North River News

Welcome to our first edition of the North River News 2021/2022. For our first edition of the year, we each researched someone who helped make a difference. Here are the people you will find in today's SPECIAL edition:

• Rosa Parks
• Amelia Earhart
• Benjamin Franklin
• Helen Keller
• Amanda Gorman
• Harriet Tubman
• Rachel Carson
• Elizabeth Coleman
• Benjamin O. Davis Jr
• Sacagawea
• Marie Curie
• Martin Luther King Jr

We hope you enjoy our first edition!

Colrain Fifth Grade

Imagine sitting on the bus ride home after a long day at work or school and being told you needed to stand up, so someone else could have your seat. You refuse to move and get arrested! Rosa Parks and others before her, experienced this very thing. Rosa Parks was born in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama, during a time when white and black people were segregated, meaning they weren’t allowed to use the same bathrooms, water fountains, public pools, or even attend the same schools. Rosa Parks was tired of this way of living and on December 1, 1955, she decided to take a stand, or more accurately, to stay seated, and was arrested for doing so. Click this link to read more about Rosa Parks.

Would you fly across the Atlantic Ocean in a plane by yourself? Amelia Earhart did it: the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic ocean solo. Everyone has the opportunity to fly over the ocean if they have the heart to do it. Is it Reckless? Maybe. But what do dreams know of boundaries? Click here to learn more about Amelia Earhart.

Ben Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston Massachusetts. Imagine being shipped away to work for your brother and getting beaten. Well Ben Franklin had to do whatever his brother said or he would get beat for it. Ben Franklin’s brother owned a printing company. One late night Ben got very mad and planned a runaway. He ran away and lived in Great Britain for 12 years homeless until he was 20. Then he started speaking out for rights for all and became an inventor. He invented lightning rods and many other things. He died on April 17, 1790 when he was 84. Click this link to learn more about Ben Franklin.

Imagine your eyes go dark and sound disappears, well this is what happened to Helen Keller. She was born on June 27, 1880. When she was 19 months old Helen became very ill; she broke a fever and became deaf and blind. She would get very upset and throw tantrums. Her parents brought her to a bunch of doctors and one doctor suggested Anne Sullivan. Anne Sullivan would later become Helen’s teacher for a long time. Click this link to read more about Helen Keller.

Imagine being the youngest laureate poet and reading in front of millions of people at the President's Inauguration. That is what young Amanda Gorman did on January 20, 2021. She wrote a poem of her own called “The Hill We Climb” and read it in front of President Biden, Michele Obama, Barack Obama, and the rest of the Nation through the internet and in person. She continues to write and she is still living. She is 23 years old. Click this link to find more about Amanda Gorman.

Did you know Harriet Tubman was a slave and a conductor of the Underground Railroad. She was born in 1820 in Maryland. She only got to eat table scraps. She had to take care of a baby and if it cried she got beaten. Her Mom was Rit Green and her Dad was Benjamin Ross.

Rachel Carson was an author and a writer. She was born in Springdale, Pennsylvania in 1907. She loved animals and writing. One big thing that she became famous for was selling her books. She always loved the ocean and that's what inspired her to write about the ocean. She died in Silver Spring, Maryland on April. 14,1964. Rachel Carson died of breast cancer. When Rachel Carson was 11 years old she wrote her first book. Want to find out more? click this link.

If you had crashed your plane and broke your leg and ribs, would you climb in a cockpit again? Bessie Coleman did. “Tell them that as soon as I can walk I'm going to fly.” She was born on January 26, 1892. Her father left her mother and her big sister became a second mother to her but she was strong. Despite growing up without her parents, she became the first black female pilot. Click this link to learn more about Bessie Coleman.

Citation:

https://www.azquotes.com/quote/596358

Benjamin O. Davis Jr. was one of the first African American pilots in the world. He was in hundreds of bombing runs. He died on July 4, 2002 because of Alzheimer’s disease. He was the first African American general in U.S Air Force. He was born on December 18,1912 in Washington D.C. Well that is all about Benjamin O. Davis Jr. for today. Click here to find out more about Benjamin O. Davis Jr.

Imagine if you were living your life and someone took you and made you a slave. This is what happened to Sacagawea. She was just doing what normal people do. Then out of nowhere they just kidnapped her. She met Lewis and Clark and got asked to go with them on their expedition across the country to the ocean. Click this link to learn more about Sacagawea.

Imagine being 67, winning a Nobel Prize in 1903, and being friends with Albert Einstein. These are some things that Marie Curie did. Marie was born in 1867 and raised in Warsaw, Poland. She died in July 1934. She won the Nobel Prize in chemistry because she discovered the elements radium and polonium. She went to school for only 6 years and won a Nobel Prize. Marie Curie was doing a lot of things women did not do in her time.

Imagine as a kid being separated from your white friends because that is what happened to Martin Luther King Jr. Since Martin was an adult he had been fighting for black people’s rights. He was arrested for his speeches about segregation many times. Then when he made his “I Have A Dream Speech” he turned people’s minds around about segregation. Then in Memphis, TN Martin was assassinated on April 4, 1986. Click to read more.

Email: mnorwood@mtrsd.org
Website: www.mtrsd.org
Location: 22 Jacksonville Road, Colrain, MA, USA
Phone: 413-624-3451
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