Stop! Find just one (1) square of a very different color that you will not use again. Paste this square on the east coast somewhere. The Phoenicians didn't stay. They just visited. They liked their boats better.

'About 2,800 years ago, some African ships landed off the coast of Florida, in some of the many islands that are there in the oceans.'

'About 2500 years ago, some Chinese were checking out the West Coast of California in these boats, Chinese Junks.'

Stop! Take a yellow-symbol for the gold of California that the Chinese would do so much building for-square--just one--and paste it on the West Coast where California is.

The Chinese were just visiting at that time, so one square is enough. However, write the numbers: 2500 BC on that square because the Chinese would return much, much later.

'Why did you put the BC on that number? It means something. It is a way of marking time.

The people who invented it decided that BC would mean: Before Christ. (Christ was a Person born in time who made a big difference in life. People who follow what He said are called Christians. The people who made the time system we are using were Christians.) So they marked all the events they learned about as happening either Before Christ was born or AD, meaning, in Latin, Anno Domino, the Year of the Lord. It's a long story so I can't tell it here. Plus there were other people who marked time but they didn't use the BC or AD method, there are other ways. This just got to be the most popular in our schools.

So, the story continues: About 500 AD, more Chinese landed in California and on the Mexican Coast near Mexico City!'

Stop! So the Chinese took their time returning, so what. They got here. Pick another yellow paper and paste it, one square on the coast of California, and write on it: 500 AD. And paste another near Mexico City, and write on it: 500 AD.

'The story goes on: About 986 AD and 1100 AD, some Norsemen and then some Vikings landed up in Nova Scotia, the upper north-eastern coast of North America.'

Look for Nova Scotia. Put a new color for the Norsemen, and a still different color for the Vikings. Use a pencil this time, and write both the name and the date for each of these people landing on the North American continent.

'About 1475 AD, some Danish and German Europeans landed on the east coast of America. They didn't stay long, but they were there. Most likely they didn't know where they were, or they might have bragged about it and become famous.'

Stop! Pick a still different color of paper and put one square on the north-eastern coast of America. Write on it the name and date of the explorers.

'Now, the story gets to the man we all give credit to for 'discovering America'-Columbus.

Did he 'discover' America? Not really. Look at all the people who arrived before he did. He just had better publicity when he returned.

In reality, Columbus was lost. He had not a clue as to where he was. In fact, he thought he was in India. Was he in India? Of course not. He was in this country. But, the first group of Natives who waded out to help him, Columbus called them:'Indians'. Were they Indians? No, but the name stayed. The land was named America-- haven't you ever wondered why? After all, Amerigo Vespucci didn't land on these Northern shores (he did go to South America, however), so why is this land named after his first name?

And, poor Columbus, all his life he thought he had reached Asia. He never changed his mind.

Amerigo, on the other hand, was very convinced from his explorations on South America, and, at the mouth of the Amazon river, that this whole land was new and separate from Asia. But what made his name so famous? (You'll love this: he wrote newspaper articles on the love life and marriage practices of all the natives in South America--and that was exciting stuff in the 1600 century!!!) A totally different man, a German mapmaker, put America as the name of these lands. Later on, the mapmaker wanted to change the name, and it was too late. Everyone loved Amerigo and his name on this new land: America.

In 1492, Columbus landed his three ships on some islands just south of Florida. His crew was like a promise of the America to be: Columbus was Italian, his ships were from Spain, but his crew were made up of: Basque, Poles, Jews, Irish, Portuguese. He and his crew met the first Native peoples whose tribe was: the Arawak. They brought him gifts.'

Stop! Pick another, new color. Paste one square of this color down for Columbus and crew, and pick a still other color, for the Arawak. Paste this on the islands.

'Columbus was not kind to the Arawak. Bad things happened to them. Use some of the resources to check out just what happened. It isn't pretty.

Columbus went back to Spain and now, Spanish speaking people returned with him. Other ships began to sail to this land, from Spain. About 1520, a Spanish exploration and settlement began in Florida. The oldest city built by outsiders is in Florida: Saint Augustine.'

Stop! Get a color square that you have lots and lots of the same kind. Start pasting squares down, starting in Florida, across the whole southern part of the United States, more squares in Mexico, Central America, even South America if you have it. Paste this same color up the coast of California up to San Francisco. These colored squares are going to bump into all the Native tribes that you have already pasted down. Fights started over who gets what.

'However, everyone was learning to speak the language of this newcomer--Spanish. In fact, Spanish was a dominant language in this country and Mexico from about 1517 until about 150 years later, when more people of different languages started coming to this country.

More explorers came who spoke Spanish. These people traveled along the southern part of these now United States all the way to California, down through Mexico, and even to South America.

Around the year 1517, these Spanish who arrived from Spain wanted servants to do work for them. They tried to make Indians into slaves; but the Indians knew how to run away and stay gone. So some of the Spanish got into ships and went to Africa. They stole people from Africa and brought them back in chains to be slaves in America. Slavery had begun.'

Stop! Get lots of black squares of paper, and start pasting them everywhere the Spanish are.

'Some of the Spanish, liked who and what they saw, both in the Indian women and the African women, and some of the Spanish got married to whomever they liked. Now mixed-color children were being born, wherever the Spanish settled.'

Stop! Get lots of patterned colors of squares--patterned cloth works well for this. Paste this down in Florida, and in Texas and in Mexico and in California.

'This is the beginning of the 'mestizo' or Mexican: part Native and part Spanish or African. There are more Native and Spanish together than any other mix. They are forming a new people, populating strongly, and with a deep sense of the value of family. So starts the Mexican.'

Look at your map, it should be getting pretty full by now. Did you notice that we have not yet mentioned the name of the Puritans, or Plymouth Rock, or the 13 colonies? They are not here yet.

About 1609, the English do sail over to America. Jamestown becomes their settlement on our northeastern coast. They settle around Virginia and Maryland. About 1620, the Puritans arrive on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. For some reason, the Puritans forgot to bring enough food with them.

'The first winter in this land they mostly starved and half of the group died.'

Stop! Find some whitish sort of paper, and paste it down by Jamestown, and Plymouth Rock. Just a few, since most of them died anyway.

The first winter in this land they mostly starved and half of the group died.

'That following Spring, they made friends with the Natives and learned from them. They learned about corn and planting it and storing it and all the things that can be made from it. They learned about the wild turkey and how to catch and cook it. They were grateful. The first THANKSGIVING was held because of their gratitude.

Nothing lasts forever. More English arrived, and settled. They were not used to hard work and they wanted someone else to do it. When a man named Cook sailed into port with 19 kidnapped Africans and sold them, the English bought them as slaves. It was the year 1619.'

Stop again! Find more black squares and paste them up and down the eastern coast. Find some pink squares for the English and paste them up and down the eastern coast.

'More inter-marrying goes on as more and more people arrive.

Time goes on and large amounts of people come from Europe who are not English. The Irish come by the millions in the 1800's. They were hungry because their favorite crop in Ireland was dying and they needed new soil. But did you know that their favorite crop--potatoes--first came from South America?'

Stop! Get lots and lots of green squares and paste them up and down the eastern coast, all across the center of the United States, and in Virginia City, Nevada and San Francisco, CA.

'Someone came up with the idea of railroads across this country. To build them, the rich men who wanted the railroads went to China to talk the Chinese into helping to build the railroad.

The Chinese were not slaves. They lived in their own part of town. They worked for wages--not much--but something. They knew about gunpowder and how to blast out the sides of mountains and tunnels through the mountains.

The railroad men wanted railroads so they made many promises to the Chinese to get them here.

The biggest reason for railroads was to get people across country. Gold was discovered and everyone wanted some. The Chinese helped to build these railroads as did the Irish.'

Stop! Paste a lot of gold or yellow squares in the Western part of the U.S. and in Nevada. Paste these squares across the center of the U.S. where the railroad was being built, especially by mountains.

'For the Chinese, this was an eastward movement. In fact, one particular Chinese man made it all the way to Florida. He is credited with making oranges taste sweet. Before he worked on his experiments with oranges, Florida oranges were sour.'

Look at this map. See how diversified it is? There are many colors on it. Because of the many kinds and groups and mixing and marrying of people, America is a land of many mixtures and cultures.

We are a nation of immigrants.