Symbols Quiz

Answer the following questions in your social studies notebooks. You may use your notes.

1) What is a symbol?

2) Draw two examples of a symbol.

3) Can more than one symbol stand for the same thing? Give an example.

4) What is the Liberty Bell a symbol of?

5) The ____________ is the national bird. It represents ___________ and _____________.

6) Name two buildings that stand for the United States and write down what happens in them.

Rights and Responsibilities Quiz

Answer the following questions in your social studies notebooks. You may use your notes.

1) Define "citizen."

2)Everyone has a ______________ to be a good citizen.

3) Define "responsibility." Name three responsibilities that you have.

4) What is a law? Name three things that there are laws against.

5) Define a "right."

6) Name three freedoms in the Bill of Rights.

7. Name a right you have in school that is also a responsibility. Explain how it is both.

Map Quiz

Answer the following questions in your social studies notebooks. You may use your notes.

1) What kind of map shows boundaries of places like countries, states and cities?

2) What tells you the difference in scale between a map and real life?

3) Name three things that maps have in common.

4) What kind of map would you use if you were studying the Civil War? Why?

5) What kind of map would you use to drive from your house in New York to Florida? Why

6) If you were stuck on a desert island, what kind of map might best help get off the island? Why?

Document Based Question: Erie Canal

Transportation systems often have a big impact on communities. In 1825 the Erie Canal opened in New York State.

Read the documents below. For each document answer the questions that follow. After reading the documents and answering the questions, write a composition that explains how the Erie Canal affected New York State’s development.

Document A: Map of Erie Canal



1. What are four major cities along the Erie Canal?

__________________________________________________________________________

2. What waterway connected the Erie Canal to New York City?




Document B: Chart on Erie Canal


1. How long did it take to ship freight along the Erie Canal during the Canal Era?

__________________________________________________

2. Give two advantages of using the Erie Canal instead of dirt roads to transport freight during the Erie Canal.

a) __________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

b) __________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________


Document C: State of New York Report on The Barge Canal


New York City was ranked fourth in population in 1800 rose to first place . . . Albany doubled its population within a few years. The population of Utica increased from 3,000 to 13,000 in twenty years. Syracuse, which was described as a "desolate" hamlet of a few scattered wooden houses in 1820, became a city of 11,000 in 1840. During approximately the same period, Rochester changed from "one wide and deep forest" to a prosperous community of 20,000. Buffalo, a wilderness outpost of 200 in 1812, became a gateway to the west and its population reached 18,000 by 1840.

State of New York Report on The Barge Canal, Legislative Document 1961

1. What was the population of Buffalo in 1840?

__________________________________________________________________________



2. What effect did the Erie Canal have on the cities located along the Canal?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________


Document D: Photo


1. Where and when was this photo taken?

__________________________________________________________________________



2. Looking at the photograph, what impact did the Erie Canal have on Rochester?

__________________________________________________________________________



__________________________________________________________________________


Document E: Engineer’s Report on Erie Canal

"the uniting of Lake Erie with the Hudson [will] render New York the greatest commercial emporium [city] in the world…The expense, be it what it may, is no object when compared with the incalculable benefit…For these reasons I strongly recommend the adoption of the plan."

William Weston, Engineer, 1807


1. Why does William Weston favor building the Erie Canal?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________


Essay

Transportation systems often have a big impact on communities. In 1825 the Erie Canal opened in New York State. Write an essay explaining how the Erie Canal affected New York State’s development. Use the documents above to help you answer the question.

The Erie Canal

Erie Canal was the first important national waterway built in the United States. It crossed upstate New York from Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany to Troy on the Hudson River. Completed in 1825, the canal joined the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes system. It provided a route over which manufactured goods and settlers could flow into the Midwest without passing through Canada, and over which timber and agricultural products could be transported to the East.

For a hundred years before the Erie Canal was built, people had been talking about a canal that would join the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. The man who planned the Erie Canal and carried the plans through was De Witt Clinton. Clinton was mayor of New York City for most of the period between 1803 and 1815. He was governor of the state from 1817 to 1822 and again from 1825 until his death in 1828. Those who opposed the canal laughingly called it “Clinton’s Ditch.”

Clinton and Gouverneur Morris went to Washington in 1812 to ask for federal help for the project, but they were unsuccessful. In 1816, Clinton petitioned the New York State Legislature to build the canal. His petition won so much support that the governor appointed a canal commission and made Clinton its head. Clinton became governor in 1817, and shortly afterward, on July 4, 1817, broke ground for the canal in Rome, New York, then a village on the Mohawk River. Construction took eight years. The canal formally opened on Oct. 26, 1825. The first barge to travel its entire length, the Seneca Chief, left Buffalo with Clinton on board on Oct. 26, 1825. It arrived in New York City on November 4 and was greeted all along the way by enthusiastic crowds.

The building of the canal was paid for by the state of New York. It cost $7,143,789, but it soon earned its price many times over. The canal cut freight rates between Buffalo and New York City by more than 90 percent and strengthened New York City’s position as the nation’s largest city and principal port. As the canal traffic grew, towns along its course prospered. Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo became major cities.

The original canal was 363 miles (584 kilometers) long. It was 28 feet (8.5 meters) wide at the bottom, 40 feet (12 meters) wide at the top, and 4 feet (1.2 meters) deep. It could carry barges that were 80 feet (24 meters) long and 15 feet (4.6 meters) wide, with a draft of 31/2 feet (1.1 meters). The canal had 83 locks, which raised vessels on the canal about 565 feet (172 meters) from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Barges were towed along the canal by horses and mules on shore. At first, travel on the canal was slow. The famous editor Horace Greeley wrote that passengers traveled a mile and a half an hour on the Erie Canal for a cent and a half a mile. But fast passenger boats could travel 100 miles (160 kilometers) a day.

The canal was enlarged several times between 1835 and 1862. But business began to fall off in the 1870’s as railroads became the main long-distance carriers of freight and passengers. In 1903, the people of New York voted to build a great modern waterway, linking the Erie Canal with three shorter canals in the state to form what now is called the New York State Canal System. This system, which is 524 miles (843 kilometers) long, opened in 1918. See New York State Canal System.

"Erie Canal." World Book Student. World Book, 2010

Questions

1) What year was the Erie Canal Completed?


2) According to the article, what had people been talking about for 100 years before the Erie Canal was built?


3) Name two things the canal was used for.


4) How many years did it take to build the canal?


5) Who paid for the building of the canal? how much did it cost?


6) How long was the original canal?


7) Why did business on the Erie Canal began to fall off in the 1870’s?


8) Think of one question of your own and answer it based on the information in the article.


9) Why would business people want to join the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean?


10) What reasons do you think people had for using the railroad instead of the canal?







Next we will look at some Document Based Questions to answer some more questions about the Erie Canal.

Reflection On Unit 4

In your social studies notebooks please answer the following:

1) Explain the focus of our research in Unit 4.

2) Summarize the steps taken to research our topic.

3) Assess the tools we used to present our research.

4) Write about one thing we did that you feel you did really well in this unit.

5) Write about one thing we did that you think you need improvement on.

Be sure that you answer using full sentencesand proper punctuation.

Unit 4

Grade 4

Unit 4: The New Nation

Essential Question: What does it mean to be free?

Focus: The U.S. Constitution

Students will create a PowerPoint presentation about the U.S. Constitution.

Activities:

1) Students will understand the main idea and supporting details of the writing of the US Constitution by taking notes during
a short film*.

2) Students will open and save a PowerPoint presentation.

3) Students will import photos and add text to multiple slides in their PowerPoint presentations.

4) Students will upload finished presentations to a class blog.

* Films are closed-captioned so students can watch, read and listen.


Students that meet twice a week each made their own PowerPoint presentation:



Students that meet once a week made PowerPoints as a group: