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Chatham County Historical Association: Log Cabin Restoration Project

Visit the two log cabins that are being reconstructed by the Chatham Country Historical Association. Students will see how these structures were built and what life was like in the days of the pioneers.

Format: article/field trip opportunity

Living the pioneer life

In this lesson, students will use photographs of Appalachian log dwellings to understand how advances in technology, the desire to own land, and political incentives have resulted in economic and social changes over time for the people of North Carolina. The students will examine text and historical documents to assess the time period in which log cabin structures were built, the reasons for constructing them, and the lives of the people who built these houses.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 Social Studies)

By Sonna Jamerson.

Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Educational Center

This 4-H Educational Center provides year-round programming, including team-building and environmental education to students in 2nd through 6th grades.

Format: article/field trip opportunity

Alamance County Historical Museum

Learn about the history of Alamance County on a field trip to this museum.

Format: article/field trip opportunity

Academy Award winning actress Jane Darwell (left) and Home Demonstration pioneer Jane McKimmon

In this black and white photograph, North Carolina's first Home Demonstration State Agent Jane S. McKimmon is posing with Jane Darwell while in New York for the radio dramatization of her life story, “When We're Green We Grow,” on NBC’s

Format: image/photograph

Cherokee County Historical Museum

Students can see artifacts, books, papers, photographs, and other materials significant to the history, culture, and heritage of Cherokee County, NC.

Format: article/field trip opportunity

YMCA Camp Thunderbird

Provides environmental education programs to North and South Carolina K-12 students in bird study, fish dissection, orienteering and forest ecology.

Format: article/field trip opportunity

Western Carolina University Mountain Heritage Center

The Museum provides exhibitions and programs that illustrate many of the complex issues and concerns of Appalachia's diverse people and cultures. Students discover how history relates to their own lives as they explore the many themes relevant to western North Carolina's past, present, and future.

Format: article/field trip opportunity

Soil and erosion unit: Section 1

This two week unit will involve descriptive information on North Carolina soil types and how the presence of plants affects soil erosion. Upon completion of Section 1, you may continue to Section 2.

Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 Science)

By Amy Robertson.

Women in flight: Using music to study American women pioneers in flight

As North Carolina's 97-98 Christa McAuliffe Teaching Fellow, I designed this plan to musically enhance the 5th grade social studies of American heroes, focusing on women pioneers in flight. It is intended to utilize singing and rhythmic activities to compare and contrast the lives of Amelia Earhart and Christa McAuliffe. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to successfully complete a solo trans-Atlantic flight and tragically disappeared while attempting to fly around the world in 1937. Christa McAuliffe was selected for NASA's Teacher-in-Space program and tragically died in the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster. I traditionally use this plan close to the January 28 anniversary of the shuttle disaster.

Format: lesson plan (grade 5 Music Education and Social Studies)

By Robin Smathers.

The lost landscape of the Piedmont

In Prehistory, contact, and the Lost Colony, page 5.5

The Piedmont region of North Carolina is unrecognizable compared to the landscape of 400 years ago. Where man-made lakes now sit were huge bottomland forests. While pine trees accounted for only a small percentage of Piedmont acreage, they now dominate the region's forests -- a result of clearing hardwoods to create farmland. Other once-prominent landscapes include areas of grassland known as “Piedmont prairie,” and upland depression swamps where the clay soils often kept moisture on the land’s surface.

Format: article

William Byrd on the people and environment of North Carolina

In Colonial North Carolina, page 5.6

William Byrd II, a wealthy plantation owner from Virginia, was one of several men commissioned to survey the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina in 1728. His journals describe the people and environment of the region, though not all of his stories are believable. Includes historical commentary.

Format: diary

Commentary and sidebar notes by L. Maren Wood.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first inaugural address, 1933

Audio recording of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first inaugural address, delivered 4 March 1933.

Format: audio/speech

Resources on the web

Pioneer America: Pioneer living

In this ARTSEDGE lesson, students learn about what life was like for early American pioneers. After reading about pioneers in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie, students conduct independent research on one aspect of pioneer... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 Social Studies and Theater Arts Education)

Provided by:

Camp Silos

Provides educational material related to the natural prairie, pioneer farm life, early agricultural technology, and the story of corn from its early Indian origins to the present using virtual field trips, primary sources, and a variety of other multimedia... (Learn more)

Format: website/lesson plan

Provided by: Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area

Pioneer America: Journey west

Students learn about the early pioneers in America and their motivations for moving West. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–3 Social Studies)

Provided by: The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869

This site documents life for those pioneers heading west during the mid-1800's through primary source documents including, photographs, maps, illustrations, and guides for immigrants. (Learn more)

Format: website/general

Provided by: Library of Congress

From “Little House” to my house: Exploring history and family roles

In this lesson, students learn about historical fiction, memoirs, pioneer life in the United States, and family roles by reading a picture book adaptation of Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. After a read-aloud,... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade K–2 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

From forest to farm and back again

How did pioneer farmers manage the landscape? Students will examine, interpret, and analyze physical and cultural patterns of forest use and management over a 300-year period. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Social Studies)

Provided by: Forest History Society