The Industrial Revolution

Objectives:

• Students will be able to describe how factories replaced labor by hand during the Industrial Revolution.

• Students will be able to recount a brief history of the Industrial Revolution.

• Students will be able to identify the inventors Cyrus McCormick and Jan E. Matzeliger and tell what they invented.

• Students will be able to explain how Thomas Edisons inventions contributed to the Industrial Revolution.

Suggested Grades:

4th Grade - 5th Grade - 6th Grade

Lesson Procedure:

Print the reading comprehension passage and questions (see below).

Students should read the passage silently, then answer the questions. Teachers may also use the text as part of a classroom lesson plan.

Lesson Excerpt:

During the Industrial Revolution in America, factories and machines took over the tasks and jobs that people once had to do by hand. As a result, people were then able to buy things that they had to make for themselves before. Because people could buy so many things in factories instead of having to take the time to make things themselves, it was also possible for some of them to have more things.

The first factories in the U.S. were built in New England in the early 1800s. They were spinning and weaving factories where machines powered by water made cloth and thread. Before this, people had to spin their own thread and cloth to make clothing. Now they could buy it in stores.

Continued...