Skip to content
LessonPrint

Life in North America Before 1492 is a free printable Grade 3 to Grade 5 social studies worksheet on how nations lived and traded before Europeans arrived, aligned to C3 Framework indicator D2.Geo.4.3-5. It prints 8 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 13 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

Next set

One paper per student

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Life in North America Before 1492

D2.Geo.4.3-5

NameDate

Choose the best answer.

1.Before horses came, what did dogs pull for Plains peoples?
  • A.Wagons on iron rails
  • B.Mail carts
  • C.Loads on wooden frames called travois
2.How did peoples of the Pacific Northwest use their forests and rivers?
  • A.They built adobe pueblos
  • B.They herded cattle and horses
  • C.They built cedar plank houses and fished for salmon
3.Why did many Southwest peoples hold ceremonies for rain?
  • A.They wanted floods
  • B.Rain fell every day there
  • C.Rain was scarce and their crops depended on it
4.Before Europeans brought horses, how did Plains peoples hunt bison?
  • A.On horseback with rifles
  • B.From trains
  • C.On foot, sometimes driving herds over cliffs
5.Cahokia, near today's St. Louis, was a large city around the year 1100. Who built it?
  • A.Mississippian people
  • B.Spanish settlers
  • C.French fur traders
6.Which crop, first grown by people in Mexico, spread across much of North America?
  • A.Wheat
  • B.Corn, also called maize
  • C.Rice
7.What did the people of Cahokia build out of earth?
  • A.Stone castles with moats
  • B.Brick towers
  • C.Huge mounds, including Monks Mound
8.How did Ancestral Puebloans adapt to the dry Southwest?
  • A.They built igloos
  • B.They built homes in cliffs and stored water and crops
  • C.They fished for salmon in the ocean

LessonPrint · D2.Geo.4.3-5 · Set 13 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Life in North America Before 1492

Set 13. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.Loads on wooden frames called travois
  2. 2.They built cedar plank houses and fished for salmon
  3. 3.Rain was scarce and their crops depended on it
  4. 4.On foot, sometimes driving herds over cliffs
  5. 5.Mississippian people
  6. 6.Corn, also called maize
  7. 7.Huge mounds, including Monks Mound
  8. 8.They built homes in cliffs and stored water and crops

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to D2.Geo.4.3-5 of the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards.