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The great bald eagle—noble symbol of the United States—almost lost out to America’s other well-known native bird, the wild turkey. For several years our founding fathers (and mothers) hotly debated the topic of “eagle or turkey”until finally settling on the eagle to proudly represent the new nation. Since 1782, the eagle has been honorably symbolized on coins, currency, the Presidential seal, military medals, posters, pins and flags. Meanwhile, the turkey has not been forgotten—imagine Thanksgiving without this fellow! You’ll get a “bird’s eye view” of the history behind the birds that both rightfully represent American democracy and a favorite holiday!
In this issue young historians will:
- Read expository text about selecting the eagle as the national symbol of the USA
- Search the news for articles about people helping people
- Join the founding fathers—and mothers—by offering a written opinion on the turkey vs. eagle debate
- Use the newspaper to celebrate Thanksgiving by hunting words and exploring articles
- Solve turkey puzzlers
- Practice reading closely in a “cloze” reading activity to select correct vocabulary based on context clues
- Discover facts about gobbling!
6 page PDF
