July 31, 2019 : A Sea of Grass

The Mini Page is a syndicated, four-page tabloid written for young children found each Wednesday in The Denver Post. This issue of The Mini Page is available through the eEdition Archive to registered eEdition subscribers

Activities:

1. How Big?Early prairie grasses could grow 12 feet high.The ceiling in an average house is about 8 feet high.Try to imagine just how high the early grasses were.Go through the newspaper and draw a circle around things –plants, animals, structures—that wouldn’t get lost in the 12-foot-high grass.Explain your choices.

2. Share what you’ve learned about prairie grass with friends.Together, make a list of how living in the prairie could be a good thing.

3. n the newspaper,look for tools or equipment that might have helped early settlers on the prairie.Paste a picture of the tool/equipment or write its name on a piece of paper.Next to each item, write a sentence explaining how each tool or piece of equipment would be useful.

4. How are these important to understanding the prairie: (a) diversity, (b) prairie schooner, (c) thin leaves and (d) bison?

5. Pretend you are a member of a pioneer family discovering the prairie for the first time.Describe the difficulties your family faces as they try to establish a home and find food in the prairie.

Mini Page activities meet many state and national educational standards. Each week we identify standards that relate to The Mini Page content and offer activities that will help your students reach them.

This week's standard:
Tallgrass prairies met the first settlers who ventured west. The Mini Page explores these unusual ecosystems and the animals who live there.

(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)