A Note To Teachers

Note to Teachers

Consider using this book to help you teach Colorado History. Try having students take turns reading aloud one chapter a day for six days. This should take no more than 15 minutes each day.

If you want to follow your reading with a discussion or a writing assignment, here are some questions to guide you. Question number 3 under each chapter would work well as a writing prompt for a short creative writing piece or a journal entry. You can use the Anticipate questions at the end of your lesson as a way to create suspense for the next lesson, or you may decide to use these questions on the day your class reads the anticipated chapter as a way to build enthusiasm for that day’s lesson.

Chapter One

1. How do you think the Gallagher brothers traveled to Leadville in 1876?
2. Why do you think people in Leadville liked to dream big?
3. If you had been alive in 1876, would you have come to Leadville? Why or why not?
Anticipate Chapter Two: What problems do you think the workers will encounter as they build the Ice Palace?

Chapter Two

1. What do you learn about transportation in this chapter and how it affected the building process?
2. What else do you think Mr. Wood could have done to save the Ice Palace for the Chinook?
3. If you were building an ice palace today, what would you use to put it together?
Anticipate Chapter Three: What else could go wrong with the building process?

Chapter Three

1. How did Leadville advertise the Ice Palace?
2. Why did Leadville want to impress the world?
3. If you were building an ice palace today, how would you advertise it?
Anticipate Chapter Four: Do you think the Ice Palace will open on New Year’s Day 1896?

Chapter Four

1. Why do you think the people of Leadville opened the Ice Palace with a parade?
2. What tools do you think someone used to make the ice statutes and the frozen cube displays?
3. If you had been at the Ice Palace on Opening Day, where would you have gone first? Why?
Anticipate Chapter Five: If the palace opens in November, how long do you think it will last before it melts?

Chapter Five

1. Why do you think the people of Leadville had special celebration days for certain groups of people?
2. What do you think Mr. Wood did with all the fabric he used during the Chinook?
3. What kind of costume would you have made for Press Day?
Anticipate Chapter Six: What do you think happened to the wooden Ice Palace frame?

Chapter Six

1. How do you think the wooden Ice Palace frame could have been used again?
2. When the Ice Palace melted, do you think the magic left Leadville?
3. Do you think the people of Leadville should build another Ice Palace? Why or why not?