong!

  

When the container is full, remove the funnel and add the cap. Admire your work for as long as you want, then use it to decorate cookies or cupcakes! It's lots of fun to see what colors fall first as you pour or shake the sprinkles onto a treat. 

Thanks to Little Passports for another fun and educational virtual voyage!