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In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Americans were on the move. This kit looks at westward expansion beginning with the decision to cross the Appalachian Mountains into what was then the frontier. Through geography, role play and journaling students experience what it was like to settle in the lands bought by the Louisiana Purchase or gained from Mexico, or opened up by the discovery of gold in California. Patty Reed's Doll, the literature selection, tells the story of a child and her penny doll who were both survivors of the Donner Party. Along their overland journey with Patty Reed, students choose a route to California, and figure out what supplies they need for the journey. They map their journey labeling the Indian Territories they must pass through along various routes. Along the way students get to name the landmarks that dotted the trail from east to west. Students write their own folk songs, design advertisements for the items that every pioneer needs to keep their conestoga wagons well stocked, and send postcards from the rich and famous as well as the not so rich and famous. The major writing piece for this kit is a personal journal kept by each student with at least ten entries and some pictures. The cover and pages are cut in the shape of a conestoga wagon and students create their own shape books. Life skills taught in this kit are cooking over a campfire and expanding a recipe, churning and preserving butter, quilting, rug braiding, and playing marbles. |
