Regions of the United States

The United States

• The United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, stretches approximately 3,000 miles from east to west.
• Due to its size, the U.S. is divided into smaller geographical areas or regions.
• States within each region share common features like geography, climate, natural resources, and economic activity.

Regions of the United States

• New England lies in the northeastern part of the U.S. consisting of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island; all border the Atlantic Ocean except Vermont.
• The Mid-Atlantic region, is near the middle of the Atlantic coastline and includes New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.
• The South: Encompasses Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana, have a hotter climate than the northern states.
• Midwest: Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. Rivers and lakes are major features of this region.
• Great Plains: Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota, is a flat area without hills or mountains, covered with wheat farms in the east and cattle ranches in the west.
• Rocky Mountain Region: Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Utah including the Rocky Mountains and continuing into New Mexico.
• The Southwest: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada.
• The West Coast includes California, Oregon, and Washington and borders the Pacific Ocean.
• Alaska and Hawaii are not connected to any other state and are bordered by the Pacific Ocean.

The United States in Context

• The United States is in the Western Hemisphere on the continent of North America which includes Canada, the U.S., Middle America, Mexico, Central America, and Caribbean islands.
• The U.S. is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west.
• U.S. territories in the Caribbean Sea include Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
• U.S. territories in the Pacific Ocean include Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Government and Society

• The U.S. is a democracy where the people rule through elected representatives; each of the 50 states has its own government and capital city.
• The head of the national government is the president who lives in Washington, D.C., the capital of the U.S.
• The U.S. is a country of immigrants and since its beginning, people have come to live in America.

New England

• Maine's special food is lobster, which comes from the sea.
• New England has four distinct seasons: cool spring, warm summer, crisp fall, and long, cold, snowy winter.
• In the 1600s, people from England settled New England and established thirteen English colonies.
• The colonists declared their independence in 1776, fighting the Revolutionary War to defeat the British and form the United States of America.
• Maine is on the coast of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont are mountainous.
• In autumn, their green leaves change color. Trees include sugar maples, from which maple syrup is made.
• Boston, the capital of Massachusetts, is a city full of skyscrapers, is historically significant with the American Revolution breaking out there.
• The Freedom Trail marks important sites from the American Revolution, such as Faneuil Hall and the house of Paul Revere.
• The Boston Public Library is the oldest public library in the U.S.
• Harvard, the first college in America, is in Boston and the city is a center of education with many colleges.
• Rhode Island is the smallest of the fifty states less than 50 miles across; Connecticut and Rhode Island have towns with ports.

The Mid-Atlantic Region

• New York City is made up of five boroughs: Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island; Manhattan has the most people living in a small area.
• The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor is a symbol of freedom for many immigrants.
• New York City's immigrant communities have brought diverse foods.
• Chinatown offers egg rolls, and Little Italy offers cannoli; Manhattan's Broadway is renowned for theaters, offering musicals and plays.
• There is a Museum of Metropolitan Art and many historic artifacts can be found in the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan.
• The New York Public Library is housed in an impressive building.
• The climate is similar to New England and the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland are among the most populated in the country.
• America's headquarters is located in Washington, D.C.
• Washington, D.C. is not part of any state. It is the only American city and is its own district called the District of Columbia.
• In DC Pennsylvania also goes over Philadelphia; Maryland flies over it, also goes over Baltimore.
• Chesapeake Bay are famous for its crabs.
• Washington’s avenues create for wide straight streets.
• The U.S. Capital building is located in Washington with its large white dome and is where the congress makes laws that is made up elected lawmakers from every state.
• The National Mall is a tree-lined park in Washington that is surrounded by historic attractions and has museums, monuments, and government buildings called the National Mall.
• The Washington Monument is a stone obelisk over 500 feet tall, honoring America's first president, George Washington.
• The Lincoln Memorial is a structure honoring Abraham Lincoln and the president during the 1860's.
• The memorial’s large statue inside shows Lincoln being very reserved and commanding.
• The Library of Congress is America's biggest library.

The South

• The South has mountains, rivers, valleys, and sandy beaches. Twelve states make up the South and have hotter climate than the northern states.
• In the 1800's the two most important crops were cotton and tobacco, which were picked by hand.
• Eleven Southern states left the United States and the Civil war had conflict from 1861-1865.
• In the Appalachian mountains of the South, the names differ but are known at the Great Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains.
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park protects the Native American place of blue smoke and the ranger is in charge.
• The state of Florida coasts are covered by sandy beaches that has 2 water bodies, the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
• Warm water goes up the the Gulf Stream along the East Coast.
• Florida has groves because of the warm weather and Miami is one of the well known cities of Florida because of the people from Cuba.
• Spanish are spoken on the streets of Miami, the language of Cuba.
• Kentucky has many horses are raised and is called the Kentucky Derby.
• Tennessee is famous for music where country and blues music is what Nashville and Memphis are known for.
• Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi make up the Deep South, where Atlanta Georgia was burned down at the Civil War.
• New Orleans has an area town called the French Quarter.
• New Orleans is located on the longest river in America, which is called the Mississippi.

The Midwest

• The Midwest consists of Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa; Rivers and lakes are abundant in this region.
• St. Louis has a shiny arch of steel called the Gateway Arch known as the tallest monument in the United States.
• Agriculture is very important in the Midwest. Iowa and Illinois have crops like corn and soy beans.
• Midwestern farms raise animals such as cows, cheese, and butter.
• Iowa gets more than 30 percent of its energy from wind power.
• The Great Lakes are known for their huge bodies of water such as Lake Superior.
• The Great Lakes are Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario.
• Shipping all over the world is done through these Great Lakes which connects to the Atlantic Ocean.
• The third most populated city in the country is called Chicago; located on Lake Michigan's southern shore.
• Chicago is known for being called "the windy city" where the buildings were made in the 1800's.
• Sports teams fill the area in Chicago that has baseball, football and basketball.
• Northwestern areas Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota are covered with forests and wild life that the wolfs and bears roam.

The Great Plains

• The Great Plains is near the center of the United States, composed of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
• A plain is a flat area without mountains.
• The Eastern part has Wheat, and the western part are cattle ranches; another resource is oil for gasoline.
• The Native Americans hunted bison for food and hid their skin; the Europeans hunted the bison and moved them to reservations.
• Tornado alley has a vortex of storms in the Great Plains with destructions.
• The states of North and South Dakota has been harsh winters.
• The Mount Rushmore are four faces in the national park near Badlands to be features of the great presidents of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln (60 feet).

The Rocky Mountain Region

• The wall of the Rocky Mountains has five states going through Canada like Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Utah, but the mountains continue to New Mexico .
• Most mountains have jagged looking trees with rough tops.
• Denver the capital has high elevation, or height above sea level.
• Settlement was hard to farm so the people had mainly were there to mine the copper, lead and silver minerals.
• Tourism and skiing to see these famous national parks are great things to check out.
• Wyoming holds the least populated state in entire the world, is Yellowstone the oldest protected wildlife in the oldest national park.
• The US calls the bald eagle a symbol.
• Bison is also known, as the government tried to protect.
• People tend to look for deer but the head is a sharp horn called Elk.
• The grizzles have had a hard time smelling food as well because of the smells.
• The hot water erupts into the sky called Old Faithful, which is know for its famous geyser consistently scientists were able to predict.
• There is magma in the earth that heats up the surface to the point it steams and with pressure the grounds steam.
• Montana shows valleys have glaciers is which was carved out with rivers is and the landscape of ice in parts.
• Idaho is mainly known for potatoes.

The Southwest

• There were explored states going east to explore Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada.
• Texas has more than seven hundred miles and the largest states by the size after Alaska, produces large things such as bigger oil and ranches and such.
• Cowboy culture is held here today.
• The U.S has built a a space center here and first word was spoke on the moon.
• When exploring Texas and states had a large group going to South Western language they speak Spanish; Mexico was separated of the United States.
• The United States won the war and had areas of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and California, that speaks Spanish still today.
• Enchiladas are a soft tortilla dish.
• New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada are very desert dry areas.
• Cactus is a sharp plant.
• Arizona has Roadrunners have feathers and spiky hair and run very fast.
• Very poisonous is a scorpion they might sting and you will very be sick.
• Colorado is a river cuts through Canyonlands and was the Grand Canyon.

The West Coast

• The West Coast is the region after flying Nevada. California, Oregon and Washington is the states on the West Coast..
• Los Angele is very largest with 2/3 the coast.
• Large spread roads that connect into cities also.
• Desalination is the process of water in California.
• Some places are rocky then is becomes waves again.
• A long line of mountains are the Sierra Nevada , is the tallest.
• The cable car is what connects city for San Francisco and Golden Gate Bridge and a bay.
• Moisture with the air is the cascade mountains.
• Lumber-jacking is down trees, protected by them.

Alaska & Hawaii

• Alaska is not connected to other states where fifty was sayed to being connected also to pacific to Arctic ocean also.
• The north Washington state is far five hundred miles.
• Two thousands west of the California from Pacific ocean of Hawaii with over more than one hundred of islands.
• The North is the biggest size of double Texas.
• Anchorage is a wild nature with the forrest. The largest state is is far the Denali.
• Four degrees from the earth with snow.
• Hawaii has a lot 100 islands and Hawaii people speak Asian culture still exist today has one person said I will tell you about the magma, volcano erupts when the liquid turns to lava.