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Social studies activity

Wisconsin's Story: Cheese, Effigy Mounds & Harley-Davidson

About 1,000 years ago, people in Wisconsin built giant earth sculptures — mounds shaped like bears, birds, and panthers — so large that you can only see the shapes from above, like from an airplane. Nobody used cranes or machines. They moved all that earth with baskets and their hands. Some of these mounds are still there today, after 1,000 years.

Hands OnAbout 25 minutesScreen-freeParent help expected

Materials and setup

How this changes by age

Pre-K (ages 3–4)

About 1,000 years ago, people in Wisconsin built giant earth sculptures — mounds shaped like bears, birds, and panthers — so large that you can only see the shapes from above, like from an airplane. Nobody used cranes or machines. They moved all that earth with baskets and their hands. Some of these mounds are still there today, after 1,000 years.

Difficulty 1 of 3

Steps

  1. Look at an aerial photo of Wisconsin effigy mounds — notice the shapes of the animals from above.
  2. Draw a big bird shape as if you were looking straight down at the ground. Make the wings spread wide.
  3. Color the inside of the bird brown like earth.
  4. Draw tiny stick-figure people with baskets around the edges, moving dirt to build it.
  5. Ask a grown-up: 'Why do you think someone would spend so much time building something you can only see from the sky?'

Learning objectives

  • Wonder at the enormous scale and care of the effigy mound builders
  • Notice that ancient people built things requiring community effort and long-term vision
  • Ask questions about why people create things meant to be seen by something — or someone — above

Kindergarten (ages 5–6)

Wisconsin is the birthplace of the Republican Party. Not just a place where Republicans once held a meeting — the actual place where the party was FOUNDED, in a schoolhouse in the tiny town of Ripon, Wisconsin, on March 20, 1854. The party was founded for one specific reason: to stop the spread of forced labor into new territories. Their second presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln, won in 1860. You might say that a big idea that changed America was born in a Wisconsin schoolhouse. Wisconsin is also the cheese capital of America — making over 3 billion pounds of cheese every year!

Difficulty 2 of 3

Steps

  1. Look at a picture of the little white schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin where the Republican Party was founded.
  2. Draw the schoolhouse in the center of your paper — small, simple, important.
  3. Draw a speech bubble coming from inside: 'We are starting a new party. Its name: REPUBLICAN. Its purpose: stand up for freedom.'
  4. On one side of the schoolhouse, draw Abraham Lincoln (who won the presidency as a Republican in 1860).
  5. Write or dictate: 'Big ideas can start in ___.' (Fill in the blank: a tiny schoolhouse? a small town? one room?)

Learning objectives

  • Know that the Republican Party was founded in Ripon, Wisconsin in 1854 to stand up for freedom
  • Understand that Abraham Lincoln was the Republican Party's second presidential candidate
  • Retell Wisconsin's political founding story
  • Explain in simple terms that big historical changes often begin in small, unexpected places

Early elementary (ages 6–8)

On March 20, 1854, about 50 people gathered in a little schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin — a town of only a few hundred people — and founded the Republican Party, specifically to oppose the spread of forced labor into new U.S. territories. The party's second presidential candidate was Abraham Lincoln. He won in 1860, which triggered Southern states to leave the Union, which started the Civil War, which ended forced labor. A chain of events that changed everything started in a room the size of a classroom — in Wisconsin. The state is also home to Harley-Davidson motorcycles (founded in Milwaukee, 1903), Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Taliesin studio, and more cheese than you can imagine.

Difficulty 2 of 3

Steps

  1. Draw a chain of five connected events like a paper chain: Republican Party founded in Ripon, WI (1854) → Abraham Lincoln nominated (1860) → Lincoln wins presidency → Southern states leave the Union → Civil War ends, freedom expands (1865). Draw one oval for each event and connect them with arrows.
  2. Write one sentence under each link: What caused the next thing to happen?
  3. Draw the Ripon schoolhouse as it looked in 1854. Label it 'Birthplace of the Republican Party.' Notice how small it looks — then think about how large the consequences were.
  4. Research the Ho-Chunk Nation's effigy mounds: How large is the largest effigy mound in Wisconsin? What materials were used? Write two sentences and draw a bird mound from above.
  5. On a Wisconsin map, label: Madison (capital), Milwaukee, Ripon, Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, and the Wisconsin Dells.
  6. Connection: Vermont was a tiny state that declared freedom for everyone in 1777 before the United States did. Wisconsin founded a party dedicated to protecting freedom in 1854. How do these two small states connect across 77 years?

Learning objectives

  • Trace the cause-and-effect chain from the Republican Party's Wisconsin founding to the expansion of freedom
  • Explain why a small-town founding can have national and historical consequences
  • Identify the Ho-Chunk Nation's effigy mounds as archaeologically significant Wisconsin landmarks
  • Locate key Wisconsin cities and lakes on a state map

Upper elementary (ages 8–10)

Wisconsin's Senator Robert La Follette Sr. is one of the most consequential politicians most Americans have never heard of. Between 1900 and 1925, he pioneered the direct primary (letting voters choose candidates instead of party bosses), workers' compensation, railroad regulation, and the first state income tax in America. He called it 'The Wisconsin Idea' — the belief that the state government should be a laboratory for democracy, and that the University of Wisconsin's experts should help write the laws. Many policies he pioneered in Wisconsin later became national law under FDR's New Deal. He ran for president in 1924 as a third-party candidate and won nearly 17% of the vote — still the best third-party showing since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.

Difficulty 3 of 3

Steps

  1. The Dilemma: Almost everyone around you is demanding you vote for something you honestly believe is wrong. You've studied the evidence carefully. You have real reasons. But if you say so out loud, people will call you a traitor. You'll lose friends, your reputation, maybe your career. Almost no one will have your back. Do you vote the way you truly believe is right, knowing the personal cost — or go along with the crowd to protect yourself? In 1917, U.S. Senator Robert La Follette of Wisconsin was one of only six senators who voted against the United States entering World War I. He believed the war was being pushed by wealthy business interests, not the public good. Newspapers called him a traitor. The Senate launched a formal investigation. He nearly lost his seat — and cast his 'no' vote anyway. Write one page from La Follette's perspective on the day he cast that dissenting vote: why he did it, what he expected to lose, and what he was trying to protect.
  2. Research 'The Wisconsin Idea': What was it? How did it work? Write a paragraph explaining how the University of Wisconsin was used to make government policy. Then write one sentence: Does any state do something similar today?
  3. Create a Wisconsin timeline from 1000 CE (effigy mound culture) to 1960 with at least ten events. Include: at least two Ho-Chunk/Ojibwe events, the Republican Party founding, La Follette's Progressive reforms, Harley-Davidson's founding (1903), and Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin (1911).
  4. Write a two-paragraph essay: 'The Republican Party was founded in Wisconsin in 1854 to oppose forced labor's expansion. By 1924, La Follette had broken from the Republican Party and ran against it. What does this political evolution reveal about how parties and principles change over time?'
  5. On a Wisconsin map, label: Madison, Milwaukee, Ripon, Taliesin (Spring Green), Apostle Islands, and the effigy mounds at Effigy Mounds National Monument.
  6. Cross-state connection: Vermont was founded on freedom principles; Wisconsin's Republican Party was founded on freedom principles. Both states were also early leaders in workers' rights. Is there a connection between protecting personal freedom and supporting workers' rights? What's the argument?
  7. Wisconsin produces about 3.4 billion pounds of cheese per year — roughly a quarter of all U.S. cheese. A small artisan cheesemaker needs about 10 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of cheese. If milk costs the farmer about $0.20 per pound and artisan cheese sells for around $15 per pound (estimate), calculate the gross profit on a 50-pound wheel. Now subtract rennet, aging time (6 months of storage), and labor — is a tiny cheese operation actually profitable?
  8. Harley-Davidson was founded in a 10-by-15-foot Milwaukee shed in 1903 by machinists who built their first motorcycle engine from scratch. Draw a motorcycle and label: engine, fuel tank, frame, front fork, wheels, handlebars, chain drive. Research how many horsepower that first 1903 engine produced vs. a modern Harley, and sketch one improvement you would make to the original design.

Learning objectives

  • Evaluate Robert La Follette and the Wisconsin Idea as a model of state-level democratic innovation
  • Analyze the Republican Party's evolution from its Wisconsin freedom-focused founding to La Follette's break from it
  • Construct an argument about the relationship between freedom principles and workers' rights
  • Connect Wisconsin's political innovation to national policy changes through specific cause-and-effect chains

Safety and evidence note

Read the full activity before beginning. An adult should supervise tools, heat, food, outdoor work, movement, and experiments as appropriate. Completion records that the activity was done; the child’s explanation, work sample, photo, or demonstration is stronger evidence of learning than a completion check alone.

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