American History Quiz
Bowl
Today's
Snack: Since we're having a quiz BOWL, why don't you have a BOWL of cereal and
drink your milk out of a BOWL, with two hands, just for fun?
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Supplies:
Print out this Treat
Find a noisemaker for each contestant to
"ring in" - for example, New Year's Eve paper whistles, jingle bells, even a
wooden spoon to bang on a pan
Some kind of prize for the winner!
All you really need for a Quiz Bowl is at least one
contestant and one person in the audience - plus a fun way to "ring in" when
you want to answer a question.
So you can do this at home with a friend. Or do it with a group of
kids and have more fun!
You can have a moderator read the questions, or just print this
out and put a piece of paper over all the questions, revealing the next
question as you go. Have fun with your noisemakers, ringing in! And have fun
enjoying your prize, if you win! (Answers at the very bottom - don't peek!)
TRUE OR FALSE:
- Benjamin Franklin wanted our national bird to be the turkey.
- Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death!" in 1775.
- The White House didn't used to be white. It was originally
sandstone.
- Johnny Appleseed was a real man in the early 1800s, planting apple
trees.
- The War of 1812's Gen. Andrew Jackson got the nickname "Old
Hickory" for being as tough as hickory wood.
- The Conestoga wagon, which settled the American West, had a six-ton
capacity and a curved floor.
- Harper's Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast created the symbol of the
donkey for the Democratic Party and the elephant for the Republicans in
the 1870s.
- Hiram Revels became the first black American in the U.S. Senate in
1870.
- The Washington Monument was started in 1848, but organizers ran out
of money, so it wasn't finished until 1884.
- The Marshall Plan was how Europe was rebuilt and protected from
communism after WWII, named after Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall.
- The American Army Signal Corps first sent radio communications into
space in 1946.
- There are nine justices on the
U.S. Supreme Court.
(ANSWERS: They are all
true! Now write 12 more questions, and see if you can stump a grownup!)
