5th Grade Westward Movement Project

     

    It is 1860 and you have gone West to find a new life in the gold fields, or in the mountains hunting and trapping, or as a farmer with a promise of free land for the taking. 

    Write a letter home to one of the people listed in the table below in the format you choose for the purpose you choose as if you were one of the people in the first column. You must think carefully to choose which purpose, person to write to, and format best fits your new identity. 

    There is a selection of graphic organizers available to use for taking notes on information found on the websites that you will find below. The Trails West website describes the trails that you might take to go west and there is a link on the main page to a timeline of events covering the time of westward expansion. The websites have information about being on the trail, and living as a farmer, a cattleman, a gold miner or a mountain man.  

     

     

    Your Role  Chose Who  to Write to  Choose a Form of writing  Topic  Message 
    Cattle Rancher Wife Letter Western To be
    Gold Miner Child Diary entry Settlement decided by
    Farmer Employer Letter of Resignation   the information
    Mountain Man Newspaper Readers Editorial   you find in
      Banker Request for loan   your research.
      Parents      

     

     

    Your research will tell you what you will be telling your relatives, asking for from your banker, or informing people about in a newspaper. There are examples of actual letters home and diary entries on  the websites. There is alink to a booklist on the main page so that you can check out fiction or nonfiction books that describe this period of history. 

     You will gather your information in the media center, the classroom, and at home. Your teacher will let you know when this assignment is due so keep track of your notes and store them in your binder. 

     

    Website Links

     

    Wagon and Cattle Trails 

       

    Lewis and Clark                        http://www.lewis-clark.org/ 

                                        http://www.edgate.com/lewisandclark/ 

                                                     http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/ Interactive Journey 

    http://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/videos#lewis--clark-expedition-charts-new-   territory video clips 

       

    Oregon Trail                 http://www.isu.edu/%7Etrinmich/Oregontrail.html 

     

    Oregon Trail Interactive Map – find places the settlers passed on their way  to Oregon and California   

       Click on the map to make it larger.   

    http://www.nps.gov/pwr/customcf/apps/maps/showmap.cfm?alphacode=oreg&parkname=Oregon%20National%20Historic%20Trail   

     

    Chislom Trail                 http://www.thechisholmtrail.com/ 

     

     Santa Fe Trail-                    find places the settlers passed through on their way to Santa Fe in New Mexico territory.   

        http://www.nps.gov/safe/historyculture/map-timeline-intro.htm   

    http://www.santafetrailks.com/   

                                        http://www.santafetrailresearch.com/ 

        

    Bozeman Trail               http://www.bozemantrail.org/index.html 

    http://www.philkearny.vcn.com/bozemantrailhistory.htm 

    Mormon Trail                http://www.nps.gov/mopi/historyculture/index.htm   

    Pony Express                 http://www.ponyexpress.org/history 

                                         http://www.officialponyexpress.org/index_files/Page860.htm 

     

     Cowboys  

    National Park Service http://nps.gov/archive/grko/cowboys.htm 

    PBS, The West  http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/five/cowboys.htm  

    Cattlemen reporting back in letters http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott/Subjects/cattle.htm  

     Chuck Wagons- feeding the cowboys http://www.phudpucker.com/bluebonn/chuck%20wagon.htm 

    Cowboys from the state of Oklahoma http://www.otrd.state.ok.us/StudentGuide/cowboys.html 

     

     

    The 49ers- Gold and Silver Miners  

       Gold Rush                  http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/gold_home/home.html 

      Historic Highway 49   http://www.historichwy49.com/goldrush.html  

      How Stuff Works http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/westward-expansion-in-america.htm 

      Californian Pioneers   http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbintro.html 

      Women Settlers to California  http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist5/foremoms.html  

     

    Mountain Men 

    Beaver Hats- part of the western economy        http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/program/episodes/two/hats.htm 

    Jedediah Smith- History Channel                      http://www.history.com/topics/jedediah-smith 

    Fur Trappers                                                    http://www.mountainsofstone.com/fur_trappers.htm  

     

    Farmers 

    Farmers from the National Park Service http://www.nps.gov/archive/jeff/farmers.html  

    Pioneers from How Stuff Works           http://history.howstuffworks.com/american-history/westward-expansion-in-america.htm  

    Letters of Oblinger Family from Smithsonian’s American Memory exhibit http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/nbhihtml/aboutoblinger.html  

    Pioneers from ThinkQuest  http://library.thinkquest.org/J001587/?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0313 Look at "Hardships" 

    A Day in the Life History Game from PBS http://pbskids.org/stantonanthony/day_in_life.html 

     

    Railroads       

    California State Railroad Museum         http://www.csrmf.org/doc.asp?id=276  

    PBS on the Transcontinental Railroad   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tcrr/ 

    The Iron Road                                      http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/iron/ 

    Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum http://cprr.org/ 

    The Iron Horse -                                  http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/E/ironhorse/ironhorse11.htm                        

     

    General Sites 

    The West-The people  http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/ Look up real people alphabetically by last name 

    Westward Movement http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/westward.html 

    Africans in America on PBS- Expansion of slavery into the West http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4narr4.html 

    Westward movement websites from PBS http://www.besthistorysites.net/USHistory_WestwardExpansion.shtml  

    Primary Resource Pack from Library of Congress  http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/westward/