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Mississippi River Facts & Worksheets

The Mississippi River is one of the world's major rivers. It flows through the center of the United States and, historically, it has been the dividing line between the Eastern United States and the American West

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Major cities located along the Mississippi River include Minneapolis, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; Baton Rouge, Louisiana;
and New Orleans, Louisiana.

See the fact file below for more information on the Mississippi River or alternatively, you can download our comprehensive worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

  • The Mississippi River is one of the world’s major river systems in size, habitat diversity and biological productivity. It is also one of the world’s most important commercial waterways and one of North America’s great migration routes for both birds and fish.
  • The length of the Mississippi River from its source in Lake Itasca in northwestern Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico flows 2,348 miles; it’s the second longest river in the United States.
  • Although the Mississippi can be ranked as the fourth longest river in the world, in volume of discharge, the Mississippi’s rate is the largest in North America and the eighth greatest in the world.
  • Native Americans lived along its banks and used the river for sustenance and transportation. Early European explorers used the Mississippi to explore the interior and the northern reaches of what was to become the United States.
  • The first known European to travel on the Mississippi River was the Spaniard Hernando de Soto, who crossed the river near present-day Memphis in May, 1541. Over a century later, in 1673, the French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette entered the Mississippi River from the Wisconsin River and traveled by canoe downriver to a point near the mouth of the Arkansas River.
  • The Mississippi River received its official title from the Anishinaabe, a group of culturally-related indigenous people from Canada and the United States. The original people, consisting of the Odawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Oji-Cree and Algonquin named the river ‘Misi-ziibi,’ meaning ‘Great River’ or ‘gathering of water.’
  • Formed from thick layers of the river’s silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of the country, which resulted in the river’s storied steamboat era.
  • Since modern development of the basin began, the Mississippi has also seen its share of pollution and environmental problems – most notably large volumes of agricultural runoff, which has led to the Gulf of Mexico dead zones off the delta. A dead zone is when chemical runoff from industry and agriculture causes too much algae to grow. This depletes oxygen in the water to the point that fish and other marine creatures die from suffocation.
  • The Mississippi River can be divided into three sections: the Upper Mississippi, which is from its headwaters to the confluence with the Missouri River; the Middle Mississippi, which is downriver from the Missouri River to the Ohio River; and the Lower Mississippi, which flows from the Ohio River to the Gulf of Mexico.

Mississippi River Facts

Mississippi River Worksheets

This bundle includes 11 ready-to-use Mississippi River worksheets that are perfect for students to learn about The Mississippi River which is one of the world’s major rivers. It flows through the center of the United States and, historically, it has been the dividing line between the Eastern United States and the American West

This download includes the following worksheets:

  • Mississippi River Facts
  • Top Five Rivers
  • I-Map
  • Flora – Flora Color
  • Mississi-tree Match
  • Fauna – Caring for the Fauna
  • Fauna Word Find
  • Mississippi Acrostic
  • Truth or Bluff
  • Answer Key

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Link will appear as Mississippi River Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, January 19, 2018

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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