The story, A Bride for Anna's Papa, by Isabel R. Marvin would be a great choice to read in a 4th or 5th grade classroom to tie into social studies. It depicts many historical events that happend in the early 1900's on the iron range in Northern Minnesota, and describes life back then. It is about a young girl named Anna who lives in a location house with her father and brother. Her parents immigrated here from Finland, along with their friends and neighbors in their community. Her father works as a blacksmith in the late Chisholm mine, called the Monroe-Tenner mine. The story talks about dangerous working conditions and introduces the topic of labor strike, and would be a good introduction to this term. You could use these materials to create lessons around this story.
Listed below are:
If You are working with 5-8 year olds, you might: Discuss how people lived differently back 100 years ago then we do now. You could talk about things such as electricity, cars, and inventions that make it easier for us to live today. You could show pictures of these items 100 years ago and talk about how they have changed.
If you are working with 9-11 year olds, you might: Develop a curriculum talking about what life long ago must of been like. You could create a discussion about some of the differences and similarities there are now compared to 100 years ago, and create a chart. A good book that could be used is, If You Lived 100 Years Ago by Ann Mcgovern, or If You Were a Pioneer on the Prairie by Anne Kanna. It helps generate critical thinking in what would it be like back then. What clothes would you be wearing, what food would you be eating, what would your home look like, would you have electricity, ect.
Here are some additional lesson plans that are created by other teachers that can used for mining lessons:
Check it out for more information http://minnesotahumanities.org/resources/mining.aspx
If you are working with 12-14 year olds, you might: Develop a curriculum about life back in the early mining days. You could show footage of old mining towns getting started in the 1900's. Explain how the country was untouched until mining came into play on the iron range. You could show pictures of the huge mine pits in these areas, and how the mining has changed the area and physical changes that resulted from this. When mining grows, towns have to be moved. This is what happened with one iron range town. Here is a brief video describing how mining can impact so many people in the whole town.
video on how mining forced a town to be moved
Another idea is that you could do a lesson on taconite, the rock of the iron ore. It would work best with a 6th grade class. Here is the website: http://minnesotahumanities.org/resources/mining.aspx (These are lessons created by other teachers.)
Link to more mining lessons created by some members of my social studies class Mining
Link to home page Childrens Literature
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