Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities
We’ve Got Work to Do!
Karen M. Ortiz
Northside Elementary
Montrose, Colorado
OVERVIEW
Students will learn about the different kinds of work places and the goods and
services produced in twentieth century Colorado. They will create an acrostic
poem to demonstrate their knowledge about one work place. Extensions and
other student are provided.
STANDARDS

Social Studies Standard 2: Students know how to interpret and evaluate primary
and secondary sources of historical information.

Economics Standard 2: Students understand that the exchange of goods and
services creates economic interdependence and change.

Reading and Writing Standard 2: Students use a variety of devices such as
figurative language, symbolism, dialect, and precise vocabulary to convey
meaning.
OBJECTIVES
As they relate to twentieth century Colorado, students will be able to:

Identify the main idea in a source of historical information;

Describe the interdependence between households and businesses;

Identify goods and services produced;

Tell for whom the goods and services are produced;

Choose vocabulary that communicates their message clearly and precisely;

Revise and edit speech and writing.
INQUIRY QUESTIONS

What kinds of work places were there in Colorado in the first half of the twentieth
century?
07/27/2016
This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities

What goods and services were produced at the work places?

Which people used or benefited from these goods and services?

How did households change as the result of the availability of the goods and
services?

What kinds of work places were prevalent in your city or town? Why? How do
you know?
MATERIALS

Doing History/Keeping the Past CD-ROM disk or website - Twentieth Century
Theme, Work Places topic, all subtopics

Primary Sources which have been xeroxed and made into individual cards
grouped to go with the CD-ROM disk photos and text:
Subtopic
Mining
Farming
Selling
Factories
Photo(s)
1-3
Primary Source
The Company Store, An Immigrant Miner
1&2
Dry Farming
3&4
Dust Storms, A Blow Out
1&3
A Dry Good Store
1
Pueblo's Smelters
4
Alexander Aircraft
PROCEDURE
1. If the children aren’t familiar with acrostic poetry, model the genre during a
Language Arts block or at the Read Aloud time prior to this activity.
2. Begin using a KWL (What I Know, Want To Know and Hope To Learn) strategy
with the question: What kinds of work places could be found in Colorado in the
first half of the twentieth century? Group their responses on chart paper into the
following categories: Factories, Farming, Selling, Services, and Mining.
3. This task can be completed individually or in pairs. Assign categories for
research such that all Work Places subtopics are covered.
4. CD-ROM disk or website use (options used depend upon number of computers
and other management variables):
 Classroom computer pod: A small group of students or an individual can
research at the pod while other students are researching using other
materials (literature, Primary Sources, etc.) or during Writers’ Workshop
while others are doing other writing activities;
 Classroom with projection device: Students view the photos as a whole
07/27/2016
This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities


class while teacher models process of note-taking, site navigation, etc.;
Lab setting; independent or paired research directly from the website or
CD;
No classroom computers: print hard copies of the photos and text for
students to use.
5. Have students take notes jotting down relevant vocabulary, spellings, ideas, etc.
related to their topic. This could be done as a web or in a traditional note taking
format.
6. Children can create their acrostics using traditional methods or word processing
with clip art.
EXTENSIONS

A border could be placed around the acrostics and they could be displayed as a
classroom quilt.

The teacher could make a jigsaw puzzle out of tag board, cut out the pieces as
the final product.

A class poetry book could be published and shared with other classes.
ASSESSMENT
Formal assessment could include the use of the grading sheet on the next page.
07/27/2016
This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities
Mining Photo 1
“Child Coal Miners”
(Photo: Colorado Historical Society)
Mining Photo 2
“Two Miners in Coal Mine”
(Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection)
07/27/2016
This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities
Mining Photo 3
“Two Coal Miners”
(Photo: Colorado Historical Society)
07/27/2016
This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities
Mining Text Source 1
“The Company Store”
"Everything centered around the mine and the company that owned it. The miners
weren’t paid in regular money, but in script [scrip]. Script was sort of a coupon. You
would buy what you needed at the Company Store and pay for it with the script….
Anyway, the Company Store carried everything from soup to nuts. It was just generally
understood that you traded at the Company Store. You could be blackballed and might
even lose your job if you didn’t do your business there."
Source: Tillie Mayer interview, quoted from Carl Ubbelohde, Maxine Benson, and
Duane A. Smith, eds., A Colorado Reader (Second Edition, Boulder, 1982), p. 100.
Mining Text Source 2
“An Immigrant Miner”
"I left Europe because my folks wanted me to become a priest, and I run away from
there. It took me 38 days on a boat [and train] until we get to Trinidad and Engleville
[Colorado]. I started work [in a coal mine]. I was a little over 18. Believe it or not, I cry
many, many times, why did I come? My hands was full of blisters."
Source: Ed Tomsic interview, quoted from Rick J. Clyne, Coal People: Life in Southern
Colorado’s Company Towns, 1890-1930 (Denver: Colorado Historical Society, 1999), p.
47.
07/27/2016
This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities
Farming Photo 1
“Breaking Plains Sod”
(Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection)
Farming Photo 2
“Cultivating Corn”
(Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection)
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This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities
Farming Photo 6
“Harvesting Grain”
(Photo: Colorado Historical Society)
Farming Text Source 6
“Dry Farming”
"The promise of the West-then as now-is not always what it seems…. Those
golden grain fields usually are not what you might think: an annual phenomenon
[event]. They are usually the product of two years’ rainfall accumulated through
the practice of summer fallowing. There isn’t enough rain or snowfall to grow a
crop every year with 13 inches of annual precipitation [rainfall]."
Source: Lee Olson, Denver Post, Jan. 27, 1980.
07/27/2016
This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities
Farming Photo 3
“A 1930’s Dust Storm”
(Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection)
Farming Photo 4
“The Results of One Dust Storm”
(Photo: Colorado Historical Society)
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This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities
Farming Text Source 3
“Dust Storms”
"It was so dark [during a dust storm] they let school out; Dad and I tried to drive
just three blocks and we got lost....The street lights went on at 2 P. M.....
"Dust blew in the attics of many houses, and the weight of the dirt caused
ceilings to fall in. Even the birds were afraid to fly.
"Folks, that’s what a dust storm was, and once you have been in one, you’ll
never forget it."
Source: Keith A. Cook, “A Whiskey Train and a Doughnut Day: Coming of Age on the
Eastern Colorado Plains,” Colorado Heritage (Spring 1998), p. 4.
Farming Text Source 4
“A Blow Out”
"The hardships of the depression were [made worse] by the dust storms. A field that
was green with wheat two inches high could be bare the next day after one of these
storms hit, the wheat blown out by the roots. I remember one big storm. So dense was
the dust that it [blocked out] the sun."
Source: Theresa Lee, "The Depression Years," in Margaret J. Lehrer, Ed., Up The
Hemline (Colorado Springs, 1975), p. 133.
07/27/2016
This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities
Selling Photo 1
“Stanley’s Store in Keota”
(Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection)
Selling Photo 3
“Pueblo General Store”
(Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection)
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This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities
Selling Text Source 4
“Dry Goods Store”
"The Simpson-Easterday Dry Goods Company owned by Robert Simpson and my
father stood on the west side of Eighth Avenue.... The interior of the store was one big
room, nearly two stories high.... The shoe department, especially, used high wall
space to stack the many boxes of shoes.... A moveable ladder attached to a high rail
allowed easy access to the boxes."
Source: Robert Esterday, A Kid's-Eye View of Early Greeley (Greeley, CO: The Author,
1993), p. 35.
07/27/2016
This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities
Factories Photo 1
“Inside a Steel Mill”
(Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection)
Factory Photo 4
“Alexander Aircraft Factory”
(Photo: Denver Public Library, Western History Collection)
07/27/2016
This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.
Doing History/Keeping the Past
Inquiry Activities
Factories Text Source 5
“Pueblo Smelters”
"In the afternoon we arrived in Pueblo, a very pleasant and interesting town.... One
already sees here numerous smelters and factories, among which the most important is
the one producing Bessemer steel; several train lines create locally an important
communications nexus [an important central place]."
Source: Emil Haddank Dunikowski, "Across the Rocky Mountains in Colorado (1893) in
"Polish Impressions of Colorado," Essays and Monographs in Colorado History, No. 5,
1987, p. 32.
Factories Text Source 3
“Pueblo Steel Making”
"The steel is made in the open hearth. The “Ingot Buggy” carries away the
glowing 11,000 pound mass. Tiny men manipulating huge tongs lower it into the roaring
pit for an exactly timed stay, during which it is turned several times so the heat
penetrates throughout.
"White hot it dazzles your eyes as it’s lifted from the pit, and dumped with a clang
at the blooming rolls.
"One of the features of any steel mill is the fewness of people. Here and there
you see a person, dwarfed to doll size, moving amid the giant machinery. But the huge
mill seems, on the whole, to move almost of its own will."
Source: Roscoe Fleming in Rocky Mountain Empire Magazine (April 3, 1949).
Factory Text Source 6
“Alexander Aircraft Company”
"One area manufacturer of planes about that time was the Alexander Company in
Colorado Springs, which produced the Eaglerock plane. These aircraft...had more
than their share of crashes. It got so bad that people made crude jokes about them
such as: They call the planes Eaglerocks because they fly like an eagle and fall like a
rock. Their track record finally became so bad that, as I understand, the authorities in
charge of flying regulations banned further manufacturing of the Eaglerock."
Source: Robert Esterday, A Kid's-Eye View of Early Greeley (Greeley, CO: The Author,
1993), p. 39.
07/27/2016
This activity was created with funding from the Colorado State Historical Fund.