The Best New York Study: Fun Facts, Activities, and Printables

/ Homeschool / By / / Exploring the Great United States, Homeschool, New York

Inside: New York Unit Study activity ideas, recipes and worksheets to help kids learn about the State of New York.

When you hear the state of New York what is the first thing you think of? Can you locate the state on a map? Do you know any fun facts about New York?

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We are learning about the 50 states this year and it has been so much fun. There are so many fun things to learn about each state and to be honest it makes me want to visit each one.

As we learn about the states, we have done a simple unit study complete with videos, worksheets, books, activities and food.

Today I’m sharing our New York Study and all the fun things we did as we learned about this state.

As you put together your lesson plan for the State of New York, I hope you find these ideas helpful and use as many of them as you can.

In this post, I share all about our New York Unit Study all the printable worksheets we used can be found in my shop!

New York Unit Study

We started learning about New York by watching a New York homeschool pop YouTube video that shares basic facts for Kids.

I love this channel’s videos about the states because it shows not only the shape of the state, but where it is located on a map of the USA. It also talks about basic facts like the flag, nickname, bird, flower, and more.

While the kids watched this video they cut out, colored and glued together their New York worksheet.

After watching the video, we talk more about New York’s basic facts along with some fun facts.

The kids continue to finish the worksheet and little book from Exploring the Great United Sates as we continued talking about the state.

And of course, we included some fun activities, crafts, and yummy food (our favorite!) to finish off our study of the State of New York.

New York Unit Study Schedule

Our New York unit study was so much fun we did it in about 2-3 hours spread over a couple of days. You can decide if you want to keep the unit simple and do it in a day or you could easily spread it over a week.

For New York our study looked like this:

Day 1: Watched videos, did worksheets and started our experiment. (about an hour)

Day 2: Check experiment and make food. (about 30 minutes)

Day 3: Make fact teller and talk about our favorites. (about 30 minutes)

New York Facts for Kids

For each of the 50 states, we learn about the basic facts including the name and where it came from, the capital, the location of the state, and more.

New York Basic Facts

  • Nickname: The Empire State – is often credited to a letter written in 1785 by Georgie Washington, when he refers to New York as “the Seat of the Empire.” The historical significance, economic power, and cultural influence of the state could also be credited.
  • Statehood: 11th state – New York became a state in 1788 and has 62 counties.
  • Capital: Albany
  • Abbreviation: NY
  • State bird: Eastern bluebird
  • State flower: rose

We made this fun New York Fact Teller that included 8 facts about New York for the kids to share and practice so they could remember.

Other facts we talked about include:

  • Where did the name New York come from?
  • Where is New York located?

Interesting and Fun Facts About New York

  • New York got its name in 1664 when the English took control of the the Dutch colony of New Netherlands and renamed it in honor of the Duke of York. Before being called New York the area was known as New Amsterdam (a Dutch settlement).
  • New York has 1 National Forest and 6 National Monuments.
  • The Statue of Liberty is a national monument of both New Jersey and New York.
  • State Bush: Lilac
  • State Animal: Beaver
  • State Reptile: Snapping Turtle
  • State Beverage: Milk
  • State Snack: Yogurt
  • State Fruit: Apple
  • State Muffin: Apple Muffin
  • New York City is often called the Big Apple, but in 1976 apples were declared the state fruit. New York is the second largest U.S. producer of apples after Washington State.
  • Egg Cream, a sweet and fizzy drink, has been popular in New York City for over a century. It has no eggs or cream in it.
  • New York City is well known for its New York-style pizza and New York Style Cheesecake.
  • In Manhattan’s Little Italy you can find all kinds of delicious desserts including cannoli, cheesecake cones and more.
  • Tootsie Rolls were invented in 1896 by New York City candy maker Leo Hirshfield. They were originally sold for a penny each.
  • Buffalo wings, Thousand Island dressing and potato chips were all invented in New York.
  • Buffalo Wings were invented in Buffalo, NY in 1964.
  • The top floor of the Empire State building in New York City is 1,250 high. Counting the spire and antenna the building is 1,454 feet tall. The building has 103 floors with 1,860 steps from street level to the 102nd floor observation deck.
  • Over 50 million tourists visit Times Square in New York City each year.
  • New York has four of the most popularly visited tourist attractions in the world: Times Square, Niagara Falls, Grand Central Terminal and Central Park.
  • The New York City Marathon is the largest marathon in the World. In 2024 the race had 55,646 finishers.

Virtual Field Trips Videos and Printables about New York

There are a lot of great videos and virtual field trips you can use to learn about the state of New York.

A few vides we used include:

Books About New York

There are a lot of great books about New York both picture books and chapter books.

I found a lot of great options at my library which is a great option if you don’t want to purchase them all.

The 50 States by Gabrielle Balkan

The book I’m using for all the U.S. states and recommend you add to your home library is The 50 States by Gabrielle Balkan. This book has a large map of each state and is filled with fun facts and information about each state.  

The kids love looking at this book and pointing to their favorite pictures and then reading the facts about those things.

Picture Books About New York

Here are some book ideas to read as you learn about Idaho!

Chapter Books about New York

Here are some chapter books for older kids or to use as a read aloud about New York or set in the state.

New York Activities and Crafts for Kids

Arts, crafts and activities (along with the recipes and food!) are our favorite parts of studying each state.

There are a lot of fun activities you can do as you learn about New York, we decided to do a science activity to learn more about the Statue of Liberty.

Why is the Statue of Liberty Green?

We had a lot of fun doing a simple science experiment to turn pennies green. You can get all the details and the free printable tracking page here.

A few other Activity Ideas include:

  • Play a Game of Scrabble – have fun playing this game invented in New York.
  • Build the Empire State Building – or maybe just a model of it with Lego bricks or any other building material you want.

Stack the States

Stack the States 2 is one of the best purchases I have made. It’s an inexpensive game you can put on your phone or tablet, and kids can learn all about the 50 states.

The game is put together in a really fun way for kids to learn state capitals, shapes, geographic locations, flags, and more.

New York Recipes for Kids

For New York, there are a couple of fun food options included in the unit study ideas.

We decided to try making Brooklyn Egg Cream.

Brooklyn Egg Cream

This classic New York drink has only 3 ingredients Milk, soda water and chocolate syrup. We followed this recipe but used chocolate syrup we had.

It tastes like fizzy chocolate milk that isn’t very creamy. None of us loved the drink, but it was fun to try and memorable.

*If I ever get the chance to try it in New York, I might order it to compare with the one we made.

Printable New York Unit Study (Lesson Plan, Worksheet, and Mini Book of Fun Facts)

The New York printable unit study includes the cut-and-paste New York worksheet, a foldable mini book with facts about NY, and a 2-page lesson plan with the basic facts, fun facts, book list, activity ideas, and recipes.

Get the Unit Study on Etsy

Traveling in New York with Kids

Exploring New York is a great way to learn even more about the state. We were lucky to visit both New York State and NYC after this unit study.

There are so many things you can do in New York here are some of our favorites:

  • Statue of Liberty
  • Staton Island Ferry
  • 9/11 Memorial (we haven’t done the museum yet)
  • Palmyra, New York
  • Rochester Area Garbage Plates
  • Erie Canal
  • Lake America / Lake Ontario
  • Taughannock Falls
  • Brooklyn Bridge
  • Niagara Falls
  • Ellis Island

Here are some tips for less than 24 hours in NYC.