Grade 2 | HISTORY AND SOCIAL STUDIES
WEEK 17 • PRACTICE WORKBOOK • DAYS 81–85
Read the matching lesson in the Week 17 Student Textbook first. Write each answer on the line below its question. Day 85 is answered on your own.
Fillable Practice PDF: Open or download Week 17 fillable workbook. Type answers in labeled fields and save a copy. Complete drawing and graph-coloring activities on a printed page.
Week 17 Student Textbook | Week 17 Practice Workbook | Week 17 Teacher Guide | Week 16 Student Textbook | Grade 2 index
Day 81: Legend or History?
What do we know? How do we know it?
| Statement | Documented history or legend? |
|---|---|
| John Chapman was born in 1774. | ____ |
| Young George Washington cut a cherry tree and said, “I cannot tell a lie.” | ____ |
| John Chapman sold young apple trees to settlers. | ____ |
| Johnny Appleseed scattered seeds everywhere he walked, just for fun. | ____ |
- In what year did the cherry tree story first appear in a book?
Answer: _________________________________________________
- Write one fact about John Chapman that is documented history.
Answer: _________________________________________________
- Explain why historians call the cherry tree story a legend and not documented history.
Answer: _________________________________________________
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Day 82: Traditional Stories of the First Peoples
The Terrapin and the Rabbit (a retelling of a Cherokee story)
Rabbit could run faster than anyone, and he liked to say so. One day Terrapin said, “I can beat you in a race.” Rabbit laughed, but he agreed. They would race over four mountain ridges, and Rabbit was so sure of himself that he let Terrapin start one ridge ahead. That night Terrapin went to his family. Every terrapin looks just like every other terrapin, so he asked one relative to hide near the top of each ridge. When the race began, Rabbit ran hard to the top of the first ridge, and there was a terrapin crawling over it ahead of him. The same thing happened at the second ridge and the third. By the last ridge Rabbit was so tired he could hardly move, and he saw a terrapin crossing the finish first. Terrapin won, and Rabbit never learned how.
- What does oral tradition mean?
Answer: _________________________________________________
- Name the Native American nation whose people live near Atmore, Alabama today.
Answer: _________________________________________________
- In the story, Terrapin won by using his family. Explain what the story might teach the people who tell it.
Answer: _________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Day 83: Black American Stories and a Folk Hero
Brer Rabbit and the Briar Patch (a retelling)
Brer Fox finally caught Brer Rabbit. “Now I have you,” said Brer Fox. “What shall I do with you?” Brer Rabbit shook and begged. “Do anything you like, Brer Fox, but please, please do not throw me into that briar patch! Those thorns would be the end of me!” Brer Fox wanted to do the worst thing he could, so he swung Brer Rabbit by the legs and threw him right into the middle of the briar patch. For a moment it was quiet. Then Brer Fox heard a laugh. Up on a log at the far side sat Brer Rabbit, combing the burrs out of his fur. “Brer Fox,” he called, “I was born and raised in a briar patch!” And away he hopped.
- In the story, how did Brer Rabbit get Brer Fox to let him go?
Answer: _________________________________________________
- Name the Alabama town where one tradition says John Henry raced the steam drill.
Answer: _________________________________________________
- Sort these into documented history, legend or unknown, and explain one: steel drivers cut railroad tunnels; John Henry beat a steam drill; where the race happened.
Answer: _________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Day 84: Songs That Tell Our History
“The Star-Spangled Banner,” verse 1 (Francis Scott Key, 1814)
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, / What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming, / Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, / O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? / And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, / Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; / O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave / O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
- Who first sang “Yankee Doodle” to make fun of the American colonists?
Answer: _________________________________________________
- In what year did “The Star-Spangled Banner” become the national anthem?
Answer: _________________________________________________
- Read verse 1. Explain what Key saw in the morning, and why it mattered to him. Use words from the verse.
Answer: _________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Hands-on task: Interview a family member about a story or song
- Ask an older family member or neighbor: What story or song did someone teach you when you were young?
- Ask: Who taught it to you, and where did they learn it?
- Ask: Is it about something that really happened, or is it a legend or a made-up story?
- Write the answers in the table below.
- Draw a picture from the story or song in the box.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who I interviewed | __________ |
| The story or song | __________ |
| Who taught it to them | __________ |
| Where they learned it | __________ |
| Really happened, legend or made up? | __________ |
Is the story or song documented history, a legend, or a traditional story? How do I know?
_________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Day 85: Independent Check: Legends, Stories and Songs
Legends, stories and songs from this week
| Name | What it is |
|---|---|
| The cherry tree story | A story about young George Washington, first printed in 1806 |
| Johnny Appleseed | Stories about John Chapman, a real apple-tree nurseryman |
| The Terrapin and the Rabbit | A Cherokee story about a race over four ridges |
| Brer Rabbit | A trickster rabbit in stories told by Black storytellers |
| John Henry | A folk hero who raced a steam drill |
| “The Star-Spangled Banner” | Francis Scott Key’s 1814 poem, now the national anthem |
Answer on your own. An adult may read the questions aloud but should not give the answers.
- Which name in the table is about a real man who sold apple trees?
Answer: _________________________________________________
- Choose one legend from the table. Write one part that is legend.
Answer: _________________________________________________
- Choose one story or song from the table. Summarize it in one or two sentences, and explain why people still tell or sing it.
Answer: _________________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Week 17 Student Textbook | Week 17 Practice Workbook | Week 17 Teacher Guide | Week 16 Student Textbook | Grade 2 index
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