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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 7 of 10

World War II

Pearl Harbor, D-Day and the home front

What your child practices

The road to war and the rise of fascism, the US entry after Pearl Harbor, D-Day and the Pacific, the Holocaust, the home front including the forced removal of Japanese Americans, and the war's results.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 7.4.18.3; 7.2.7.1 · connections between World War II, fascism and the Holocaust, and decisions made in wartime

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The US entered World War II after Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941). The Axis was Germany, Italy and Japan.
  2. The home front made steel and weapons; Japanese Americans were unjustly forced from their homes, which Korematsu (1944) upheld.
  3. The war ended in 1945. The GI Bill helped veterans pay for college and homes.

Example: How did the GI Bill of 1944 help veterans? Millions of soldiers came home. The bill helped them pay for college and buy homes. Answer: It helped them pay for college and buy homes

World War II in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 7 of 10 in 7th grade Social Studies, after Depression & New Deal and before The Cold War.

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

    The Axis powers were…

    • Germany, Italy and Japan
    • the Soviet Union and China
    • Britain, France and the US
    • Canada and Mexico

  2. Question 2

    The League of Nations failed to stop aggression in the 1930s partly because…

    • it was too strong
    • it ruled every country
    • it had already won the war
    • it had no army and the United States never joined

  3. Question 3

    The Lend-Lease Act of 1941 let the United States…

    • sell land to Germany
    • end the draft
    • lend or lease war supplies to Britain and other nations fighting the Axis
    • join the Axis

  4. Question 4

    Totalitarian leaders who rose to power in Europe before World War II included…

    • Peter Stuyvesant and Henry Hudson
    • Adolf Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini in Italy
    • Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant
    • Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt

  5. Question 5

    During World War II, a Military Intelligence Service Language School at Fort Snelling trained…

    • ship builders
    • farmers
    • Japanese American soldiers as translators
    • pilots only

  6. Question 6

    The Nuremberg Trials after the war…

    • rebuilt Germany's army
    • created the League of Nations
    • started the Cold War
    • put Nazi leaders on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity

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