Picturing Early America

Amazing Race West Westward Expansion

Debra Norby Custer County School District #1

Westcliffe, Colorado

Amazing Race West Westward Expansion

Amazing Race West Guiding Questions

Students will make connections to the Westward Expansion Movement through

journal entries and activities. ?What motivated the people of the East to

move West? ? What problems were encountered by the

pioneers? ?How was the the Westward Expansion successful, how was it not successful?

Amazing Race Pre-assess/Set-up

  Pre-assessment is Pit Stop #1.   Set-up- each student will be given an

identity as a pioneer, name and status.   Task Cards = Activity and/or Visual Image

Analysis for each pit stop.   Fast Forward = Assessment for each

activity.   Road Block = Extension or extra credit.

Amazing Race History-in-a Box

  Object: Look at the element marked # 1. -For one minute, look at it without saying

anything. -Go around the group and give your ideas as to what it is.

Amazing Race West History-in-a-Box

  Document Look at the element marked #2. -Can you read it? Can you find words? -What does it say? -Are there any titles, captions, bylines that would

help you figure out what this is? -What do the 2 elements have in common?

Amazing Race West History-in-a-Box

  Visual Image Look at the element marked #3. -Use your Visual Image Analysis sheet to guide your

wagon train. -What do the 3 elements have in common? Discuss the Visual Image Sheet with whole class. World Café Connections! Use chart paper and have students write words used in

this lesson, rotate groups, and have them make connections between words.

Amazing Race West Visual Image Analysis

Amazing Race Visual Image Analysis

  1. Observation   2. Inference   3. Questions   4. Synthesize   Complete the analysis of the Visual Image,

discuss with your fellow pioneers.

Pit Stop #1

John Gast, American Progress, 1872.

Pit Stop 1 Why go West young man?

  History in a Box -Object- Wagon Wheel plan -Document- Song - “I Will Go West” -Visual Image- “American Progress”

Pit Stop 1 Why Go West Young Man??

Task-Language Arts •  Students will use guiding questions to help them

make inferences to the topic of the unit. •  Students will keep track of the “Western Words

(Vocabulary)” on a large sheet of paper. •  World Café- Students will make connections

between the words by walking around to the various groups.

  Additional Vocabulary   Fast Forward-Knowing what you know…If you

lived back then…would you go West?

Pit Stop #2

Pit Stop #2 Where are we?

  History in a Box -Object: Sacagawea Silver Dollar -Document: Letter of Meriwether Lewis -Visual Image: Map of the Louisiana

Purchase

Pit Stop #2 Where are we?

Task: Geography   Students will complete the Analysis Reports for the

History in a box.   Activity: Using compasses, in teams of two, students

will guide each other to a predetermined spot.   Fast Forward: Students will explain using a diagram of

the Louisiana Purchase (provided), how they would explore the West.

Pit Stop #3

Harvey Dun. Newell Converse Wyeth, Sacagawea with

Lewis and Clark, 19th Century, Private Collection.

Pit Stop #3 Are we there yet?

  History in a Box -Object: Sod

-Document: Homestead Act -Visual Image: Wyeth Lithograph,

“Sacagawea with Lewis and Clark”

Pit Stop #3 Are we there yet?

Task: Language Arts: Writing   Students will complete Pit Stop using a discussion

format. Each group will report out findings and inferences about their connections in the history boxes.

  Using the Homestead Act each student will complete a “Found Poetry” project.

  Fast Forward: What would you look for to find a homestead? In your journal create a picture of what you would want your homestead to look like? Include items you would need to survive.

Pit Stop #4 Letters Home

Emanuel Leutze, Westward the Course of Empire, 1861

Pit Stop #4 Letters Home

  History in a box -Object: Quill feather

-Document: Journal Entry from Meriwether Lewis

-Visual Image: Emanuel Leutze, “Westward Course of Empire”

Pit Stop #4 Letters Home

Task: Art   Students will look at journals and journal entries of

Lewis and Clark.   Students will create use a marbleizing technique

using shaving cream, liquid watercolor and plastic containers. The marbleized paper will be attached to cardboard to create covers.

  Students will create their own journals   Fast Forward: Using the Quill and Leutze’s

painting write a letter home using some aspect of the image.

Pit Stop#5 Wagons Ho

  Visual Image

Unknown, Jumping Off.

Pit Stop #5 Wagon Ho

  History in a Box -Object: Sugar or molasses -Document: Manifest from a Wagon Train -Visual Image: Wagons Moving West???

Pit Stop #5 Wagons Ho Task: Math

  Students will be given a scenario of a family in the wagon train. They will need to convert the amount of people to the amount of supplies necessary to survive the trip to Colorado.

  Students will need to convert the amount of supplies into the livestock they will need to make the journey.

  Fast Forward: Make a list of items necessary with a total amount of pounds that will be in your wagon.

Pit Stop #6

George Catlin, Mah-to-toh-pa,1861/1869, National Gallery

Pit Stop #6 Native Americans

  History in a Box -Object: a journal with drawings -Document: Catlin’s account -Visual Image: Catlin’s “Mah-toh-to-pa”

Source: Book: Susanna Reich, “Painting the Wild Frontier, The Art and Adventures of George Catlin, 2007.

Pit Stop #6 Native Americans

Task: Social Studies

  Students will look at Winter Counts on the website.

  Fast Forward: They will be given the challenge to determine one important event from history and one from their personal life during their pioneer life. Student will create a Winter Count Story.

Pit Stop #7

Avard Fairbanks, Esther Morris, Capitol Building, Cheyenne, WY

Hy Mayer, Awakening, 1915, LOC

Pit Stop #7 You Have the Right to Vote!

  History in a Box -Object: ballot -Document: Wyoming Suffrage Act of 1869 -Visual Image: Mayer’s“Awakening”

Pit Stop #7 You Have the Right to Vote! Task: Social Studies/Music

  After reading the book “When Esther Morris Headed West,” they will consider why women got the right to vote and debate the voting age.

  Students will listen to Suffragettes Songs.   Fast Forward: Students will write a

persuasive song for kids’ voting rights.

Pit Stop #8

J. J. Audubon, Golden Eagle, 1833, Birds of America

Pit Stop #8 Fauna

  History in a Box -Object: bird skull -Document: journal entry from Audubon -Visual Image: Audubon’s Golden Eagle

Pit Stop #8 Fauna

Task: Science   Investigate the fauna (birds) found going

across to the West.   Make Audubon-like pictures of birds that

pioneers would have seen in the 19th century that are extinct today.

  Fast Forward: Habitat requirements and drawing for chosen bird.

Pit Stop #9

  Charles Russell, “Waiting for the Chinook, 1896.

Pit Stop #9 Survivor

  History in a box -Object: Gravestone Rubbings -Document: Letters from the Oregon Trail,

American Memory -Visual Image: Russell, “Waiting for the

Chinook”

Pit Stop #9 Survivor

Task: Math and Art   Students will read letters from American Memory from a

person with same role. Determinations will be made as to whether they survive the journey.

  Students will consider their journey west and make determinations as to who survived (percentages).

  With a partner, students will create a poster that supports a position of whether to go West or not.

  Fast Forward: Write a persuasive piece convincing your relatives to either come “West” or “stay put.”

Pit Stop #10

Harvey Dunn, The Prairie is My Garden, 1950, South Dakota Art Museum.

Pit Stop #10 Day by Day

  History in a Box -Object: Pictures of inside a soddie -Document: List of contents from pioneer

house -Visual Image: Dunn’s “The Prairie is My

Garden”

Pit Stop #10 Day by Day Task: Art

  Students will research typical work and play done by pioneer boys and girls.

  Using implements from pioneer times, students will create a historical painting.

  Fast Forward: Students will play a game played in pioneer times with their wagon party (directions will be oral). In their journal, they create their own game and provide instructions (step by step).

Road Blocks   Extensions Ideas -write a letter using calligraphy -create a diorama of your home -write a play using your westward trip as your setting -make a craft or toy from the period -make a model of a Conestoga wagon -give trip ticks for other travelers-”Immigrant’s

Guide to the West”

Amazing Race We made it!

Celebration of our Efforts What should we eat?

  Chuck Wagon Simulation   Prizes- Sacagawea Dollars -Highest Rubric Score -Best Art Project -Best Journal Entry

Amazing Race West Post-Assessment-Rubric

Sample Category 4 3 2 1 total

All projects

Creativity

Mechanics

Effort

Road Block

Art Work

Amazing Race West Happy Trails to You!

Sangre de Cristos Mountains

Home On The Range.webloc