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5th grade · Social Studies · Unit 7 of 9

The Cold War & the Rocket City

Containment, Korea, Vietnam and the Space Race

What your child practices

Why the United States worked to contain communism, the Korean and Vietnam Wars and Alabamians in them, and the Space Race, with Redstone Arsenal and the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 5.13; 5.14 · the Cold War and containment, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and the Space Race in Huntsville

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. In the Cold War, the US tried to stop communism from spreading: containment. Wars in Korea and Vietnam were part of it.
  2. Communist countries included the Soviet Union, China and Cuba.
  3. Huntsville, the Rocket City, built Explorer 1's rocket (1958) and the Saturn V that carried astronauts to the Moon.

Example: What was the US policy of containment? Contain means to keep something from spreading. The US wanted to stop communism from spreading. Answer: trying to stop communism from spreading

The Cold War & the Rocket City in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 7 of 9 in 5th grade Social Studies, after The Civil Rights Movement and before Modern Alabama.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Apollo 11 astronauts first walked on the Moon in…

    • 1957
    • 1986
    • 1969
    • 1975

  2. Question 2

    After World War II, German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun came to work for the US in…

    • Dothan
    • Mobile
    • Selma
    • Huntsville

  3. Question 3

    Which of these was a communist country during the Cold War?

    • Britain
    • Australia
    • Cuba
    • France

  4. Question 4

    The Vietnam War was fought to try to stop…

    • the Soviet Union from going to the Moon
    • Mexico from expanding
    • communist North Vietnam from taking over South Vietnam
    • Britain from winning

  5. Question 5

    The Jupiter-C rocket, built by the team at Redstone Arsenal, launched America's first satellite, Explorer 1, in…

    • 1929
    • 2001
    • 1945
    • 1958

  6. Question 6

    Jeremiah Denton, a Navy pilot later elected senator from Alabama, was a prisoner of war in Vietnam who blinked a message in Morse code that spelled…

    • home
    • help
    • torture
    • hello

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