Postcard-Geography Album: Texas, “The Lone Star State”

We have another very special postcard to show you today. It is from the Quirky Kids at Quirky Momma.



They live in Texas, so we made a album page on Texas and put in their postcard.
We enjoyed looking at the cattle round-up on the card.
We learned that the state bird is a Mockingbird and the state flower is the Bluebonnet.

Some other things we learned about Texas:

The name "Texas" means friends.

"Six Flags over Texas" refers to its being ruled over by a number of other countries; Spain, France, and Mexico being a few.

"Remember the Alamo" refers to Texas is its gaining its independence from Mexico in 1836.

The motto, "The Lone Star state" refers to the fact that Texans hoped that they could then become another state in the Union, but Congress wouldn't approve it right away. Their flag, the famous Lone Star Flag, is meant to resemble the United States flag, except with only one star--Texas, on it's own. Rather than becoming a state, they became their own sovereign nation. In 1845 they finally gained statehood, but they still fly their Lone Star Flag as a reminder of that history. Only sixteen years later it had seceded from the Union again, wishing to remain a slave state. Of course, following the close of the Civil War, Texas became a state again, but not until 1870, five long years after the war had ended. Texas is allowed to fly its flag at the same level as the national flag.  This is because it is the only state to enter the U.S. by treaty rather than by annexation.

The armadillo is the state animal.

Texas includes a big variety of landscapes from deserts and prairies to forests and beautiful coasts. There are swaps, woods, mountains, rivers and streams. Because there aren't large natural lakes, over 100 artificial reservoirs have been built.
And, of course, we had Texas Chili for dinner.

Texas, the second largest state in the nation, is very diverse with many cultures, landscapes, and occupations. 

visited 8 states (16%) and Washington DC with our postcard album project

More great information about Texas can be found at Home With Purpose.