Oregon Trail Lessons

Time and Location

Activities

Materials

Assessment

day 1 classroom

Introduction.  View PowerPoint presentation:  Building New Lives in America 

 computer

PowerPoint

 question and answer session 
day 2 classroom Map work- create a landform and route of travel map, view travel routes taken by pioneers Oregon Trail Routes floor map of United States, desktop maps, art supplies map skills and observation
day 3-4 classroom/lab Essential question:  Why do people choose to move from one location to another? Oregon Trail WebQuest  record answer in unit journal, record 3 historical sites along the trail computers, journal journal entries
day 5 classroom/lab Essential question: What factors caused difficulty for the migrating people? Continue WebQuest from day 3.  Record answer in journal. computers, journal journal entries
day 6-7 classroom Decide on the supplies necessary to travel on the Trail using knowledge gained from WebQuest.  Record as a journal entry.

Students will create story problems pertaining to life on the Oregon Trail.

 paper and pencil journal entry

 

story problem rubric
day 8-12 classroom/lab Read from Sarah Plain and Tall.       

Life as a Pioneer: A WebQuest 

Links:  Pioneer Recipes     Pioneer Toys        Pioneer Music

 Sarah Plain and Tall, computers collection of WebQuest recipes, toys, and music
day 13 classroom Create books of collected information throughout the unit. assorted paper, art supplies checklist 
day 14 classroom/lab Culminating Activity: Life on the Trail.  Students share collection with the class.  Activity centers:  Create a pioneer toy, make a pioneer recipe, sing with pioneer songs. Listed in previous Culminating Activity page. completion of activities
Resources:  The following websites were used during the above lessons.  

 http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/Sites.html This site offers a great collection of interesting facts from historic sites to "weird wagons".

 http://teacher.scholastic.com/webquest/ushist/oregon.htm The start of a WebQuest to challenge and motivate your students!

http://www.muhlsd.berksiu.k12.pa.us/studweb/elementary/Lessons/Pioneer/armstrong.htm Students can research life as a pioneer using Sarah Plain and Tall as a guide.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/shober30.html Yummy recipes from "Mud Apples" to "Chuckwagon Beans"

http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/6400/toys.htm?tqskip=1 Find out what pioneer children did in their free time.

 

 TTL                       June 2002