The Books:
We began by reading L is for Lobster and then Bean used the information she learned to make a notebook page for her United States scrapbook.
There are so many great Maine picture books, we just had to read them all! Lighthouse Dog to the Rescue, The Sea Chest (this one made me cry, which is no small feat), Keep the Lights Burning Abbie, and Birdie's Lighthouse all focused on... wait for it... Lighthouses!
And of course we relished in the Robert McCloskey's award winning books set in Maine. One Morning in Maine, Time of Wonder, and Blueberries for Sal. My kids love these stories and could read them over and over again.
Blueberries for Sal is a classic and a Before FIAR book, so you can find boatloads of story time ideas over at Pinterest.
We also taught the kids about Maine using the Our United States of America: Catholic Social Studies textbook.
The Food:
After reading Blueberries for Sal and because the wild blueberry is the official fruit of the state, we made blueberry muffins using this recipe from food.com.
The Craft:
And after all of those lighthouse books, we made our own little lighthouses. We used directions from Spoonful.com to create them out of plastic cups, and then the kids took it a step further and added their own landscapes. Pal's is still sitting on top of the fridge. We made these a few months ago. I'm behind in blogging.