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 21 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.Why did nations in different regions live in such different homes?
  • A.One ruler told them all what to build
  • B.Each used the materials and climate of its own land
  • C.They all lived in the same kind of home
2.Why did many Southwest peoples hold ceremonies for rain?
  • A.Rain was scarce and their crops depended on it
  • B.They wanted floods
  • C.Rain fell every day there
3.Which crop, first grown by people in Mexico, spread across much of North America?
  • A.Rice
  • B.Wheat
  • C.Corn, also called maize
4.How did Ancestral Puebloans adapt to the dry Southwest?
  • A.They built homes in cliffs and stored water and crops
  • B.They built igloos
  • C.They fished for salmon in the ocean
5.How did the Hohokam farm the desert of what is now Arizona?
  • A.They dug long canals to bring river water to their fields
  • B.They planted rice in swamps
  • C.They waited for snow
6.About how many people may have lived in Cahokia at its largest?
  • A.About 10 million
  • B.Perhaps 10,000 to 20,000
  • C.About 50
7.Cahokia, near today's St. Louis, was a large city around the year 1100. Who built it?
  • A.French fur traders
  • B.Mississippian people
  • C.Spanish settlers
8.How did peoples of the Pacific Northwest use their forests and rivers?
  • A.They built cedar plank houses and fished for salmon
  • B.They built adobe pueblos
  • C.They herded cattle and horses

LessonPrint · D2.Geo.4.3-5 · Set 21 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Life in North America Before 1492

Set 21. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.Each used the materials and climate of its own land
  2. 2.Rain was scarce and their crops depended on it
  3. 3.Corn, also called maize
  4. 4.They built homes in cliffs and stored water and crops
  5. 5.They dug long canals to bring river water to their fields
  6. 6.Perhaps 10,000 to 20,000
  7. 7.Mississippian people
  8. 8.They built cedar plank houses and fished for salmon

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