Postcard-Geography Album: Oregon, “ The Beaver State”

We have been so fortunate to get another learning packet for this week's postcard geography page. This packet was a Pay It Forward gift from Makita of Academia Celestia.
She sent us three postcards!

"The Crooked River winds in serpentine loops around the base of colorful Smith Rock in Central Oregon."

Crater Lake National Park

Southern Oregon

"Wizard Island is a volcanic cinder cone which forms an island at the west end of Crater Lake. The cone is capped by volcanic crater about 500 feet wide and 100 feet deep."

Mt. Bachelor

These, along with our usual coloring book page, were the bulk of our Geography-postcard album page, however we had lots of hands-on learning about Oregon.

We learned that the Thunderegg is Oregon's official rock and we enjoyed cracking one open and learning about them. She sent a little booklet along with the Thunderegg telling about the Indians legend that created its name and the theory about how they are formed.

"Glassy volcanic rock crystallized to form ball shaped sperulites. The central cavity of these balls were forced open by gases, thus forming the egg shaped shell. Over time, the cavity was filled with silica gel to form the patterns we see today."

Makita also sent us a tube squeezer made from Myrtlewood. The wood is very pretty. We had to research that, too. We found out that this tree only grows on the southern coast of Oregon and a small part of California and is a cousin of the Bay Laurel. Its leaves are often substituted for Bay leaves, although the Myrtlewood leaves are stronger in flavor. It is also cousin to the Myrtle tree that grows in the Holy Land. Makita also enclosed a sheet that had many facts about the Myrtlewood tree.

"Under the heavily wrinkled bark is a wood of extreme hardness and exquisite beauty. The intricate grain patterns and colorings are found in no other tree."

 Thank you, Makita, for making our study of Oregon so enjoyable. Please hop on over to her wonderful blog, Academia Celestia, where she shares her homeschool activities. I especially love her nature study posts and letterboxing.

I had planned to make the adorable Chocolate Cherry Mice from The Magic Onions because Oegon's Willamette Valley produces a staggering 35,000 tons of sweet cherries each year, (many, but not all, of them made into maraschino cherries) but no cherries could be found in the stores in this area. So, we settled for Cherry Cheese Danish from Petra School.

"Join authors Roland and Marie Smith and illustrator Michael Roydon as they take you on a journey across the Oregon Trail and through the picturesque Beaver state. In B is for Beaver, the Smith's rhyming verse and sidebar expository text illuminate the wonders of Hell's Canyon, the lush lands of the Willamette Valley, and the surging seas of the neighboring Pacific Ocean. An effective educational tool inside the classroom and out, readers of all ages in the state of Oregon and beyond can embark on this journey any time they wish." 

Update (1/16/12)

Angie, the pebblekeeper at Petra School

sent us a postcard featuring the Oregon Coast's kite festivals (bottom left postcard). She writes, "Connor Duran River is the shortest river in the US. It drains from our Devil's Lake. We have two kite festivals per year outside with one inside comes to Lincoln City."

Watch Road to Statehood on PBS. See more from Oregon Experience.

In our postcard-geography album, we have visited 16 states (32%) and Washington DC.