1. WORLD HISTORY READERS
Level 3-⑤
Benjamin Franklin

2. What was Benjamin Franklin’s early life like?
Benjamin Franklin was born in a very poor family, so he could not go to school for very long. He left school
early in order to work, but he still got an education. He learned from reading books.
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
Franklin loved reading and writing.

3. Making the World Better
Franklin was determined to improve the world around him, even his own life style.
He wanted to be seen as a good example to society.
He made a list of thirteen good habits (or virtues) that helped to improve his way of life. He focused on one of them each week until he was good at them all.
How did Franklin always try to do things better?
Some of the virtues from his list of 13 good habits:
Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions
The 6th Virtue: Industry
The 8th Virtue: Justice
The 10th Virtue: Cleanliness

4. How did Franklin share his ideas with others?
The Junto
How did Franklin share his ideas with others?
1. Franklin started a discussion group called the Junto that met weekly. The group talked about their ideas and discuss ways of improving the society they lived in.
“No gains without pains.”
“Fish and visitors stink after three days.”
2. Franklin also wrote many of his new ideas in a magazine he called Poor Richard’s Almanack which became very popular.
Some quotes from Poor Richard’s Almanack

5. America’s First Newspaper
What were some of the things Franklin started in the US?
Published America’s first national newspaper called The Pennsylvania Gazette
Started America’s first public library
Organized the first trained fire department in Philadelphia and helped start a police patrol around the city
Helped raise money to build the first hospital in America
Began a school, now known as the University of Pennsylvania
A political cartoon that appeared in The Pennsylvania Gazette, 1754
Pennsylvania Hospital
Certification for a fire company in Pennsylvania
America’s first public library

6. Franklin’s Inventions
What did Franklin invent?
As a young boy, Franklin made swim fins from wood.
He combined two types of eyeglasses to make one pair to see both near and far. Today they are known as bifocals.
He invented the Franklin stove, which improved the heating systems in houses by producing more heat and less smoke.
He made improvements to street lamps.
He even invented a musical instrument he called the “glass armonica.”
Swimming fins used by divers
The Franklin stove
Bifocals
The glass armonica

7. Electricity Did Franklin really fly a kite during a lightning storm?
Yes, he did! Franklin enjoyed experimenting with electricity. One day he attached some metal to a kite and flew it into a lightning storm. The kite attracted the lightning and proved that lightning was an electrical charge. This gave Franklin the idea for his favorite invention—the lightning rod.
Franklin studying electricity
What do lightning rods do?
Lightning rods are metal poles placed on the top of buildings to protect them from lightning.
A modern lightning rod

8. The First American Why do people call Franklin “the First American”?
The Declaration of Independence
Because Franklin was the only leading American who signed all four of the major documents that created America: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaties of Alliance, the Peace Treaty between Great Britain and the United States, and the Constitution of the United States.
Signing the Declaration of Independence
The 50 stars represent the 50 states of the USA,
and the 13 stripes represent the 13 British colonies that declared independence.

9. Isn’t Franklin’s picture used on money in the US?
The $100 bill
Isn’t Franklin’s picture used on money in the US?
Yes, it is. Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 dollar bill.

10. Vocabulary candle n. fin n.
wax with a piece of string in the middle of it that produces light as it slowly burns
fin n.
a type of large, flat shoe used for swimming, especially underwater

11. Vocabulary gazette n. kite n. a type of newspaper
a thin device flown in the wind on string

12. Vocabulary lightning n. patrol v.
a flash of electricity generated between clouds or a cloud and the ground during a storm
patrol v.
to go around an area to see if there is any trouble or danger

13. Vocabulary stove n. vegetarian adj.
something that you cook food on or heat a room with
vegetarian adj.
not eating or having any meat