Go west: Imagining the Oregon Trail
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=277
A lesson plan for grade 5 Social Studies
A 2,000-mile trek across a continent — with no idea what awaits you on the other side. Tell your students to put on their traveling shoes and prepare for the journey of their lives! In this lesson from EDSITEment, students compare imagined travel experiences of their own with the actual experiences of 19th-century pioneers. After writing stories about contemporary cross-country journeys, students learn about the experiences of the emigrants who traveled on the Oregon Trail. They then create works of historical fiction in the form of picture books or letters, drawing upon the information they have learned.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
Social Studies (2003)
Grade 5
- Goal 1: The learner will apply key geographic concepts to the United States and other countries of North America.
- Objective 1.07: Analyze the past movement of people, goods, and ideas within and among the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America and compare it to movement today.
- Goal 3: The learner will examine the roles various ethnic groups have played in the development of the United States and its neighboring countries.
- Objective 3.02: Examine how changes in the movement of people, goods, and ideas have affected ways of living in the United States.
