Reading Historical Data Tables

Have students underline signal words while reading the Dust Bowl text before filling in the chart. For the timeline and census sheets, check each student's scale or first few points before they continue.

Plot U.S. census population from 1790 to 1900 and describe the rise in the share living in cities. The directions on the page read: Read the text and table. Plot the population for each census year on the grid and connect the points with a line. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 6th Grade Sources, Data and Research Skills, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with timelines, causes and data. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

The reading explains that farmers plowed up native grassland, so the topsoil lay loose and exposed. A severe drought began in 1931, and strong winds lifted the dry soil into huge dust storms called black blizzards.

Pick an even interval that fits every date from earliest to latest. On Transportation History Timeline the dates run from 1825 to 1995, and the answer key shows a sample scale in steps of 20 years while accepting any even scale that fits.

A census is a count of the population, which the U.S. Constitution requires every ten years. The sheet's table shows population growing from 3.9 million in 1790 to 76.2 million in 1900, and the percent living in cities rising from 5.1% to 39.6%.