Stories of America — Season 1, Episode 14: The Growers
Kids • 15 min • 1 season, 32 episodes
Episode synopsis
This episode explores how early American communities depended on farming and the people who worked the land. Through simple narration and reenactments, children learn about the crops settlers planted, the tools they used, and the teamwork required to raise enough food for families and towns. The program highlights the patience, skill, and determination of the growers whose labor helped sustain the colonies and shape the nation’s agricultural roots. Designed for classroom learning, it offers a clear look at the essential role farming played in America’s early development.
About Stories of America
The interconnectedness of all things is a fundamental part of reading motivation projects. Although GPN's Reading Rainbow claims to have invented that idea, Stories of America with host Ann McGregor got there first. It was 1976, America's bicentennial year, and WVIZ-TV of Cleveland wanted something more out of a series aimed at delivering American history, They decided to combine history with reading. The result was Stories of America. Hosting was the familiar face of Ann McGregor, who had enlivened Picture Book Park and Tilson's Bookshop some two years earlier. Stories of America resembled more of a story reading than a history lesson, but it also introduced other elements that became standard Reading Rainbow procedure. There were occasional film sequences, dramatizations, and even an animation. All told, the 32-part Stories of America series ran some 14 years on WVIZ-TV. The station brought the shows back in 1998, and it would be the only WVIZ instructional telev