Fifth Grade
Worksheets
Library Beginnings
From the beginning of time, people have collected their stories. At first, stories were not written down. They were memorized and passed on from one person to another by word of mouth.
When people learned to read and write, they were better able to collect stories. The first words were not printed on paper. The Sumerians pressed symbols into clay tablets. They were not very easy to move around because they were heavy. Can you imagine trying to read a story on clay tablets?
The Egyptians wrote their ideas on paper made from papyrus reeds. These scrolls were not available to average people.
The Greeks loved learning. They made a huge library at the city of Alexandria, in Egypt. They wanted to have at least one copy of every scroll ever written kept there. The library eventually burned down, and most of the scrolls were lost.
