Have you ever wondered what it’s like in the West? Here are my top 10 places to visit with Arizona with kids.
Little unknown fact, I grew up in a very hot dry climate for 5 years in a special area called Paradise Valley. Seriously it was called that! From Ages 8 to 13 I lived in Phoenix, Arizona and loved it! We were so lucky to have the opportunity to bring my son there to visit many years ago and share that region of the USA with them. I can’t wait to bring the girls too.
I am very excited to be representing ARIZONA in the Booking Across the USA event where bloggers from across the US have teamed up to offer some AMAZING stories and activities for all the different states!
(Disclosure: We received this book from Blue Apple Books for free. Affiliate links to amazon are in this post for books, all opinions are 100% my own.)
Blue Apple Books sent each of us a copy of their book to read with our children and inspire us to create an activity about our state.
Disclosure :This post contains affiliate links to amazon books
Travels with Charlie: Way Out West by Miles Backer
Check out the other books with Charlie tooTravels with Charlie: Travelin’ the Northeast
Travels with Charlie: Down South
Travels with Charlie: Across the Midwest
Having that connection with Arizona I wanted my kids to have that connection with the State too. Here are a few fun activities that you can do with your child to learn about the state of Arizona and all of the beautiful landmarks.
Here’s a few fun images of our family’s visit to Arizona below, look at how young my son is in these pictures, they grow soooo fast!
Arizona Themed Activities for Kids
Research Together as a Family
- Take a sheet of paper and write down the points of interest in Arizona
- Picking one a day research together the important Landmarks
FUN FACT: Original London Bridge was relocated to Lake Havasu City in 1971.
Read here to find out more
Create a Research Journal as a Family
- Once you’ve done the research as a family, it’s time to put it into a report.
- Encourage your child to pick on place a day to summarize your research
- At the end of the week you’ll have a whole research paper about your state.
- Present your portion at the dinner table for table talk
Where’s Charlie Game
Using a cutout or draw a picture of Charlie, create bigger images of the locations in Arizona from the books and place around the house. Then have your child close their eyes so you can hide Charlie behind one of the locations. Then invite them to open their eyes to find him and identify the location he’s hiding behind.
Where to find the images? I simply used and printed images from Wikipedia & various images from using image search on Google. Vacation pictures work great too!
Arizona Scavenger Hunt Locations
- Grand Canyon
- Meteor Crater
- Petrefied Forest
- Lowell Observatory
- Hoover Dam
- Painted Desert
- Lake Mead
- Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
- Copper Mining
- Camel Back Mountain
- Red Rock Canyon
Map of Arizona
Main Cities in Arizona
Exploring Pink Jeep Tours
The next time we’re visiting Arizona we’ll be sure to use Pink Jeep Tours to take us on an adventures to several of these locations. They were an amazing tour guide for our Las Vegas Adventures this spring. {Click here} to see their Arizona Tours.
Disclosure: we received a compliementory trip in Las Vegas on the Hoover Dam Tour with Pink Jeep Tours.
Additional Ideas for What to Do in Phoenix from Mom Endeavors
13 Coolest Summer Things to do in Arizona from USA Today
USA Themed Toys
There are so many things to discover in Arizona including discovering about the lives of Native Americans. I’ve decided to separate the two units and hopefully soon we will share about the ways we learned about the Apache and Navajo Nations. We choose to focus on the natural elements of Arizona in this Unit.
Additional Activities about Arizona from Enchanted Learning.com
We’re excited to announce that we’ve team up with kid bloggers from across the USA to share with you books and state related activities for each of the 50 States! What a fun way to travel from your own living room with BOOKS! Take a peek at who’s joining us and their activities!
Growing Book by Book, Everyday Snapshots, Teaching in the Fast Lane, The Educators’ Spin On It, Crayonbox Learning, Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, 3rd Grade Thoughts, Mama Miss, Teaching Stars, Fabulously First, Lemon Lime Adventures, True Aim Education, Guided Math, Primary Inspired, Surviving a Teacher’s Salary, Second Grade Smartypants, The Brown Bag Teacher, The Preschool Toolbox, Country Fun, Picture Books & Pirouettes, One Lesson at a Time, The Resource(ful) Room, Creative Family Fun, Peace, Love, and First Grade, Edventures with Kids, Africa to America, Teach Beside Me, Elementary Matters, Inspiring 2 NH Kids, Pink Stripey Socks, Kid World Citizen, iGameMom, Second Grade Math Maniac, Rockin’ Teacher Materials, Great Peace Academy, Kathy Griffin’s Teaching Strategies, Journey of a Substitute Teacher, My (Not So) Elementary Life, Stir the Wonder, Kidding Around Greenville, The Good Long Road, Kathy’s Cluttered Mind, Curls and a Smile, Dilly Dabbles, Mama Smiles, Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts, Sprout’s Bookshelf, All Done Monkey, Growing Firsties, ALLternative Learning, Delightful Learning, Kids Yoga Stories, and Where Imagination Grows
Win a set of all FOUR Travel with Charlie Books thanks to Blue Apple Books
You can follow along on this Interactive Booking Across the USA Pinterest Board
Follow along with the hashtag #bookingUSA
Such great ideas to learn about Arizona! Fancy you growing up there! We did a mammoth RV road trip a couple of years ago and absolutely loved the Grand Canyon. My daughter was in awe. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
That cactus is so cool! Love the variety of activities and that you included Charlie in your pics! 🙂 Would love to visit Arizona again some day.
Enjoyed my graduate school time in Tucson getting to travel over most of the state. Like the scavenger hunt idea. Will be working out a way to use with my non-reading preschoolers for our home state of Maine.
Thanks Michelle! I love that these activities work for any location you want your kids to learn about. We hope to bring our girls there soon too, just love it there.
We have fun visiting family in Tucson when I was younger. You could create a matching game with the landmarks too for non-readers.
I remember the book you made from your RV road trip Giselle, so many fun spots you visited! Will be fun to revisit with her using some of these activities so she remembers the landmarks she saw.
Oh my goodness, I love everyone of these ideas! I've been to AZ one time and loved it. I can't wait to take my boys there one day. Thank you so much for all the great ideas and being part of Booking Across the USA!