middleusforyoung

//Latest Update: 4/4/11 (dead links updated)// = = = Middle U.S. History for Young and Middle Students =

This year covered the movement west all the way through the turn-of-the-century World’s Fair, roughly all of the 1800s.

We started the year with a fun game, a simulation of the Oregon Trail. I set up stations along a long path we have through the woods so that the kids could pretend to be going along the Oregon Trail (some years later, many of these same kids created a more sophisticated version of this game to share with other homeschoolers). I asked the kids to come dressed as pioneers for the day and gave them each a small notebook for their “journal.”

One of the other moms created an introductory activity that helped kids get together their “supplies” for their trip. She gave them an overview of what types of things they would need for the trail ([|Tips for Traveling the Trail.doc]). She also gave them a list of “general store” supplies ([|General Supply Store Price List.doc]). They needed to match up how much money they had with what they needed and how much weight they wanted to carry.

In the meantime, I had created stops for the Oregon Trail all over the yard and around our trail. I was acting a “trail leader” so I knew which stops to go to when. At each stop I tacked an envelope on a tree and inside it was pictures of the “places” we were at and sometimes pictures of what they might see at this place. I also had some little notes about what had happened to them along the trail or what happened at this spot. Included, too, were little stickers I’d made for each stop (printed pictures on blank sticker paper). They were to write in their journal about each spot and then place a sticker to remember it by.

See this schedule for what was at each stop: ([|Oregon Trail Game.doc]) Pictures used are in these two files, though you may find better ones on the Internet to use ([|oregontrail1.pdf], [|oregontrail2.pdf]). The map they got is ([|otmap.jpg]) with some hand markings of some more landmarks on it (which I got off other Internet site maps) and then crinkled up to make it look old-ish.



WESTWARD MOVEMENT:

This unit covered reasons why and methods people use to go west just before the Civil War. We covered Lewis and Clark, canals, railroads, the Gold Rush in California, the Mexican-American War and the general growth of the United States. We used the ITV series, //Tracks: Impressions of America// for several of the topics.

An activity we used for the earlier days of moving west was the creation of the good, old-fashioned salt dough topographical map. I gave the kids a fairly nicely illustrated map and asked them to create their own map (on a piece of paper on cardboard backing, in the shape of the U.S.) and to draw in the Oregon Trail. As we learned about other things, we added other features, like canals and railroads. As I talked with them about Lewis & Clark’s trip, we put that on the map too.

We were lucky in central Virginia to have many places to go for field trips during this section. We combined a trip to downtown Richmond to visit the Tredegar Iron Works (which was Civil War history we covered later) and the Canal Walk. The canal is nicely restored in this section so the kids could have a feel for how a canal worked. In conjunction with learning about canals, I taught the kids the good old standby, “Low Bridge, Everybody Down (The Erie Canal)” ([] for lyrics; [] for music and history of the song)

We covered the Gold Rush in California and looked at how there were a lot of different people who came to California, not just Americans from the East. Using some primary sources for the “Too Funny For Words” lesson plan cited below, we talked about how life changed for many people, about how some people’s expectations didn’t “pan out” and about how the Gold Rush encouraged more westward movement for the U.S.

We also looked at how the idea of “manifest destiny” became part of the United States’ identity. Using pictures from various artists from the west showing beautiful, wide-open vistas, we talked about how people felt that the United States should have that land. In covering that we also talked about things that enabled people to move west at this time, including the pony express, telegraph lines, steamboats, and railroads. I read to them the speech from Chief Seattle about “Where is the Eagle Gone?” We also covered very briefly the Mexican-American War and how that impacted a large population in the current southwestern U.S. So we looked at westward expansion for the U.S. and how that affected the other peoples involved.

I assigned all the kids to do reports on the Presidents from Andrew Jackson to James Buchanan. These reports, which were short biographical reports focusing on what they did as President, were sprinkled throughout the unit. The kids did a great job on these reports and it helped keep me from talking all the time.

Because I wanted to expose the kids to American literature from this time period, I created a kind of scavenger hunt. They had to identify several “Mystery Authors” ([|Mystery Author.doc]) by answering riddles to find the clues’ locations. At each stop, there were several facts about the author and samples of their writings. I also had a chart of the authors to use ([|authors_pre-war2.doc]). We also talked about American Tall Tales.

CIVIL WAR:

Again, we were lucky to have several places to visit. The Tredegar Ironworks gave us a program on life in the Civil War, the Virginia Historical Society had a program on the Civil War Soldier, the Valentine Museum had a program on slave life in a southern town, and the Pamplin Park for the Civil War Soldier had a wonderful exhibit about soldiers and a neat program about camp life.



We started out the unit, however, by going over the Underground Railroad. We had several stations set up for the kids. One was a VCR to play an excerpt from an ITV series on the Harriet Tubman (can use US That’s Us! Or Early Americans in History). Another station was a computer set to a RealAudio presentation of “Follow the Drinking Gourd” ([]). Another was connected to the National Geographic website that simulated escaping on the Underground Railroad, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/j1.html At another station I had a children’s book about escaping slaves and quilts, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (Deborah Hopkinson).

After they had received all the information, I showed them a map of the middle United States and how slaves followed the rivers to head up north to escape. I then had them create their own “quilt” together, each one giving some part of the directions (which I gave them: [|quilt map.doc]). While we did this, I played a few of the spirituals that were instructions for the slaves (“Wade in the Water,” “Go Down, Moses” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”). Finally, the kids acted out a play called Plantation Trouble: (this has since disappeared but can be found at the Wayback Machine: [])

To explore a little of the life during the Civil War time, we learned about how cameras were just beginning to be used and created our own pinhole cameras ([] has one set of instructions--there are plenty others out on the web if you'd prefer something else). We also used a bright light and big pieces of black construction paper to create silhouettes of each other. We made taffy and had a taffy pull, then ate period food we’d all brought to share. We visited a local park at a Civil War home that had been used as a hospital during the war.



Before we actually started going over the history of the Civil War itself, I asked the kids to think about what they already knew about this time period and about things they would either like to know about or like to know more about. From their list, I created the next few sessions. Each student took certain topics to investigate and share information about during the unit (they could do this in creative ways and not in an exhaustive way—for instance the report on prisons took the form of a diary), and they also were to put information about those topics on a timeline we created just for the Civil War (with different areas in different colors, i.e., soldier’s life was purple, civilian life was blue, arts was pink, technology was red, etc.). I still pulled together information on the topics, so that I could fill in gaps and put things in a bigger context as needed. And I also covered the major battles of the war, showing them on a map so they could follow how things went for both sides ([|civilwarbattles.doc])

So these are the topics we covered, but other groups will have different topics based on their own interests: Day 1: Soldiers and War Who did not fight? Flags Blue and Grey (soldier uniforms) Camp Life Why was this the first modern war

Day 2: Information Can Change Everything Spies Cartoonists and Reporters

Day 3: Life Goes On, If Differently Music Entertainment Art During the War

Day 4: The Economic Side of War Factories vs. King Cotton Ironworks and other factories Ironclads and the Navy Black Troops

Day 5: How Do We Know What We Know About the War? Diaries on daily life Photographers Various important folks, like Frederick Douglas and Clara Barton

Day 6: Coming Out of a Nightmare Prisons and Hospitals What was going on elsewhere (Western US and rest of World) End of war and what that meant Booth and what he did

WILD WEST This was a very quick unit. We discussed how this was really a very short part of our history, but a very large part of our “mythology.” We looked at cattle drives ([|rufmap.gif]), outlaws, and how the coming of barbed wire changed everything.

We also covered how people were coming from all over the world to settle in the West. To that end, we pretended to be different families going to different parts of the West from different parts of the world.

First, we were German immigrants settling in South Dakota around 1880 or so. We were very family oriented and wanted to have our own farm. We started with a sod house near a railroad stop, then helped to build the town nearby (I talked about how towns grew in certain predictable ways). I printed out paper templates for buildings of a typical western settlement town and the kids created their own town, named Amber Town.



Reference Web sites: A Pioneer Town: []

Second: We were former slaves from the deep south, with no family. Escaping from a life of near-serfdom under the tenant farmer system and the terror of persecution by some whites, we leave to head west, looking for work where we can find it. We find it in Texas on a cattle drive heading to Abilene, KS-a wild wild western town. It's 1868. (NOTE: The date is actually a little off. 1867-1873 were probably the biggest years for cattle drives, but the tenant farmer system didn't really get started until the federal troops pulled out of the south in 1877, so the reason we went west probably wasn't particularly valid. However, I wanted to bring up that part of the south's history, in a mild but forceful way, so I glossed the dates over a bit to make the scenario a part of our story!)

Reference Web Sites: General Wild West Stuff: [|http://www.kidinfo.com/American_History/Pioneers.html] Tales and Trails of the Old West: [|http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WE-Trails.html] Black Cowboys: [|http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/bkcwboy2.htm]

Third: We were Irish immigrants in 1870, newly arrived in America heading west to join our relatives in the booming city of Chicago. We took the menial jobs available to our class, working hard to gain a home of our own. We survived the Great Fire of 1871 and, in later years, were even able to enjoy a night every once in a while at the wonderful new Opera House, where we could see the latest Gilbert and Sullivan operetta.

The Chicago Fire (Web of Memory Site): [] - especially Chicago As It Was, An Essay by Sara Jane Clarke Lippencott: http://www.chicagohs.org/fire/prefire/chicago.html and Alexander Hesler Climbs the Courthouse, a panoramic view of Chicago: [] and Before and After Photos: [] Gilbert and Sullivan Home Page:[| http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/#gas] (follow link to The Gilbert and Sullivan Operas, then the link to the //Pirates of Penzance//; on that page, the Libretto can be looked at and/or printed to help in following the movie) (we watched the 1983 movie with Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt). We put on our own "wild west show."



GILDED AGE and AGE OF REFORM: For the Gilded Age, I asked the kids to create their own museum to tell us about the life and times. I gave them some information and pictures and asked them to decide what was important to show and how they might show it. After they had created their various displays (they worked in twos), they then gave the adults (and other teams) a tour of their section. The information I provided was about: Architecture [|architecture.pdf], Authors & Children’s Books [|authors.pdf], [|childrensbooks.pdf], Artists [|artists.pdf], Composers (they got a CD player and a few CDs with period music also) [|composers.pdf] and Technology [|technology.pdf].

For the Age of Reform, I created cards of various reformers and what they had done ([|reformers.pdf]). I dealt out the cards to the different kids who sat in a circle. Then we started with one student, who read their entry. We taped it onto the floor in front of the students and asked if anyone had a movement or person that was probably concerned with something that was related. As kids read off these cards, we taped strings of yarn between the related cards. When no one had a related cause, we started a new round. Cards that were already taped down could be connected by yarn to new causes as well. By the time we finished we had a huge web of yarn, demonstrating how many of the movements helped, or were impacted, by the others.



For our last meeting of the year and to wrap up the 1800s, we held a Turn of the Century World’s Fair, where everyone dressed up as something or someone who was important at the end of the 1800s ([|Ideas.doc]). We had fun presenting who we were to each other and then enjoying our last class for the year!

Extra Resources: OREGON TRAIL: The Oregon Trail: [|http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/Jumpingoff.html] The Overland Trail (a clickable map): [|http://www.over-land.com/otmap.html] The Oregon Trail Guidebook: [] Provisions for the Trail: [] Songs (.wav files): [] Emigrant Road: [|http://www.emigrantroad.com/contents.html] Oregon Trail Illustrations (by artists of the time): [|http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/OREGON/illus.html] Oregon Trail supply list: []

WESTWARD MOVEMENT: PBS’ Lewis and Clark: [] Lewis & Clark Bicentennial: [] PBS’ Wayback Gold Rush: [] Too Funny For Words Lesson Plan: [] Land of Golden Dreams: [] Census/Gold Rush Town Lesson Plan: [] Lure of the West artwork: [] American Landscape painting: [] Where is the Eagle Gone speech: [] Growth of U.S. (Animation) [|http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20081216162749/http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/48states.html] (Wayback Machine version) Tall Tales: [|http://www.ga.k12.pa.us/academics/LS/4/la/4r/talltale/introres.htm] C&O Canal Virtual Tour: [|http://www.mcmullans.org/canal/] Central Pacific Railroad: [|http://cprr.org/Museum/index.html] How the West was Sung (a fun site about traveling west by three different means): [|http://library.thinkquest.org/10353/] Mexican-American War overview (good background): [|http://www.rice.edu/armadillo/Past/Book/Part2/1846-48.html]

CIVIL WAR: Underground Railroad RolePlay: [|http://people.virginia.edu/~pm6f/Day1.html] Underground Railroad Historic sites: [|http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/underground/] Harriet Tubman: [|http://www.pocanticohills.org/tubman/tubman.html] Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt lesson plan: [] Freedom Quilts: [] Map of Routes of the Underground Railroad: [|http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/tubman/map.htm] Women in the Civil War: [] Civil War in Richmond: [] Civil War Music: [] Civil War (great lesson ideas): [] Timeline of the Civil War: [] Civil War Chronology: [] The Civil War Thinkquest: [] Civil War Potpourri (lots of little bits of information): [] Civil War Cookbook: [] Civil War food: []

EXPANSION: Outline of American History, Chapter 7 (a really nice set of background readings): [|http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/H/1994/chap7.htm] A large collection of information: [] A Day in the Life of a Pioneer: [] Pioneer Games, Toys and Songs Webquest: [] PBS’ The West site with biographies: [|http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/] Making it On Their Own: Women in the West: [|http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/westweb/pages/women.html] Immigrants: They Came to America: [|http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/activity/theycame/] Immigrants (using primary sources) Worksheet: [] The Immigrant Experience: []

GILDED AGE and AGE OF REFORM: Arts and Literature: [] Victorian Station (arts and literature): [] The Gilded Age artists: [] Works of John Philips Sousa: [] Documents from Gilded Age authors: [] Railroad Barons: [] Web sites for the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (lists of links): [] Time Travel Guide to the 1870s: [] America in the 1890s: [] American Inventors: []