Postcard-Geography Album: Colorado, “The Centennial State”

We have learned a lot about Colorado this week. Colorado is a Spanish word and means "colored red." Its first inhabitants were the Apache, Pueblo, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche, Ute, and Shoshone tribes was explored early by the Spanish and claimed for Spain in 1706. In 1821 Mexico won its independence from Spain and took over Spanish land claims. In 1848 Mexico was defeated by the US in the Mexican-American war and America took Colorado by treaty. In 1858 gold was discovered at Pike's Peak and up popped up boom town settlements all over the Colorado Rockies. The territory of Colorado was established in 1861 and in 1876 Colorado became a state. The state's nickname is "the Centennial State" because it was made a state exactly 100 years after American Independence was declared. Colorado is one of the four corners states, the only place where four state boundaries touch at a square corner. The Rocky Mountains take up the western 2/3 of the state, from Denver west.  And the Great plains make up the eastern side.

Our printer is not working so I got an older student to sketch out a map. The youngest student labeled and colored the map until he tired and then had another student finish it up. We added our postcard, completing the page of Colorado for our Postcard-Geography.

The youngest student colored the state of Colorado on our United States map. He made it match our large map.

Following the suggestions at A Common Shepherdess, we also made a Colorado State Dinner featuring Chili Relleno Rolls and Tomato and Potato Bake...

Chef Salad bar, and...

Rocky Mountain Cookie Balls.

"Few other states in our union have the magnificent topography of the Centennial State. This unique Colorado landscape is beautifully represented in the illustrations of Helle Urban, an the rhyming verse and expository text of Louise Whitney defines those images and expands our understanding of the Rockies, Blue Spruces, Springs, and Yucca plants that paint this land."

visited 7 states (14%), and Washington DC in our postcard album studies
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