Great Depression and Dustbowl Overview
Internet Researcher: Bethany Reynolds
- Read the two first paragraph of the Website http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/great-depression.htm According to the author, by the time Franklin D. Roosevelt took office:
the unemployment rose from 8 to 15 ;
the Gross National Product fell from $103.8 billion to $55.7 billion;
and 40% of the farms in Mississippi were in foreclosure.
- How did the economic crisis impact schools?
- Budgets were cut drastically which resulted in a shortening of both the school day as well as the school year.
- In the fourth paragraph the authors describe two approaches to local protest. Select one of the protests and describe what the protest involved.
- One of the protests was those done on the local level. These protests were done and known as “farm holidays.” This included “neighbors of farmers who refused to big on their farms, neighbors moving evicted tenants furniture back in as well as local hunger marches.”
- This Site briefly mentions the Dustbowl. Go to http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm to learn more. Scroll down and use the map to identify which states were affected.
- Those impacted most were in the southern Plaines including Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma.
- Read the fourth paragraph (one before timeline). Describe what caused the Dustbowl.
- The major cause of the dust bowl was “poor agricultural practices and years of sustained drought.”
- Think about what you’ve read on each Site. In your opinion, how did the Dustbowl make the economic crisis (The Great Depression) even worse?
- The Dustbowl made matters worse because in a time where there was a lack of money, the only means for trade were those personal items. These items tended to be livestock, crops, etc. In a time where the drought was as severe as then, there was a lack of materials available to trade during the depression and therefore this made it that much more difficult for individuals to not only make a living but to survive.
- Find something, which interests you on either Website to share with your class.
- The drought lasted almost eight years until finally in 1939 rains came to help improve the soil and end the drought. Finally the fields became fertile and our country pulled out of the depression.
Mission By: Cynthia Rylant
Read By: Bethany Reynolds
Mrs. Roosevelt Comic Strip
Double Entry Journal-Weedpatch Camp
Cinquain Poem: Dustbowl
Weedpatch’s
Personal hero
Gave the children
Their own private school
Mr. Hart
