In 1779, the country that would become the United States of America included British, French, and Spanish colonies. The British colonies had declared independence from England, and the other colonies sided with their fellow Americans. One of the people who helped was General Bernardo de Gálvez, Governor of Louisiana. Louisiana… Continue reading
“The Bremen Town Musicians” is one of my personal favorites among the tales of the Brothers Grimm. In this story, four old farm animals, in some versions having heard that their masters were going to have them — umm… put to sleep, decide to go to Bremen to apply for posts… Continue reading
The Elves and the Shoemaker is a tale from the Brothers Grimm. In it, a poor shoemaker has only enough leather for one pair of shoes. He cuts the shoes out and leaves them ready to make in the morning. In the morning when he gets up, he finds (usually) two… Continue reading
“Stone Soup” is a fun story to read and to act out, and it presents a classic message. In the story, three soldiers traveling through a town ask for food, but in vain. The villagers feel too poor to share, and they decide together to hide their food and refuse… Continue reading
When you’re using a cowboy classroom theme or studying the Wild West, don’t forget the women. The photo here is of “Spirit of the Prairie,” a statue in Colby, Kansas, sculpted in 1985 by Charlie Norton. Women of the Wild West didn’t go on cattle drives and they took… Continue reading
We visited the stockyards in Ft. Worth. Or rather, we visited the Stockyards National Historic District. The Stockyards still have rodeos and cattle drives, so this is one of the few places everyone can get a sense of what cowboy living was like. More than six million cattle were driven… Continue reading
El Yunque, a tropical rainforest in Puerto Rico, is the only rainforest in the United States. With 28,000 acres, this National Forest sees about 600,000 visitors each year. Wait a minute — a U.S. rain forest? Your class may not realize that Puerto Rico belongs to the United States. Polls… Continue reading
The story of Paul Bunyan is an American folktale. It may be more proper to say that the stories of Paul Bunyan are American folktales, because there are quite a few of them, sometimes gathered together into a single long story, but sometimes not. Paul Bunyan is a folk hero among… Continue reading
The rainforests of the Congo Basin are second in size to the Amazon rainforest, but they are greatly endangered. One of the nations in the region is Côte d’Ivoire, or Ivory Coast, so named for the great herds of elephants that used to live there. Now, this country which used… Continue reading
Wilma Rudolph was an exceptional athlete in track and field, a teacher, and an effective worker for civil rights. She is an impressive example of persistence in the face of adversity. Wilma Rudolph was born in 1940, in St. Bethlehem, near Clarksville, Tennessee. She was the 20th of 22 children,… Continue reading
