Printable Scholar
South Carolina State Report Kit
Everything a student needs to research and write a report on South Carolina: the reading, the maps and the pages to fill in. Nothing else to look up.
- 3 reading pages: South Carolina 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
Teaching all 50 states? Get every kit for $39.
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 South Carolina kit
To read and study
- South Carolina 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 South Carolina History reading page
One page on the history of South Carolina 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 South Carolina for thousands of years. By the 1500s, many Native nations lived here. The Cherokee lived in the mountains of the northwest. The Catawba lived in the Piedmont near the Catawba River. Smaller nations lived along the coast. They hunted deer, caught fish and grew corn, beans and squash.
Spanish and English Settlers
In 1566, Spain built a town called Santa Elena on what is now Parris Island. In 1663, the king of England gave the land called Carolina to eight men. English settlers came in 1670 and started Charles Town, now Charleston. The colony grew rice and later indigo, a plant used to make blue dye. Most of the work on rice plantations was done by enslaved Africans.
Wars With Native Nations
Traders and settlers moved onto Native land, and some traders sold Native people as slaves. In 1715, Yamasee warriors and their allies attacked farms and killed hundreds of settlers. The colony fought back with help from the Cherokee. Most of the Yamasee moved south to Spanish Florida. In 1760, war broke out with the Cherokee. Cherokee warriors attacked frontier farms, and soldiers burned Cherokee towns. The Cherokee made peace in 1761 and gave up land.
The Revolution
In 1776, Patriots on Sullivan’s Island beat a British fleet. In 1780, the British captured Charleston. Francis Marion led small bands that struck and then hid in the swamps. Patriots won at Kings Mountain in 1780 and at Cowpens in 1781. In 1786, leaders chose a spot in the middle of the state for a new capital, Columbia. South Carolina became the 8th state in 1788.
Cotton and Railroads
After 1800, farmers in the upcountry planted cotton. In 1833, a railroad from Charleston to Hamburg, on the Savannah River, was finished. At about 136 miles, it was one of the longest in the world. By 1860, more than half of the people in South Carolina were enslaved. They did most of the work in the rice and cotton fields.
War and New Work
In December 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede, or leave the United States. In April 1861, Confederate soldiers fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, and the Civil War began. In 1865, a Union army marched through the state, and much of Columbia burned. Slavery ended that year. Later, cloth mills rose in Piedmont towns. In 1994, BMW opened a car factory near Greer. The Catawba Nation and other Native people live in South Carolina today.
South Carolina through time
- 1566 Spain builds Santa Elena
- 1670 English settle Charles Town
- 1715 The Yamasee War begins
- 1760 War with the Cherokee
- 1780 Battle of Kings Mountain
- 1788 South Carolina is the 8th state
- 1833 Railroad to Hamburg
- 1861 Shots fired at Fort Sumter
- 1994 BMW factory opens
People to know
- Eliza Lucas Pinckney: Grew indigo in the 1740s.
- Francis Marion: Patriot leader called the Swamp Fox.
- Robert Smalls: Escaped slavery by steering a ship to freedom.
- Mary McLeod Bethune: Teacher born near Mayesville.
- Ronald McNair: Astronaut from Lake City.
Free South Carolina 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.