Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Hawaii's Journey to Statehood
Hawaii Becomes 50th State
Reading Comprehension for August 21
The islands of Hawaii did not always belong to the United States. They have a rich history prior to becoming a state of the Union. Polynesian voyagers came to the islands thousands of years before they were discovered by Europeans. Can you imagine what it was like to live thousands of years ago? Perhaps it was like an episode of Survivor, where people had to build shelters out of bamboo and make meals out of the meat and milk of coconuts!
Hawaii was also not always called Hawaii. In the latter 1700s, they were called the Sandwich Islands, after the Earl of Sandwich. In the early 1800s, Great Britain, France, and the United States recognized Hawaii as a kingdom under the rule of King Kamehameha III. (How would you like to have a name like that? Would you remember how to spell it?) However, Great Britain and France were not content to leave Hawaii to rule itself, so the king sought to put Hawaii under the protection of the United States. Ironically, being under the protection of the United States would lead to the dissolving of the kingdom.
In 1887, the United States was allowed to establish a military base, called Pearl Harbor. Many years later, it was the scene of the terrible, surprise attack by Japan on December 7, 1941, which involved the United States in World War II. This was a very dark time in America's history, with loss of life and conflict with other countries.
