Missouri

Summary
A lesson on the state of Missouri. The reading is accompanied by true/false questions.

Objectives
• To introduce students to salient features about the state of Missouri and its history.

Suggested Grades
4th Grade
5th Grade
6th Grade

Excerpt
Missouri is located in the Midwest, surrounded by the states of Iowa to the north; Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma to the west; Arkansas to the south; and Illinois and Kentucky to the east. The Mississippi River forms the boundary between Missouri and its neighbors to the east.

Early History
Like the rest of North America, people called Paleo-Indians lived in Missouri around 10,000 BCE and they were eventually replaced with people of the Archaic Period which began about 6,000 years ago. While these early people followed animal migrations, the next people to emerge, known as the Woodland culture, began farming and settling in one place. Eventually societies of people who are known as Mound Builders developed towns in the Mississippi River valley; this culture built large mounds of earth and rocks that were mainly used for burials. There once were many of these mounds in the vicinity of St. Louis, but most of these have been destroyed with urban development.

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