Printable Scholar
Tennessee State Report Kit
Everything a student needs to research and write a report on Tennessee: the reading, the maps and the pages to fill in. Nothing else to look up.
- 3 reading pages: Tennessee 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 Tennessee kit
To read and study
- Tennessee 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 Tennessee History reading page
One page on the history of Tennessee 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 Tennessee for at least 12,000 years. Later, Native farmers grew corn, beans and squash and built earth mounds. By the 1700s, the Cherokee lived in towns in the eastern valleys. The Chickasaw held the west. Both nations hunted in the middle of the land. They traded deer skins with British and French traders.
Over the Mountains
Around 1770, settlers from Virginia and North Carolina built farms along the Watauga River. In 1775, a land company bought a large area from Cherokee leaders at Sycamore Shoals. The Cherokee leader Dragging Canoe spoke against the sale. By 1780, James Robertson and John Donelson had led settlers to the Cumberland River. They built Fort Nashborough, which grew into Nashville.
War on the Frontier
Dragging Canoe and his followers sided with Britain in the American Revolution. In 1776, they attacked the Watauga settlements, but the settlers held Fort Watauga. Soldiers from Virginia and the Carolinas then burned many Cherokee towns. In 1780, the Overmountain Men, a frontier militia, crossed the mountains. They beat a Loyalist army at Kings Mountain. Cherokee fighters and settlers kept raiding each other’s towns until 1794.
The Sixteenth State
In 1790, the land became the Southwest Territory of the United States. Knoxville became its capital. Tennessee became the 16th state on June 1, 1796. John Sevier was the first governor. In 1818, the Chickasaw sold West Tennessee to the United States in a treaty. Memphis was founded the next year. In 1838, the U.S. Army moved most Cherokee people west to Indian Territory. Native people live in Tennessee today.
A Divided State
Farmers in Middle and West Tennessee grew cotton, tobacco and corn. Enslaved people did much of the work on the large farms. In 1861, Tennessee voted to secede, or leave the Union, and joined the South. Many people in East Tennessee stayed loyal to the Union. Big battles were fought at Shiloh, Stones River, Chattanooga and Franklin. Slavery ended in Tennessee in 1865. In 1866, Tennessee became the first Southern state to rejoin the Union.
Building Tennessee
Railroads linked the big cities. In 1933, the United States created the Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA. It built dams on the Tennessee River and its streams. The dams stopped floods, made electricity and helped boats travel. Norris Dam, the first, was finished in 1936. Cheap power brought factories and the Oak Ridge lab.
Tennessee through time
- 1775 Land sale at Sycamore Shoals
- 1780 Nashville is founded
- 1790 Southwest Territory is formed
- 1796 Tennessee becomes the 16th state
- 1818 The Chickasaw sell West Tennessee
- 1838 Most Cherokee are moved west
- 1862 Battle of Shiloh
- 1866 Tennessee rejoins the Union
- 1936 Norris Dam is finished
People to know
- Nancy Ward: Cherokee Beloved Woman who worked for peace with settlers.
- Davy Crockett: Frontier hunter and congressman from East Tennessee.
- Andrew Jackson: Won at New Orleans in 1815. The 7th president.
- Wilma Rudolph: Clarksville runner. Three gold medals in 1960.
- Dolly Parton: Singer and songwriter from the Smoky Mountains.
Free Tennessee 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.