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6th grade · Social Studies · Unit 6 of 8

Work & New Minnesotans

Lumber, flour, iron, farms and immigrants

What your child practices

How logging, flour milling, iron mining and farming used Minnesota's resources, and why people have come to Minnesota, from German and Scandinavian immigrants in the 1800s to Hmong and Somali refugees more recently.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 6.4.21.1; 6.4.22.2; 6.4.21.2; 6.2.11.1 · how industry and farming used natural resources, migration to Minnesota, and how goods and money move through markets

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Lumber, flour, iron and farming built Minnesota's economy. Minneapolis led the world in milling flour from about 1880 to 1930.
  2. Immigrants and newcomers came to work and farm.
  3. Today, farms grow corn and soybeans, and health care and medical technology are big.

Example: What did Minneapolis lead the world in from about 1880 to 1930? Mills used the river's waterfalls for power. They ground wheat into flour. Answer: milling flour

Work & New Minnesotans in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 6 of 8 in 6th grade Social Studies, after Statehood & 1862 and before Governing Minnesota.

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: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

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

    Immigrants often formed communities with their own…

    • countries
    • churches, newspapers and shops
    • armies
    • money

  2. Question 2

    From about 1880 to 1930, Minneapolis led the world in…

    • growing rice
    • milling flour
    • building ships
    • making cars

  3. Question 3

    Iron ore from the Mesabi Range was used to make…

    • cloth
    • glass
    • steel
    • paper

  4. Question 4

    Sawmills in Minneapolis used the power of…

    • Lake Superior tides
    • St. Anthony Falls
    • windmills only
    • volcanoes

  5. Question 5

    Many immigrants from Sweden, Norway and Finland settled in Minnesota because…

    • it had palm trees
    • there were gold mines
    • they were sent as soldiers
    • the land and climate felt familiar and farmland was available

  6. Question 6

    The Rondo neighborhood in St. Paul, a center of Black life, was split apart in the 1960s by…

    • a flood
    • a volcano
    • a new freeway
    • a gold rush

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