Rockford Public Schools Social Studies K-12  Abraham Lincoln in the Rock River Valley Abraham Lincoln's Bicentennial African American History Links All About Money! All About Rockford! Arbor Day Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Bullying Prevention Education Calendar - What's Going On? Constitution Day Current Events CURRICULUM GUIDES & MAPS: GRADES 5-8 CURRICULUM GUIDES & MAPS: GRADES 9-12 CURRICULUM GUIDES & MAPS: GRADES K-4 Curriculum Integration Earth Day East HS Veterans Memorial Election Day Elementary Social Studies Program Field Trip Experiences - UPDATED! Games! Genealogy Geography Grade 3 Social Studies Grade 4 Social Studies Grade 6 Grade Social Studies Program Grade 6 Social Studies Hispanic Heritage Month Holocaust & Genocide Home Houghton Mifflin Economics HS American Government HS Projector Resources HS Social Studies Textbooks I Have... Who Has? Activities Illinois State Learning Standards for Social Science Immigration Irish Famine Study Junior Achievement Labor and Unions Labor Day Memorial Day Midway Village Museum NEW! Native American Heritage Month NEW! World History Resources News to Use in Social Studies Newspapers Around the Globe Political Cartoons PowerPoint Presentations Presidential Inauguration Presidents' Day Primary Source Documents Professional Development PSAE Practice for HS Social Studies Rockford's Sister Cities Rubrics for Social Studies Social Studies Scope and Sequence Spanish Influenza of 1918 Special Projects Study Skills Teaching American History Grant Thanksgiving Three Cups of Tea Veterans Day Vocabulary - English Vocabulary - Spanish War & Conflict Website of the Week Women's History Wondrous Women Main   >   Curriculum   >   Social Studies All About Rockford! Here are some resources to teach about how Rockford came to be... and how it is today! Rockford! This city of more than 150,000 is located in the northern part of the great state of Illinois. Rockford is the third largest city in Illinois after Chicago and Aurora. Its latitude is 42° 16' North and its longitude is 89° 03' West. Rockford is located on the continent of North America in the Western Hemisphere. It is in the Centeral Time Zone. On April 6, 2009, Mayor Larry Morrissey announced the City of Rockford has received for the twentieth straight year the recognition of “Tree City USA Destination.” Rockford is also called the "City of Gardens." Do you know why Rockford's nickname is also the "Forest City?" The City of Rockford All About the City of Rockford “We're the Forest City, where you can find affordable homes on tree-lined streets in friendly neighborhoods. Our central location, with easy access to major highways, rail service and one of the fastest growing airports in the country, makes Rockford a great location for new business development. We're the home of Illinois' largest music festival, On the Waterfront; Jane, the dinosaur, at the Burpee Museum of Natural History; and we're the hometown of the internationally-known rock group, Cheap Trick. We have a proud past and an even brighter future. We think you'll find that Rockford is a wonderful place to raise a family or grow your business. On this website, you will find information about a wide range of programs and services that we think make Rockford a great place to live, work and play.” Here you can find information about the demographics of Rockford, its history, the attractions, educational opportunities, businesses, and shopping. Some Neat Data About Rockford! From GAISMA Here you can find: • Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times in a table • Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times in a graph • Sun path diagram • Solar energy and surface meteorology • Basic information Rockford's History Primary Source Images Invite students to examine these pictures from Rockford history and respond to them! Rockford's Nickname Is "The Forest City" Rockford Timeline A timeline of Rockford's earliest years to the 1990s. What can we add to this timeliine? Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau What's There to Do in Rockford? "Welcome to Real, Original Rockford. Ours is a vibrant community with big-city amenities and a small-town feel. The City of Rockford is surrounded by many attractive towns and villages, each with its own character and appeal. This is a welcoming place dotted with green, blessed by rivers and untroubled by congestion. You can live your life here, not just watch it pass you by. If you're looking for the real, original heart of America, welcome home to the Rockford Region." On this site you can find these categories: • Fun things to do • A calendar of events • Lodging • Dining • Virtual tours • Meetings & tournaments • About the Rockford region Rockford Township Data Great Graphs! Did you know that during the years 1950 to 1959 there were 14,892 houses built in Rockford Township? That was way above the Illinois average! Here's an example of interesting information that can be found on this site: The most common places of birth for the foreign-born residents are • Mexico (49%) • Laos (5%) • Bosnia and Herzegovina (4%) • Italy (4%) • Poland (3%) • Vietnam (3%) • Germany (3%) Who Was Miss Lucy Derwent? From the Illinois State Museum Find out more about our state flag and the Rockford connection here! The All-American Girls Baseball League A Rockford Connection! Find out about the Rockford Peaches and the All-American Girls Baseball League. The Peaches played their home games at Beyer Field, at Seminary Street and 15th Avenue, right by Beyer School! The ticket booth is still there. Rockford Unit Curriculum Guide New! Here is the curriculum for teaching about Rockford in Third Grade! Remember When: Polio Once Spread Fear Through Rock River Valley From the Rockford Register Star This article, originally published March 26, 1995, highlights the Polio Epidemic in Rockford during the summer of 1945... "Late July 1945 opened a time of panic in the Rock River Valley. In a four-month span, 382 polio patients were treated for polio in Winnebago County. Of these, 36 died, 80 percent of them children." Summer of fear, 1945 From the Rockford Register Star "Nurse Mary Jayne Bishop knew when a child died overnight because the rhythmic roar from the polio ward sounded quieter at daybreak. A dozen iron lungs lined the end of the first-floor wing at the old County Hospital, metal barrels that huffed and puffed because the children inside them could not." Read more at this link. Rockford History From the Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau Another perspective! “Some natives and residents of Rockford who have had national impact in the 20th Century are: Julia Lathrop, associate of Jane Addams, children’s advocate, and Chief of the Children’s Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor under Taft; Kate O’Connor, women’s rights activist, labor leader, and government official; Bessica Medlar Raiche, physician and first woman to solo in an airplane (1911); Martin Johnson, photographer and explorer; Carl E. Swenson, inventor of the universal joint for automobiles and landscape painter; James H. Breasted, archaeologist and Egyptologist; Rear Admiral George J. Dufek, Antarctic explorer; General Laurence S. Kuter, participant in the Yalta Conference (1945) and commander of NORAD; Mildred F. Berry, speech pathologist and political activist; John B. Anderson., independent candidate for President of the United States in 1980; Lynn Martin, Secretary of Labor under President Ronald Reagan; Janice Voss, astronaut; Harry Forbes, world bantamweight boxing champion, 1900-03; Sammy Mandell, world lightweight boxing champion, 1926-30; Hal Carlson, National League pitcher, 1917-30; Cheap Trick, prominent rock group; Kurt Elling, jazz vocalist; actors Barbara Hale, Aidan Quinn, and Susan Saint James; Olympic medalists Janet Lynn, Ron Merriott, and Kenny Gould; novelists Paul Dale Anderson, Wayne Dundee, and Alice Beal Parsons, who sometimes use Rockford scenes and events in their work.” Rockford's Sister Cities Did You Know? Rockford has seven Sister Cities! Check out this site for information on them to get a global perspective. Can you explain why and how these seven cities were selected to connect with Rockford in some special way? Rockford, Illinois From All Experts.com Contents • Geography & Climate • Demographics • History • Becoming a Transportation Center • Looking into the Future • Rockford School System • Miscellaneous • Points of Interest • Sister Cities • External Links Aerial Views of Rockford, 1880 and 1891 From the Library of Congress Maps, Maps, Maps! From the Rockford Area Economic Development Council Rockford Maps relating to the economy today!

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