The Dust Bowl

release dates: April 24-30 17-1 (10)

© 2010 Universal Uclick Black Sunday, April 14, 1935 from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick The Dust Bowl Does spring bring thunderstorms During the 1930s, a series of dust storms to your area? If you live close to an hit parts of Montana, ocean, you might have experienced North Dakota, South hurricanes. Or if you live in northern Dakota, Wyoming, areas, you might have to dig out after Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, a snowstorm in the winter. New Mexico and But about 75 years ago, another Texas. kind of storm made life very hard for The words “dust people in the middle of the United bowl” caught on after States. a reporter used them to describe the area This week, The Mini Page looks in an article about back at the Dust Bowl and how it the storms for the changed Americans’ lives. Washington Evening Changing the prairie Star. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Important rain Terrible wind life was changing on the North At first, In the early 1930s, farmers faced American prairie. Native Americans wheat and another challenge: drought (drowt), or were being moved to reservations to other crops a lack of rain. open up land for farming. Settlers grew very In 1932, high winds picked up the were moving west. There was a great well on the fine, dry soil left from farming and sent demand for wheat to help feed people Plains. There it flying across the land. Dust storms during World War I, so farmers could was plenty Resources National courtesy photo Conservation Service continued through 1933, and in May make good money growing crops. of rain, and the soil was healthy. 1934, a huge storm blew for a day and Native Americans in the area had But farmers didn’t know how to take a half. It blew millions of tons of soil not been farmers. They grew some care of the soil. They wore it out with as far east as New York City and food close to water sources, such as overfarming and overgrazing by cattle. Washington, D.C. rivers, and hunted bison (buffalo) for When the Great Depression began On a Sunday in April 1935, the worst meat and hides. in 1929, wheat prices dropped. storm of all sent huge black clouds On the Plains, where native grasses Farmers tried to grow and sell more of dust over the Plains and made the once held the soil in place, farmers to make up the difference, but many temperature drop by more than 50 began using gas-powered tractors and ended up losing their farm machines, degrees. This day became known as other machines to plow the land. their land and even their homes. Black Sunday. Please include all of the appropriate registered trademark symbols and copyright lines in any publication of The Mini Page®. ® 17-2 (10); release dates: April 24-30

from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick Black Sunday Imagine your family Crops destroyed returning from church Not only were the on a Sunday morning storms harmful to in the spring. Birds people and animals, are singing, the sun but they also killed is shining, and you’re thousands of acres looking forward to of corn, wheat playing outside. and other crops — But that afternoon, sometimes in just a “black blizzard” one day. After losing appears from the so much to drought north. You’ve seen dust and depression, many storms before. But this farmers in the Dust one will make history. Bowl were completely A famous storm ruined. Black Sunday, on Shocking April 14, 1935, was All the dust one of the worst of the particles running into dust storms to hit the each other in the air Plains states. photo courtesy NOAA/NWS caused a lot of static It blocked the sun and caused No shelter Even people who were inside their electricity. People sometimes knocked rainbow colors in the sky above the each other down just by shaking cloud of dust. Birds flew away ahead homes were battered by the storm. Dust came in through cracks around hands. They also put cloth over metal of it. People and animals caught in the door knobs to avoid shocking their dust couldn’t breathe, and some died. doors and windows. It nearly buried some homes and barns. hands.

from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick TM Basset Brown try ’n The News Ready Resources Hound’s Dust Bowl find Words that remind us of the Dust Bowl are hidden in the block below. Some The Mini Page provides ideas for Web sites, words are hidden backward or diagonally, and some letters are used twice. See if you can find: AMERICANS, BLACK, BOWL, CLOUD, CONSERVATION, books or other resources that will help you learn more CONTOUR, DROUGHT, DUST, ELECTRICITY, FARM, GRASS, IRRIGATION, about this week’s topics. LUNG, NATIVE, PLAINS, PLOW, RAIN, SOIL, STATIC, STORM, SUNDAY, TREES, WHEAT, WIND. On the Web: F S T A T I C R U O T N O C S Our soil is • http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=300 a precious A S T R M T H G U O R D L O U resource! R A S O E E P L O W X O I E N At the library: M R U K R E R H G N U L V N D • “Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl” by Albert T G D J Z M S I V D N I W I A Marrin A E L E C T R I C I T Y O A Y • “Out of the Dust” by Karen Hesse E Q W B Y N O I T A G I R R I • “Life During the Dust Bowl” by Diane Yancey H H O B L A C K N S N I A L P W P B N O I T A V R E S N O C Please include all of the appropriate registered trademark symbols and copyright lines in any publication of The Mini Page®. ® 17-3 (10); release dates: April 24-30 TM TM Rookie Cookie’s Recipe Mini Spy . . . Vegetable Bake Mini Spy is plowing her field the way it was done back in You’ll need: • 2 cups carrots, thinly sliced • dash of lemon pepper the 1930s. See if you can find: • number 3 • snake • 2 cups zucchini, thinly sliced • 1/4 cup brown sugar • snail • flower • number 2 • letter A • 2 medium tomatoes, • 1/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs • letter D • canoe • fish • bird thinly sliced • 1 tablespoon butter, cut into • 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced small pieces • pea pod • word MINI • horse head • ice cream • 1/4 teaspoon salt • 1 /2 cup shredded reduced-fat • whale • sea horse • carrot cone What to do: cheddar cheese 1. Layer first four vegetables in a rectangular 11-by-7-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. 2. Combine salt, lemon pepper, brown sugar and bread crumbs in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the layered vegetables. 3. Dot with butter and top with shredded cheese. 4. Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake another 20 minutes.

You will need an adult’s help with this recipe. from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick Meet Jay Baruchel Jay Baruchel is the voice of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third in the movie “How to Train Your Dragon.” He has acted in several movies and TV shows. He just finished acting as the apprentice in the Disney movie

photos by Scott Schafer, © 2010 2010 © Schafer, Scott by photos DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights Reserved “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” which will Hiccup be out this summer. He also acted in “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.” Jay started taking acting classes when he was 12. That year he began appearing in the Nickelodeon TV series “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” He also played drums in a rock band in Canada. He hosted a Canadian TV show, “Popular Mechanics for Kids.” Jay, 28, was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His birth name is Jonathan. He now lives in Montreal, Quebec. He speaks French and English and enjoys watching hockey. from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick

from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick The Mini Page® TM NEW! Book of States The Mini Page’s popular series of issues about each All the following jokes have something in common. state is collected here in a 156-page softcover Can you guess the common theme or category? book. Conveniently spiral-bound for ease of use, this invaluable resource contains A-to-Z facts about Paula: Why was the piano player asked to each state, along with the District of Columbia. Illustrated with colorful photographs and art, and join the baseball team? complete with updated information, The Mini Page Pete: Because he had perfect pitch! Book of States will be a favorite in classrooms and homes for years to come. Paris: What has a lot of keys, a trunk and To order, send $15.99 ($19.99 Canada) plus $5 postage and handling for each copy. Make check or money order (U.S. funds only) payable to Universal Uclick. Send to The Mini Page Book of States, Universal Uclick, P.O. Box 6814, four legs? Leawood, KS 66206. Or call toll-free 800-591-2097 or go to www.smartwarehousing.com. Palmer: A piano up a tree! Please send ______copies of The Mini Page Book of States (Item #0-7407-8549-4) at $20.99 each, total cost. (Bulk discount information available upon request.) Name: ______Parker: My dad can play the piano by ear! Address: ______Paige: So what? My father fiddles with his City: ______State: ______Zip: ______ear! Please include all of the appropriate registered trademark symbols and copyright lines in any publication of The Mini Page®. ® 17-4 (10); release dates: April 24-30

from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick Life Amid the Dust This boy in A health problem How did it end? Oklahoma around 1936 Storms caused other problems When President Franklin D. is having for people in the Dust Bowl. After Roosevelt was elected in 1932, he trouble inhaling the dust, some people started many programs to help breathing with all the coughed up wads of dirt. victims of the Depression and the dust in the Silicosis (sihl-ih-COE-sis) is a Dust Bowl. air. lung disease that affects people One of the who work in coal mines and other programs industries. The particles of coal or taught dust irritate the lungs and destroy farmers the lung tissue. Miners call this about soil photo by Arthur Rothstein, courtesy Library of Congress “black lung.” During the Dust Bowl, conservation. it was known as “dust pneumonia.” They learned Dust at school People also got eye infections and to plant crops Just like you, children in the appendicitis (uh-pen-dih-SIE-tus). in lines that 1930s spent many days in school. (Appendicitis is an irritation of the followed the Sometimes dust storms began while appendix, a part of our digestive contour, or they were at school. Parents might system.) shape, of the try to bring children home, but if Moving on photo by Lynn Betts, NRCS land. they couldn’t, kids would stay in the The Soil Conservation Service school building. suggested farmers grow low plants, People were afraid to be outside such as soybeans, to help keep the during storms because they might soil in place. Farmers helped in choke on the dust or lose their way. planting millions of trees to block the Some wore goggles to protect wind. their eyes; some people held wet Can it happen again? washcloths over their mouths during Droughts, or periods of little rain, a storm to filter the dust. still happen on the Plains. In the A filthy home early 1950s, dust storms came again. It was almost Other short droughts took place in impossible photo by Dorothea Lange, courtesy Library of Congress the 1970s and early 2000s. for families While many families stayed in the Plains But farmers had learned states during the Dust Bowl, others headed to keep their to California to find work. They packed something from the 1930s. Today, houses clean up whole families in trucks and cars and many acres in the Plains have been during the traveled for days. Some even walked. returned to grassland. Farmers Dust Bowl Experts say about 3.5 million people left manage crops and soil quality more years. Every surface became coated their homes between 1935 and 1940. carefully. Irrigation, or watering with dust. If people used water to Next week, The Mini Page celebrates Be crops, is widely used on modern clean, it turned to mud. Kind to Animals Week. farms. The Mini Page Staff Betty Debnam - Founding Editor and Editor at Large Lisa Tarry - Managing Editor Lucy Lien - Associate Editor Wendy Daley - Artist Please include all of the appropriate registered trademark symbols and copyright lines in any publication of The Mini Page®. Read all about the Dust Bowl

photo courtesy NOAA/NWS in ®

(Note to Editor: Above is camera- ready, one column-by-31/2-inch ad promoting Issue 17.)

release dates: April 24-30 17-5 (10)

from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick ® Standards Spotlight: TM The Dust Bowl Mini Page activities meet many state and national educational standards. Each week we identify standards that relate to The Mini Page’s content and offer activities that will help your students reach them. Supersport: Evan Turner This week’s standard: Height: 6-7 Weight: 210 Hometown: Chicago • Students understand that history relates to events and people of other times In early December, Evan Turner’s basketball season turned and places. (History) from bright to bleak on one painful play. Falling on his back in a Activities: nonconference game, the Ohio State junior suffered two broken 1. Make a “Growing Things” poster with newspaper words and pictures for things vertebrae. People usually don’t recover quickly from that kind of to plant, equipment used to plant, and things that help plants grow. injury, but Turner played again a month later, after missing six games. 2. Find five different things in the newspaper that you could use to clean your Soon his season became bright again. The versatile swingman led Ohio house after a dust storm. State to another Big Ten regular-season title, was voted conference Player of 3. Find three individuals in the newspaper who could help people in a dust storm. the Year and honored as a National Player of the Year. He also should win a Explain your choices. Comeback Player of the Year award. 4. How are these things important in learning about the Dust Bowl: (a) drought, That’s Turner — he bounces back. During the regular season he paced the (b) overfarming, (c) dust pneumonia, and (d) the Soil Conservation Service? Big Ten in scoring average (19.5 points per game) and rebounds (9.4), and was 5. Pretend you are living in the Great Plains during the 1930s. Write a short story second in assists (5.8) and steals (1.8). He does it all — and with flair. about your life. Away from basketball, Turner enjoys listening to music, reading and getting (standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi) in rounds of golf.

(Note to Editor: Above is the Standards for Issue 17.) (Note to Editor: Above is copy block for Page 3, Issue 17, to be used in place of ad if desired.)

Please include all of the appropriate registered trademark symbols and copyright lines in any publication of The Mini Page®.