Delaware State Report Kit
Everything a student needs to research and write a report on Delaware: the reading, the maps and the pages to fill in. Nothing else to look up.
- 3 reading pages: Delaware 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 Delaware kit
To read and study
- Delaware 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 Delaware History reading page
One page on the history of Delaware 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 Delaware for more than 10,000 years. By the 1600s, the Lenape lived in the north along the Delaware River. The Nanticoke lived in the south along rivers that run to Chesapeake Bay. Both nations grew corn, beans and squash. They hunted deer, fished and gathered oysters and clams. They traded with each other and later with Europeans.
Dutch, Swedes and English
In 1631 the Dutch built a whaling post called Zwaanendael near today’s Lewes. After a quarrel, Lenape warriors killed the settlers and burned the post. Swedes came in 1638 and built Fort Christina. The Dutch took over the Swedish colony in 1655, and England took it from the Dutch in 1664. In 1682 it passed to William Penn of Pennsylvania. Delaware got its own assembly in 1704. The Lenape sold land to the Dutch, the Swedes and Penn. In the 1700s most Lenape and many Nanticoke moved north and west. Some families stayed, and both tribes live in Delaware today.
Revolution and the First State
In July 1776, Caesar Rodney rode all night from Dover to Philadelphia. His vote put Delaware on the side of independence. In 1777, American soldiers fought British and German troops at Cooch’s Bridge near Newark. The Americans fell back, and the British then held Wilmington for about a month. Ten years later, Delaware became the first state.
Mills, Canals and Rails
Brandywine Creek drops fast on its way to Wilmington. Its falling water turned the wheels of flour, paper and cloth mills. Oliver Evans of Newport invented machines that let a flour mill run almost by itself. In 1802, E.I. du Pont began building gunpowder mills on the creek. Workers dug the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which opened in 1829. Railroads followed and carried Delaware peaches to city markets.
Slavery and the Civil War
Enslaved people worked on Delaware farms from the 1600s on. By 1860, most Black people in Delaware were free. Thomas Garrett of Wilmington helped more than 2,000 people escape from slavery. Delaware stayed in the Union during the Civil War. Fort Delaware held Confederate prisoners. Slavery ended in Delaware in December 1865, when the 13th Amendment became law.
Building Modern Delaware
Wilmington’s shipyards built iron ships and railroad cars. The DuPont company turned from gunpowder to chemistry. Its scientists invented nylon, and the first nylon plant opened in Seaford in 1939. T. Coleman du Pont paid for a highway that ran the length of the state. In 1951 the Delaware Memorial Bridge linked Delaware to New Jersey.
Delaware through time
- 1631 Dutch build Zwaanendael
- 1638 Swedes build Fort Christina
- 1664 England takes the colony
- 1777 Battle of Cooch’s Bridge
- 1787 Delaware is the first state
- 1802 Du Pont starts powder mills
- 1829 The C&D Canal opens
- 1865 Slavery ends in Delaware
- 1951 Memorial Bridge opens
People to know
- Caesar Rodney: Rode all night to cast a key vote.
- Oliver Evans: Invented a self-running flour mill.
- E.I. du Pont: Started gunpowder mills in 1802.
- Thomas Garrett: Helped people escape slavery.
- Annie Jump Cannon: Born in Dover. Sorted the stars.
Free Delaware 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.