Cartoons and Causes

Read political cartoons, including Franklin's "Join, or Die," and build a chain of causes and effects with dates by century.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 15

A political cartoon is a drawing that gives an opinion about the news. Long before photographs, cartoons could spread an idea fast.
Here's one of the most famous. Benjamin Franklin printed this in 1754. Each piece of the snake stands for a colony or a region. N.E. means New England.
People then told a tale that a cut-up snake could come alive if its pieces were joined before sunset. Franklin's message: the colonies must unite, or they'll fail. Pictures that stand for ideas are called symbols.
Here's a made-up cartoon in the style of those times. Ask two questions. What do the symbols stand for? What does the artist want you to believe?
Now look at how events link together. Each one helped cause the next. All of these dates are in the 1700s, because the years begin with 17.

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:

IPS.17 — Information Processing Skill 17: interpret political cartoons (introduced in Grade 4)
IPS.5 — Information Processing Skill 5: identify main idea, detail, sequence of events, and cause and effect in a social studies context (mastered in Grade 4)
IPS.2 — Information Processing Skill 2: organize items chronologically (already mastered; apply and improve)
IPS.13 — Information Processing Skill 13: translate dates into centuries, eras, or ages (developing in Grade 4)