At Home Learning

A community is a place where people live, work, and play together. A community also includes a diverse set of people who have joined together through a common interest or goal. Communities will create feelings of fellowship based on these particular interests, goals, or other shared characteristics. In all communities, there are not only people who interact daily, but also the buildings that meet the needs of those people including homes, businesses, playgrounds, schools, and grocery stores. There are important community helpers, such as police, firefighters, teachers, dentists, chefs, and more. All the people within the community work together to ensure the wellbeing of each other – safety, health and happiness.

What do you want to be when you grow up? How will help your community? Using the templates below and a paper bag, make your own community helper puppets!

The buffalo has had many uses over the centuries. For the Paleoindians and Native Americans, it provided a source of meat as well as hide to be used for clothing, shelter, bedding, and containers of all sizes.

Using the information and template below, make your own buffalo uses guide and discuss the many different ways the buffalo was important.

Since the early days of Texas, land grants were given by the Spanish and Mexican governments to encourage new settlers to make their home in the area. Land grants were measured, or surveyed, using a variety of measurement systems; some more accurate than others. One of the most common forms of measurement was the vara chain, which equaled approximately 3ft. Once the land was surveyed, an empresario was assigned to grant the land to families who settled in the area and helped build Texas as we know it today. Make your own creative form of measurement using things at home. Then, survey the land around your home, your neighbor's home, and a nearby park. How large is your land grant compared to others?

Cartography is the science and practice of making maps. People have been making maps of their world for generations. Maps help us to better understand the geography of the world as well as to find important places we want to visit in our community. During the 1800s, maps were made to understand the borders of different land grants and homesteads in Texas.

Make a map of your neighborhood using supplies. For more fun, create a new world and make a map for it or make a pirate treasure map and go looking for gold!

When Franklin D Roosevelt became president of the United States in 1933, he began to implement new policies and created new organizations to help end the Great Depression. These programs were part of the New Deal. Organizations were made to give people jobs improving roads and bridges, building new skyscrapers and businesses, bringing electricity to the outer lying areas of the country and more. The New Deal also created the Social Security Administration, the FDIC insurance for banks, and the welfare system still in place today to help those most affected by the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Using supplies you have at home, make your own marketing poster using pictures to explain what the different New Deal programs were. Be creative! There are information cards below for reference.

The Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railroad was the first railroad to operate in Texas starting in 1853. A number of different railroads expanded through Texas in the following years. By the end of 1879, there were over 2,400 miles of railway across the state! However, there was less than 100 miles in the area passing through Austin and San Antonio. This area began expanding its railroad system throughout the 1880s bringing the Santa Fe Railroad to Temple in 1881 and the Katy Railroad to Belton in 1882. Trains traveled along the different railroads carrying food, lumber, steel, coal, and people across the state and across the United States!

Using supplies you have at home including popsicle sticks, make your own railroad tracks!

During WWII, food and other materials were strictly rationed to ensure everyone got a fair share and there was plenty to be sent to those fighting overseas. To help with food supplies, people began growing vegetables at home. Gardens could be found in front and back yards and even in boxes in windows of homes without yards. The gardens came to be called victory gardens because the vegetables grown at home by families allowed more of the crops from farms to be sent to Europe and the Pacific during the war.

Plant your own victory garden at home with your favorite vegetables!