The reports in this file were written last year, school year 1990-91, by fourth graders in my class at Dee School in Ogden, Utah.
This was an extra credit assignment given to a small group of students. They were given three Utah social studies textbooks and told to pick a topic and write a report on that topic. This assignment was given near the beginning of the school year.
The reports were written on Apple IIe microcomputers using Bank Street Writer III. To present them in this file, the reports were first loaded into Appleworks, copied into one large file, and then printed to disk as an ASCII file. This occasionally results in odd line lengths and margins.
Dee School is the home of "I Can Write!", a project funded by a corporate grant from Apple, Inc. All fourth graders write for half an hour every day using Apple IIe microcomputers and word-processing software. For more information on "I Can Write!", please write to:
David M. Thomas, "I Can Write!" Project Director
Dee Elementary School
550-22nd Street
Ogden, Utah 84401
Or, send E-mail on America Online to DavidT93; on GENIE to D.M.THOMAS; on the NEA BBS to Dave Thomas. However, mail inquiries containing a self-addressed business envelope with two first class stamps will receive priority for reply.
Comments addressed to individual student authors may by E-mailed any of the above addresses during 1991-92. They will be delivered to the students.
UTAH
by Nisa Rodriguez
There are many great places in Utah. Our mountains are called the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains. Utah is mostly desert. In Utah, there are two large lakes. Their are many other lakes in Utah. The two largest rivers in Utah are the Green River and Colorado River. Their names are the Great salt Lake and the Utah lake. The Ogden River connects the Pineview Reservoir through the 21st street pond to the Great Salt Lake. The Rocky Mountains are a beautiful sight in the winter. People love to ski when there is enough snow. The deserts are very hot in summer. There are the Great Salt Lake Desert, Green River Desert, Escalante Desert, Sevier Desert and many more. Some lizards and snakes live in most of Utah's deserts. Do you have nice mountains? Do you have large rivers? Do you have some desert in your state? What are the names of your lakes?
Pioneers
By Rachel Miller
In 1847 a group of pioneers moved to Utah to settle. They were the first people, except for Indians, who wanted Utah for their home. They were the Mormons. Joseph Smith was the organizer of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, "Mormons." The people moved from New York, to Ohio, to Missouri, and then to Illinois. Wherever they went, some people didn't like them. A mob in Illinois killed Joseph Smith and his brother. Brigham Young then became President of the LDS Church. He led the pioneers to the Salt Lake Vally. They arrived July 24, 1847. Utah towns still celebrate the day the pioneers arrived. Ogden has a big parade and the Pioneers Days Rodeo every year.
Our City
Ogden, Uath, is located in Weber County. Weber County was named for the Weber River. The Weber River was named for John H. Weber, an early fur trapper who was killed by Indians. Weber is one of the smallest counties in Uath in size. In the days of fur trappers, Ogden was known as Ogden's Hole. In trapper's languge "hole" means vally. In March of 1869 the frist Union Pacific Railroad cam to Ogden. Ogden is built on the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains. The Ogden River cuts a canyon on the south. They join west of the city and drain into the Great Salt Lake. Ogden has beautiful mountains. Mt. Ogden and Ben Lomond are its two highest peaks.
RACHEL MILLER
HOMES
BY RACHEL MILLER
Pioneer homes were very different than our homes now. My great-grandmother was born in 1863. She was born in what thay called a dugout. It was dug into a hill and covered in the door with canvas. Many homes built a hundred years ago are still standing today. The house I live in was in 1914. Many new homes are built up behind Weber State University. They look like they are hanging on the side of the mountains.
Our State Utah
Mountains
Our mountains are high. Mt. Ogden is the highest mountain in Ogden. It is 9,259 above sea level. The highest mountain in Utah is Kings Peak. It is 13,528 feet above sea level .The leaves change color first in the mountains. Right now, they are covered with snow. I like the mountains, I also like the color of them, too. One time, a fire was in the mountains. The fire went up. If the fire had gone down, the whole of Ogden would have been burned. One of the mountains is probably not in good shape because it had that fire on it.
Weather
It is a little cool in Utah. It is sunny in the afternoon. I sort of like the weather. It has been mostly raining, hard. Sometimes I don't like rain. One time, we had a flood about six years ago. It almost washed off the whole Ogden. It has been mostly raining. Now we are having a bad drought. It has not been snowing or hailing yet this month. It has been windy, too. It is a nice weather. Most of Utah is a desert, so most of the people live in the mountains. We catch the melted snow in the mountains reservoirs and save it. The next year, we use that water to drink and wash and water lawns and crops.
Shape Of School
Our shape of school is a flying saucer. One time, on our school's birthday, our pricipal said first a flying saucer came. Then the workers came and took it apart and put bricks on it. And they still made the same shape. I don't beleve that the school was made out of a flying saucer, do you?
The End
Shaun Miller
UTAHS FIRST PEOPLE
BY LAURIE SAUNDERS
The first people that lived in Utah were Native Americans. They were in Utah about 12,000 years before white people came. They learned to live off the land and nature. Indians have lived in Utah for many of years. The first to build permanent homes were Cliff Dwellers. They were called the Cliff Dwellers because they tried to build their homes under cliffs. Some of there homes were built on mesas, or flat-topped mountains,and the valleys. Cliff Dwellers were farmers who planted corn, beans, squash, and raised turkeys. Some of the ways we learn about the past is what the Indians write about themselves. They draw pictures on rocks about them. The drawings are called petroglyphs. Before the white people came to Utah there were five main tribes. The Gosiutes, Paitutes, Utes, Navajos, and Shoshones. Each tribe ate different food, wore different clothing, lived in different houses. When babies were born they were carried on cradle boards so they could be close to there moms. From about 1776 until 1847, white men explored the Indian lands of Utah. The United States government sent soldiers to fight the Indians. The war was called the Black Hawk War. The Black Hawk War started in 1865 to 1868. Many Indians struggle to save their homes. The Indians lost their homes to the white people.
