Teaching & Learning Company

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1 Great States! Over 200 First-Rate Reproducible Activity Sheets to Fascinate and Educate by Cindy Barden illustrated by Chris Nye Teaching & Learning Company 1204 Buchanan St., P.O. Box 10 Carthage, IL 62321

2 Table of Contents To the Teacher...iv Alabama...1 Alaska...5 Arizona...9 Arkansas...14 California...18 Colorado...24 Connecticut...29 Delaware...33 Florida...37 Georgia...43 Hawaii...48 Idaho...53 Illinois...58 Indiana...63 Iowa...67 Kansas...73 Kentucky...78 Louisiana...84 Maine...89 Maryland...94 Massachusetts...98 Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Washington, D.C Answer Key iii

3 Dear Teacher, What better way to learn about the United States than to visit each of the fifty states and the District of Columbia? Explore the many natural wonders from the Everglades to the Grand Canyon. Visit national parks, lakes, forests, mountains, swamps and glaciers. Search for the thousands of plants and animals that share our land and water. Meet the people who live and work here. Learn about the early inhabitants and how they lived. You and your students are invited to join a hot air balloon trip across this great nation. These activities are written for students in third to sixth grades. Select the ones appropriate for your class. Use them in conjunction with other geography, history, language arts and social studies materials. The activities are arranged alphabetically by state but can be used in any order you please. Many of the activities would work well with small groups or could be done as a class. When several activities are included on one page, you may prefer to assign only one or two to your students. With younger students, you could read the explanatory text to the class, discuss the material and complete the activities orally. Students can have fun playing charades as they learn about the U.S. One student can act out the name of a state or capital. The rest of the class can guess the name of the state or capital. Play 20 Questions. One student chooses a state. The other students take turns guessing which state has been selected by asking questions. It would be helpful to have a large U.S. map available during the game. Only questions than can be answered yes or no are allowed. Are you west of the Mississippi River? Are you north of Tennessee? Are you larger than Kentucky? Etc. Encourage students to keep completed activities in a folder or book for review. As students learn about each state, ask them whether or not they would like to live in that state and to explain why or why not. Compare and contrast two states the students have covered. They could be two very similar states, like New Mexico and Arizona, or two very different states, like California and New Hampshire. Have them look for similarities as well as differences. Encourage students to adopt a state. Each student can select a state he or she is interested in learning more about and make a scrapbook for that state with pictures and articles from newspapers and magazines. Have students write to the states chambers of commerce asking for maps and information for their scrapbooks. Addresses can be found in most current almanacs. An answer key is provided at the end of the book. The review activities could be used as quizzes, open-book activities or group activities. Two excellent series of books covering each state and Washington, D.C., are published by Childrens Press: From Sea to Shining Sea and America the Beautiful. These books introduce the geography, history, government, economy, culture, famous people and historic sites of each state. Other books published by Childrens Press are the New True Books which use simple text and color photos to describe the history, wildlife and sites in our country s national parks. New True Books are also available about many Native American groups. While researching the material for Great States!, I discovered the 1990 population figures quoted varied from source to source. Some sources had updated their numbers, based on corrections made to the 1990 census; others had not. Some did not include people in the Armed Forces and others living overseas. Population figures used are from the 1995 World Almanac and Book of Facts. Some variations in the number of square miles reported depended on whether land only or all area within the state, including lakes, rivers, etc., were included. As your students refer to different sources, they should be aware that discrepancies will be found. Sincerely, Cindy Barden iv

Welcome to Alabama Please Pass the Peanuts Let s start our tour of the United States in Alabama, the Heart of Dixie. Hang on to your hats.

Nicknames: Heart of Dixie, Camellia State, Cotton State and Yellowhammer State State motto: We Dare Defend Our Rights State flower: Camellia State tree: Southern pine State bird: Yellowhammer State

song: Alabama Capital: Montgomery Statehood: December 14, 1819, the 22nd state 1990 Population: 4,040,587: the 22nd largest in population Area: 51,705 square miles: the 29th largest in area

4 Welcome to Alabama Please Pass the Peanuts Let s start our tour of the United States in Alabama, the Heart of Dixie. Hang on to your hats. Hot air balloon races are held in Decatur during the annual Alabama Jubilee. Nicknames: Heart of Dixie, Camellia State, Cotton State and Yellowhammer State State motto: We Dare Defend Our Rights State flower: Camellia State tree: Southern pine State bird: Yellowhammer State game bird: Wild turkey State fish: Tarpon (saltwater) and largemouth bass (freshwater) State mineral: Red iron ore State rock: Marble State fossil: Basilosaurus cetoides (a prehistoric whale) State song: Alabama Capital: Montgomery Statehood: December 14, 1819, the 22nd state 1990 Population: 4,040,587: the 22nd largest in population Area: 51,705 square miles: the 29th largest in area Neighbors: Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Florida Major crops: Peanuts, cotton, soybeans, hay, corn, wheat, potatoes, pecans, cottonseed and catfish George Washington Carver, an African American scientist, became famous for making more than 300 new products from peanuts including ink, soap and shaving cream. Through his efforts, peanuts became a major crop in Alabama. Each year a contest is held in Dothan, Alabama, for the best peanut recipe. Think of a recipe you could make using peanuts in some form. It could be a soup, an appetizer, a dessert or a main dish. Name your new recipe and explain how to make it. 1

Name Alabama Map Activity Alabama is bordered by four other states. What are they? North Pacific Ocean Gulf of Mexico North Atlantic Ocean 2,, and Write their approximate locations on the map above.

5 Name Alabama Map Activity Alabama is bordered by four other states. What are they? North Pacific Ocean Gulf of Mexico North Atlantic Ocean 2,, and Write their approximate locations on the map above. The Gulf of Mexico is south of Alabama. Color it blue. Write the names of these major Alabama cities in the correct places on the map: Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Mobile and Huntsville. Use the compass to answer these questions. Which direction would you go to get from Alabama... to Tennessee? to Florida? to Georgia? to Mississippi?

Name Alabama Alabama was named for the Alibamu Indians. The word means thicket clearers or vegetation gatherers. Did You Know?

People first settled in Alabama about 11,000 years ago. When European explorers arrived, they found the Cherokee, Choctaw and Creeks living in villages.

The first Europeans in Alabama were Spanish explorers in the early 1500s. The French established a permanent settlement on Mobile Bay in 1701.

6 Name Alabama Alabama was named for the Alibamu Indians. The word means thicket clearers or vegetation gatherers. Did You Know? In Enterprise, Alabama, a monument was built to honor an insect the boll weevil. This beetle damaged so much of Alabama s cotton crop that farmers were forced to find other crops to plant. People first settled in Alabama about 11,000 years ago. When European explorers arrived, they found the Cherokee, Choctaw and Creeks living in villages. These Native Americans built log homes, grew corn, squash, beans and tobacco. They hunted and fished for food. The city of Tuscaloosa was named for Tuskalusa, a Mobilian Indian chief. The first Europeans in Alabama were Spanish explorers in the early 1500s. The French established a permanent settlement on Mobile Bay in Most of Alabama was ceded to England at the end of the French and Indian War in The Spanish continued to claim the area around Mobile Bay as part of Spanish Florida until Southern leaders met in Montgomery in 1861 where they formed the Confederate States of America. Nicknamed the Cradle of the Confederacy, Montgomery became the Confederate capital for a short time until it was moved to Richmond, Virginia. Railroad Bill, (Morris Slater) an Alabama train robber in the late 1800s became known as the Black Robin Hood because he gave food and other stolen items to the poor. The first electric streetcars in the South ran in Montgomery in People called it the Lightning Route. Joe Louis, born in Lafayette, held the heavyweight boxing title from 1937 to 1949, longer than any other fighter. Jesse Owens, born in Oakville, won four gold medals in track at the 1936 Olympics. Montgomery became the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement in 1955 when Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting in the whites only section of a city bus. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led protests against her arrest. A year later the Supreme Court decided that segregated buses were not legal. The famous University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant got his nickname because he entered a bear-wrestling contest as a youth. The city of Birmingham is famous for making steel and iron. A 55-foot statue called Vulcan, the Iron Man stands atop Red Mountain. This is the largest cast iron statue in the world. Vulcan was the Roman god of fire, the blacksmith who had his forge under a mountain. Famous Alabamians include Hank Aaron, Tallulah Bankhead, Bear Bryant, George Washington Carver, Nat King Cole, Bo Jackson, Helen Keller, Harper Lee, Joe Louis, Willie Mays, Jesse Owens, Rosa Parks, Leroy Satchel Paige, Lionel Ritchie, Hank Williams, Booker T. Washington and Dinah Washington. Find out more about someone from Alabama who was important in the Civil War or the Civil Rights Movement. Write a short report. 3

50 U.S. STATES AND TERRITORIES

50 U.S. STATES AND TERRITORIES BY MICHAEL KRAMME, Ph.D. COPYRIGHT 2000 Mark Twain Media, Inc. ISBN 978-1-58037-890-1 Printing No. 1361-EB Mark Twain Media, Inc., Publishers Distributed by Carson-Dellosa