Growing Up in Coal Country

by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

This is a composition of many stories of children who worked in the coal mines in the late 1880 to early 1900's.  This book has great stories directly from the young boys who worked in the mines and has many, many pictures.  Age group 4th through 8th grade depending on the focus of the lesson.

If you are working with 5-8 year old students I would read aloud some of the stories from the boys who worked in the mine.  I would relate the stories of how hard they worked with how hard the students in the class have to work now. I would show the students lots of pictures of the era so they could see for themselves how hard and dirty the work was.

If you are working with 9-11 year old students I would have the students connect their lives today with the lives of the boys who worked in the mines.  I would have them do a play that showed the day in the life of a boy miner.

If you are working with 12-14 year old students I would do the lesson that is designed in this web site.  It allows the students to learn about the jobs in the mines and how hard they had to work, then it relates this era of child labor to the laws of today for child labor.  The last step to the lesson is having them design a plan to help stop the child labor of today.  It makes the students think of how they can help end child labor.

Lesson Plans for Growing Up in Coal Country

Resources for Growing Up in Coal Country

Vocabulary for Growing Up in Coal Country

Childrens Literature

Building America Home Page

Mining final project page.