By: Janice Harrell Midway Elementary School

Edited by: Nylor McClary

Where you Live

Think about our school address

• Medley Rd. is in Fairfield county• Fairfield County is in Winnsboro• Winnsboro is in SC• SC is in the United States• United States on the continent entitled

North America• North America is one of the seven

contenets

•Ice Age

•Bering Strait

•Land Bridge

The Ice Age

• The Ice Age was a period of time in which a part of the earth’s water was frozen.

• During this time, much of the ocean water was “locked up” in glaciers.

• As a result of the frozen ocean water, sea levels dropped.

• The last Ice Age occurred about 12,000 to 15,000 years ago.

The Bering Strait

A strait is a small passageway of water which lies between two masses of land.

The Bering Strait is located between present-day Alaska and Siberia (upper northeast corner of Russia).

It was named for a Danish explorer, Vitus Bering, who explored this area in the 1700’s.

See this strait between present day Alaska and Siberia. It is also known as

BERINGIA.

Bering Land Bridge

During the last Ice Age, the sea level of the Bering Strait dropped about 300 feet and created a 1,000 mile

wide strip of land.

Where once there was ocean water, this strip of land, called a land

bridge, appeared thereby connecting the continents of Asia

and North America.

What do you think happened next?

• Asians “emigrated” across this land bridge into what is known today as North America.

• They entered through Alaska and traveled, over thousands of years, throughout present day Canada, including the Arctic region, and into present day United States, even eventually traveling as far as parts of South America.• These people came as they followed their main source of survival, the Wooly Mammoth, a huge mammal much like the elephant.

• Click the link to watch a quick video about how the land bridge formed. Be sure to listen!

• http://streaming.richland2.org/videos/v2.2/39391/chp946939_300k.mp4

These immigrants eventually settled in different parts of North, Central, and South America.

Some of them are known according to the location in which they settled:

Inuits & Aleuts : Alaska/Arctic Region

Eastern Woodland: Eastern United States

Aztecs & Incas: Central & South America

You know them today as

NATIVE AMERICANS

WOW!

THE

END

References:

• http://www5.unitedstreaming.com/index.cfm; THE EARLIEST HUMAN MIGRATION (04:56) (Video for Slide 12)

• http://www5.unitedstreaming.com/index.cfm;Paths of Migration by Early Hunters (map image for Slide 11)