May 2, 2007: America's 400th Anniversary

The Mini Page is a syndicated, four-page tabloid written for young children found each Wednesday in the Rocky Mountain News. This issue of The Mini Page is available through the eEdition Archive to registered eEdition subscribers. Click here to learn about subscribing to the eEdition at no cost to you (for Colorado teachers).

Activities:

1. Divide a large piece of paper into four sections. In each section draw an event from the life of Pocahontas. Write a sentence about each picture.

2. Draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper. Label the left side 'Food and Tools Long Ago,' and label the right side 'Food and Tools Today.' Find words and pictures from the newspaper that show the kinds of foods and housekeeping tools the Jamestown settlers might have used. Paste them in the left column. On the right, paste newspaper words and pictures that show food and housekeeping tools we use today.

3. Look in the help-wanted section of the classified ads in your newspaper. Find three different jobs that would have been helpful to the Jamestown settlers. List each job and explain how someone with those skills might have made life better for the settlers.

4. How would each of these people have added to our knowledge of Jamestown if they had been there and shared their knowledge with us: (a) an artist, (b) a historian, and (c) a scientist?

5. How are the events in Jamestown reflected in our society today? Write a paragraph in which you discuss the connections. Use these topics to guide your thinking: government, business and trade, agriculture, and relations with other cultures.

This week's standards:

• Students understand how historical events, people, places and situations contribute to our understanding of the past. (Social Studies: Time, Continuity and Change)
• Students understand family life in various places long ago. (History)
  
  

(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)