Know the 50 United States US & Abbreviations by Song, Word Search, & Visual Aids

A One-Time class to learn the 50 United States in alphabetical order. They will practice location on the US map by singing along with the presentation that plays the Fifty Nifty United States song along with other visual aids and animations. Kids will continue with a screen-shared word search with all 50 US states built in for kids to locate. A second go through the presentation and finally, they complete to see who will win a prize by listing the most US states in 1 minute.

As time permits, we will take a third run through the presentation slower, to see information such as state bird, state flower, state food, and much more.

With more practice, they will never forget this song. Surprisingly, it comes in handy more than you think it ever will. 
I know this works from personal experience:
With years of experience with piano and singing, I have taught all of it to kids at one point or another.
I learned this song in elementary school. It will rack up some teacher admiration if kids can spout it out. I did.

Don’t worry about singing. The song is loud. No one will hear if off-key. Have a good time. Learning states isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But this is a fun way to learn if they let it be.
Look forward to learning in cool ways. I did not like Social Studies in school. I would not have believed I would be teaching it someday.

This class is structured in the following way. Time is approximate. The fewer students, the shorter time it takes generally. I will fill time by sending other state based activities during class if needed and talking about state related things that might interest them.

- I have recently reconstructed this a bit, and I think it’s much better for it. However, keep in mind, that learning a song doesn’t happen in an hour. This will give them the tools to keep practicing it until they know it.
I include all the following during class. Sometimes, I do them a bit out of order depending on that particular class. I go with the flow. Sometimes I can see that doing the word search at that moment would not work. Sometimes I need to get to the competition a little sooner. It just depends on class mood, personalities, etc.
1.	Play Presentation of Song- This is an animated presentation. Timed to the beat of the song (Fifty-Nifty United States), each state is circled as it plays through. Each state is also enlarged off to the side with its state abbreviations. Fonts, colors, and animation make it interesting and memorable.
2.   I ask each what state they are from.

3.	I have a US map at the end of the presentation without state names or abbreviations. Using their annotate feature on Zoom, they can pick a stamp or other drawing tool and take turns stamping a state they know and telling us what it is. 

The Word Search:
4.	Next is the word search. I will screen share this. The kids can find a lot of them just by looking, but it helps them to think of states in their head and to be kind of watching for them. The words sort of “imprint” in their brains. 50 states are a lot of states to find and have a big word search to accommodate that. I allow for a certain time. If it isn’t finished, they do have a printable copy in the classroom.

Back to the song:
5.	We go through the presentation again. Hopefully, the student or students will sing along. I will be singing along, and I will be encouraging them to do the same.

Compete:
6.	If I only have one student in that class, we still compete. It is just a race against the clock to see how many states they get, and they win!
If I have more, I ask them to have paper and a pencil. When I say go, I time them for 1 minute to see who gets the most states. I tell them it is the honor system. If they have anything in front of them showing states, they much hide it. I can usually tell if cheating is going on and they will get disqualified. Usually, this isn’t a problem.
7.	They will count at the end and the person with the highest must read them out loud. That person gets a certificate and a coupon for another class worth 2.00 off. Everyone else also gets a certificate.
 (The kids really seem to enjoy the competition part of the class)
8.	Time-permitting, we will go through the presentation again, but manually so that they can see things like state bird, state food, and things like that. I ask each of them if they can tell me something about the state they live in.

I now have two other classes you might have an interest in. I have a one-time class which is a game that will teach them abbreviations for the states as they guess the travel route of a family from Maine to California.
The second class is a new FLEX class in which learners take a pretend vacation across the USA with their families. They will visit each region of the US. Almost every state has a standard concerning learning the regions.
Students travel with a weird Aunt, make stops and learn about attractions. They even get a passport to drive through Canada to Alaska. And they get a prize at the end. 
And if you signed up for this class, let me know if you want to sign up for one of those. You will get a discount on the class.