Arizona State Report Kit
Everything a student needs to research and write a report on Arizona: the reading, the maps and the pages to fill in. Nothing else to look up.
- 3 reading pages: Arizona fun facts, History, and Land and Work
- 5 maps: landmarks, cities, county, outline, and rivers and lakes
- An 8-page My State Report booklet, from fast facts to a trip plan and a license plate to design
- A pennant to cut out and hang, two map skills sheets and a 10-question reading quiz
- Answer keys for the quiz, the fast facts and the map sheets
- One print-ready PDF, 23 pages, black and white, US Letter
Look inside
Read it, map it, write it.
The reading pages and maps hold every answer the booklet asks for. About one third of the booklet is looking things up. The rest asks students to choose, plan and explain.
What is in the Arizona kit
To read and study
- Arizona fun facts: six short true stories, By the Numbers and Did You Know
- History: the state’s story in order, with a timeline, people to know and words to know
- Land and Work: the land and climate, what the state grows, makes and mines, and how one leads to the other
- Five maps, including a rivers, lakes and neighbors map with a letter key
To fill in and make
- My State Report booklet: cover, Fast Facts, My Map, State Symbols, My Trip, Think Like a Geographer, Design a License Plate and Dig Deeper
- A pennant with the state’s name and outline, to color, cut out and hang
- Name the Cities and Name the Rivers and Lakes sheets, each with a word bank
- A 10-question reading quiz, with answer keys for everything that has one right answer
Free: the Arizona History reading page
One page on the history of Arizona for grades 3 to 5, free to print in color or black and white. It is the second reading page in the kit.
The First Peoples
People have lived in Arizona for more than 12,000 years. The Hohokam farmed the desert near today’s Phoenix. They dug hundreds of miles of canals by hand to bring river water to corn, beans and cotton. In the north, Ancestral Pueblo people built stone villages. The Hopi village of Oraibi has been lived in since about 1100. Later the Navajo and Apache came from the north.
Spain and Mexico
In 1540, the Spanish explorer Coronado crossed Arizona looking for cities of gold. In 1680, the Hopi joined a Pueblo uprising, killed the priests in their villages and stayed free of Spanish rule. In the 1690s, Father Eusebio Kino started missions among the O’odham and brought cattle and wheat. In 1751, O’odham fighters killed more than 100 settlers. Spain then built forts, and soldiers founded Tucson in 1775. Mexico won its freedom from Spain in 1821, and Arizona became part of Mexico.
Joining the United States
The United States won a war with Mexico in 1848 and took the land north of the Gila River. In the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, it agreed to pay Mexico 10 million dollars for the land south of the river. During the Civil War, settlers in the south sided with the Confederacy, which allowed slavery. Union soldiers from California took the area back in 1862. In 1863, Congress made Arizona a territory and banned slavery there.
The Navajo and Apache Wars
Navajo and Apache bands raided ranches, mines and wagon trains. Soldiers and settlers attacked their camps. In 1864, the Army burned Navajo crops and marched more than 8,000 Navajo about 300 miles to a camp in New Mexico. A treaty in 1868 let them return to a reservation in their homeland. The Apache leader Cochise made peace in 1872. Geronimo fought on until 1886, when he surrendered and the Army sent his band to Florida. Other Apache stayed in Arizona. Today Arizona is home to 22 Native nations.
Building a State
Railroads crossed Arizona in the 1880s. Miners dug copper at Bisbee, Jerome and Morenci. Settlers cleaned out old Hohokam canals and started Phoenix, which became the capital in 1889. Roosevelt Dam, finished in 1911, stored Salt River water for farms. Arizona became the 48th state on February 14, 1912.
The Desert Fills Up
In World War II, clear skies made Arizona a good place to train pilots. Afterward, air conditioning made summers easier, and many families moved in. A canal 336 miles long now carries Colorado River water to Phoenix and Tucson. Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the country.
Arizona through time
- 1540 Coronado crosses Arizona
- 1680 The Hopi end Spanish rule
- 1775 Tucson is founded as a fort
- 1848 Land north of the Gila joins the U.S.
- 1863 Arizona Territory is created
- 1886 Geronimo surrenders
- 1912 Arizona becomes the 48th state
- 1935 Hoover Dam is dedicated
People to know
- Father Eusebio Kino: Priest. Started missions in the 1690s.
- Cochise: Chiricahua Apache leader in the 1860s.
- John Wesley Powell: Ran the Grand Canyon by boat in 1869.
- Ira Hayes: Pima Marine in the Iwo Jima flag photo.
- Sandra Day O’Connor: First woman on the Supreme Court.
Free Arizona maps
Each of these maps is free to print on its own page. The kit puts them in one file with the reading pages and the booklet.