Activities

Students will complete the westward Expansion [|Trackstar #295447]

Introduction: Students will have completed a unit on Lewis and Clark and have an understanding of the land west of the Mississippi River.

In the Beginning:


 * 1) Student will be giving new identities and made into families. Once their family groups are formed each family will have to decide their reason for heading west. Each family member will then write about their roles in the families and their reason for going west.
 * 2) Students will then through Trackstar learn about the kinds of transportation that the pioneers used when heading west. Students will learn about the money that their family has and the kinds of supplies that they will pack in their wagons. Again, students will record their experiences in their journals.
 * 3) Every day I will read 1or 2 fate cards. These fate cards reveal something that has happened to the families while on the wagon train. The families will have to then make a decision about their fate. their derision will impact their journey.
 * 4) Once a fate is revealed and the families have made their decisions on how to continue, students will write in their journals about the days experiences.
 * 5) Once a week the Westward Ho! Wagon Mistress holds an online chat. This chat happens with other classrooms around the world that are studying westward movement as well. This chat should be teacher directed and controlled. Students should not be allowed to chat on their own.
 * 6) Students will also learn how to square dance. At the end of the unit, the wagon train will celebrate by have a square dance!
 * 7) About one week after beginning this online collaborative project students will each begin their own nine piece quilt square. When all students have completed their square they will all be sewn together to make a classroom quilt.