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
During the 1930s, a
series of dust storms
hit parts of Montana,
North Dakota, South
Dakota, Wyoming,
Nebraska, Kansas,
Colorado, Oklahoma,
New Mexico and
Texas.
The words “dust
bowl” caught on after
a reporter used them
to describe the area
in an article about
the storms for the
Washington Evening
Star.
Does spring bring thunderstorms
to your area? If you live close to an
ocean, you might have experienced
hurricanes. Or if you live in northern
areas, you might have to dig out after
a snowstorm in the winter.
But about 75 years ago, another
kind of storm made life very hard for
people in the middle of the United
States.
This week, The Mini Page looks
back at the Dust Bowl and how it
changed Americans’ lives.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s,
life was changing on the North
American prairie. Native Americans
were being moved to reservations to
open up land for farming. Settlers
were moving west. There was a great
demand for wheat to help feed people
during World War I, so farmers could
make good money growing crops.
Native Americans in the area had
not been farmers. They grew some
food close to water sources, such as
rivers, and hunted bison (buffalo) for
meat and hides.
On the Plains, where native grasses
once held the soil in place, farmers
began using gas-powered tractors and
other machines to plow the land.
Important rain
Terrible wind
At first,
wheat and
other crops
grew very
well on the
Plains. There
was plenty
of rain, and the soil was healthy.
But farmers didn’t know how to take
care of the soil. They wore it out with
overfarming and overgrazing by cattle.
When the Great Depression began
in 1929, wheat prices dropped.
Farmers tried to grow and sell more
to make up the difference, but many
ended up losing their farm machines,
their land and even their homes.
In the early 1930s, farmers faced
another challenge: drought (drowt), or
a lack of rain.
In 1932, high winds picked up the
fine, dry soil left from farming and sent
it flying across the land. Dust storms
continued through 1933, and in May
1934, a huge storm blew for a day and
a half. It blew millions of tons of soil
as far east as New York City and
Washington, D.C.
On a Sunday in April 1935, the worst
storm of all sent huge black clouds
of dust over the Plains and made the
temperature drop by more than 50
degrees. This day became known as
Black Sunday.
photo courtesy National Resources
Conservation Service
Changing the prairie
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17-2 (10); release dates: April 24-30
from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick
Black Sunday
Crops destroyed
Imagine your family
returning from church
on a Sunday morning
in the spring. Birds
are singing, the sun
is shining, and you’re
looking forward to
playing outside.
But that afternoon,
a “black blizzard”
appears from the
north. You’ve seen dust
storms before. But this
one will make history.
Not only were the
storms harmful to
people and animals,
but they also killed
thousands of acres
of corn, wheat
and other crops —
sometimes in just
one day. After losing
so much to drought
and depression, many
farmers in the Dust
Bowl were completely
ruined.
A famous storm
Black Sunday, on
April 14, 1935, was
one of the worst of the
dust storms to hit the
Plains states.
It blocked the sun and caused
rainbow colors in the sky above the
cloud of dust. Birds flew away ahead
of it. People and animals caught in the
dust couldn’t breathe, and some died.
Shocking
All the dust
particles running into
each other in the air
caused a lot of static
electricity. People sometimes knocked
each other down just by shaking
hands. They also put cloth over metal
door knobs to avoid shocking their
hands.
photo courtesy NOAA/NWS
No shelter
Even people who were inside their
homes were battered by the storm.
Dust came in through cracks around
doors and windows. It nearly buried
some homes and barns.
from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick
Ready Resources
The Mini Page provides ideas for Web sites,
books or other resources that will help you learn more
about this week’s topics.
On the Web:
• http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=300
At the library:
• “Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl” by Albert
Marrin
• “Out of the Dust” by Karen Hesse
• “Life During the Dust Bowl” by Diane Yancey
from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick
Brown
Bassetews
try ’n
The N d’s
find
Houn
Words that remind us of the Dust Bowl are hidden in the block below. Some
words are hidden backward or diagonally, and some letters are used twice. See
if you can find: AMERICANS, BLACK, BOWL, CLOUD, CONSERVATION,
CONTOUR, DROUGHT, DUST, ELECTRICITY, FARM, GRASS, IRRIGATION,
LUNG, NATIVE, PLAINS, PLOW, RAIN, SOIL, STATIC, STORM, SUNDAY,
TREES, WHEAT, WIND.
TM
Our soil is
a precious
resource!
Dust Bowl
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Please include all of the appropriate registered trademark symbols and copyright lines in any publication of The Mini Page®.
O
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®
Mini Spy . . .
17-3 (10); release dates: April 24-30
TM
TM
Mini Spy is plowing her field the way it was done back in
the 1930s. See if you can find: • number 3 • snake
• snail
• flower
• number 2 • letter A
• letter D • canoe
• fish
• bird
• pea pod • word MINI • horse head • ice cream
• whale • sea horse • carrot
cone
Rookie Cookie’s Recipe
Vegetable Bake
You’ll need:
• 2 cups carrots, thinly sliced • dash of lemon pepper
• 2 cups zucchini, thinly sliced • 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 medium tomatoes,
• 1/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon butter, cut into
• 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
small pieces
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 /2 cup shredded reduced-fat
cheddar cheese
What to do:
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
photos by Scott Schafer, © 2010
DreamWorks Animation LLC. All
Rights Reserved
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
Hiccup
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” which will
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
!
W
E
N
The Mini Page®
Book of States
The Mini Page’s popular series of issues about each
state is collected here in a 156-page softcover
book. Conveniently spiral-bound for ease of use,
this invaluable resource contains A-to-Z facts about
each state, along with the District of Columbia.
Illustrated with colorful photographs and art, and
complete with updated information, The Mini Page
Book of States will be a favorite in classrooms and
homes for years to come.
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,
Leawood, KS 66206. Or call toll-free 800-591-2097 or go to www.smartwarehousing.com.
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.)
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City: _________________________________________________________ State: _________ Zip: ________________
from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick
from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick
TM
All the following jokes have something in common.
Can you guess the common theme or category?
Paula: Why was the piano player asked to
join the baseball team?
Pete: Because he had perfect pitch!
Paris: What has a lot of keys, a trunk and
four legs?
Palmer: A piano up a tree!
Parker: My dad can play the piano by ear!
Paige: So what? My father fiddles with his
ear!
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®
17-4 (10); release dates: April 24-30
Life Amid the Dust
photo by Arthur Rothstein,
courtesy Library of
Congress
Dust at school
Just like you, children in the
1930s spent many days in school.
Sometimes dust storms began while
they were at school. Parents might
try to bring children home, but if
they couldn’t, kids would stay in the
school building.
People were afraid to be outside
during storms because they might
choke on the dust or lose their way.
Some wore goggles to protect
their eyes; some people held wet
washcloths over their mouths during
a storm to filter the dust.
A health problem
How did it end?
Storms caused other problems
for people in the Dust Bowl. After
inhaling the dust, some people
coughed up wads of dirt.
Silicosis (sihl-ih-COE-sis) is a
lung disease that affects people
who work in coal mines and other
industries. The particles of coal or
dust irritate the lungs and destroy
the lung tissue. Miners call this
“black lung.” During the Dust Bowl,
it was known as “dust pneumonia.”
People also got eye infections and
appendicitis (uh-pen-dih-SIE-tus).
(Appendicitis is an irritation of the
appendix, a part of our digestive
system.)
When President Franklin D.
Roosevelt was elected in 1932, he
started many programs to help
victims of the Depression and the
Dust Bowl.
One of the
programs
taught
farmers
about soil
conservation.
They learned
to plant crops
in lines that
followed the
contour, or
shape, of the
land.
The Soil Conservation Service
suggested farmers grow low plants,
such as soybeans, to help keep the
soil in place. Farmers helped in
planting millions of trees to block the
wind.
Moving on
A filthy home
It was almost
impossible
for families
to keep their
houses clean
during the
Dust Bowl
years. Every surface became coated
with dust. If people used water to
clean, it turned to mud.
photo by Lynn Betts, NRCS
photo by Dorothea Lange, courtesy Library of Congress
This boy in
Oklahoma
around 1936
is having
trouble
breathing
with all the
dust in the
air.
from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick
While many families stayed in the Plains
states during the Dust Bowl, others headed
to California to find work. They packed
up whole families in trucks and cars and
traveled for days. Some even walked.
Experts say about 3.5 million people left
their homes between 1935 and 1940.
Next week, The Mini Page celebrates Be
Kind to Animals Week.
Can it happen again?
Droughts, or periods of little rain,
still happen on the Plains. In the
early 1950s, dust storms came again.
Other short droughts took place in
the 1970s and early 2000s.
But farmers had learned
something from the 1930s. Today,
many acres in the Plains have been
returned to grassland. Farmers
manage crops and soil quality more
carefully. Irrigation, or watering
crops, is widely used on modern
farms.
The Mini Page Staff
Betty Debnam - Founding Editor and Editor at Large Lisa Tarry - Managing Editor Lucy Lien - Associate Editor Wendy Daley - Artist
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Read all
about the
Dust Bowl
photo courtesy NOAA/NWS
in
®
Distributed by Universal Uclick
by Betty Debnam
Appearing in your
­newspaper on ______.
from The Mini Page
© 2010 Universal Uclick
(Note to Editor: Above is cameraready, 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
Standards Spotlight:
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.
This week’s standard:
• Students understand that history relates to events and people of other times
and places. (History)
Activities:
1. Make a “Growing Things” poster with newspaper words and pictures for things
to plant, equipment used to plant, and things that help plants grow.
2. Find five different things in the newspaper that you could use to clean your
house after a dust storm.
3. Find three individuals in the newspaper who could help people in a dust storm.
Explain your choices.
4. How are these things important in learning about the Dust Bowl: (a) drought,
(b) overfarming, (c) dust pneumonia, and (d) the Soil Conservation Service?
5. Pretend you are living in the Great Plains during the 1930s. Write a short story
about your life.
(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)
(Note to Editor: Above is the Standards for Issue 17.)
from The Mini Page © 2010 Universal Uclick
TM
Supersport: Evan Turner
Height: 6-7
Weight: 210 Hometown: Chicago
In early December, Evan Turner’s basketball season turned
from bright to bleak on one painful play. Falling on his back in a
nonconference game, the Ohio State junior suffered two broken
vertebrae. People usually don’t recover quickly from that kind of
injury, but Turner played again a month later, after missing six games.
Soon his season became bright again. The versatile swingman led Ohio
State to another Big Ten regular-season title, was voted conference Player of
the Year and honored as a National Player of the Year. He also should win a
Comeback Player of the Year award.
That’s Turner — he bounces back. During the regular season he paced the
Big Ten in scoring average (19.5 points per game) and rebounds (9.4), and was
second in assists (5.8) and steals (1.8). He does it all — and with flair.
Away from basketball, Turner enjoys listening to music, reading and getting
in rounds of golf.
(Note to Editor: Above is copy block for Page 3, Issue 17, to be used in
place of ad if desired.)
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