This issue of "The Goldfinch," an Iowa history magazine for children, focuses on issues relating to housing. Articles address such subjects as homelessness, neighborhood history, architecture, and local folklore. One student activity is the "Building Blocks" game that calls upon students to fill in blanks to complete words from…

This theme issue explores the changes in Iowa's environment. When Native Americans lived in Iowa hundreds of years ago, the land was rich in tall grasslands, fertile soil, wildlife, wetlands, and unpolluted waters. When European-American pioneers settled Iowa in 1833, they changed the environment in order to survive. The first article in this…