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The Mighty Mississippi

"The Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary is in all ways remarkable. Considering the Missouri its main branch, it is the longest river in the world -- four thousand three hundred miles. It seems safe to say that it is also the crookedest river in the world, since in one part of its journey it uses up one thousand three hundred miles to cover the same ground that the crow would fly over in six hundred and seventy-five. It discharges three times as much water as the St. Lawrence, twenty-five times as much as the Rhine, and three hundred and thirty-eight times as much as the Thames. No other river has so vast a drainage-basin: it draws its water supply ... from Delaware, on the Atlantic seaboard, and from all the country between that and Idaho on the Pacific slope -- a spread of forty-five degrees of longitude. The Mississippi receives and carries to the Gulf water from fifty-four subordinate rivers that are navigable by steamboats, and from some hundreds that are navigable by flats and keels. The area of its drainage-basin is as great as the combined areas of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Turkey; and almost all this wide region is fertile; the Mississippi valley, proper, is exceptionally so."

     -- from Life on the Mississippi, written by Mark Twain in 1863

The Mississippi River is also well worth studying about! The eight activities below will help introduce your students to the importance and power of this multipurpose U.S. resource. (Notations in parentheses indicate approximate grade levels.)

• Mississippi River Scavenger Hunt Students
  go on a virtual scavenger hunt to answer questions about the Mississippi River. (3-8)

• Explorers of the Mississippi
  Students locate resources about exploration of the Mississippi River and create a time line about the history of the river. (3-8)

• Along the Banks of the Mississippi
  Students write a report about one of the states along the Mississippi River. (6-8)

• Creating Energy from Water
  Students learn about hydroelectricity and make a model of a water turbine.

• Save Your Rivers
  Students create posters about protecting rivers in their state. (K-5)

• Playin' the Blues
  Students learn about the history and sounds of blues music, construct instruments from scrap materials, and compose music to accompany lyrics of songs for kids. (3-8)

• Overflowing the Banks
  Students construct a model of riverbanks, create a flood, and write about their observations. (3-8)

• Wildlife Along the Mississippi River
  Students create a class book about the wildlife that lives in and near the Mississippi River. (K-5)