Memorizing states and capitals can be fun!

My boys are right brain learners which means they learn best through  pictures, fun stories, and bright colors. Actually most people learn best this way, but for some people this is a necessity when having to memorize things. I decided that this would be the year our kids learned all 50 capitals and their states. So I made up these fun cards. I'll give more detail in a minute.

I then had a photo shoot with each card, I'm a photographer what can I say? I then had something smaller and more portable. They now look like this, in a 4 by 6 print. Now let me explain how it works. Indianapolis, Indiana doesn't really have a story to go with it, it's simple to memorize because they both have the word Indian in them, thus the Indian feather. The kids picture the Indian feather and with just a few glances, they have this one memorized.

 Sacramento, California goes like this. There is a girl named Cali and when people come to visit her state of California she gives them a sack of mentos just for visiting. My artistic abilities are lacking, I know. The main thing about right brain learning is to have the picture embedded in the words. It "sticks" to the long term memory better.

 Jadon did this one. The story goes like this: There are two boys, one named Frank and one named Ken. Frank built a fort for him and Ken so they could go tucky (turkey) hunting together. Pretty clever huh!

 I'll share one more. Camden did this one. Here we have Little Rock, Arkansas. Camden drew a bunch of little rocks being thrown onto an ark.

The next thing I did after getting my 4 by 6 prints, is made this. I poked a hole in the top of each card and put a ring thingy around it, that way all 50 states are in the same place and the kids can just flip through them without losing any.

I got double prints of the pictures so I could make a puzzle game. 

So now the kids can find which capital goes to which state. Pretty fun huh! And so far the kids have memorized 36 out of 50. We are over half way there. By Christmas they should have them memorized. We take on about 3 to 5 new ones per week and then spend time reviewing. It's so fun learning this way!