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Teacher's Guide for APPLESEEDS Growing Up on the Oregon TrailThis guide was prepared by our staff. Ask students what they already know about the Oregon Trail from reading books, watching TV programs or videos, surfing the Internet, and write these prior-knowledge comments on the blackboard or an easel pad. Using the map on pages 8-9, ask students to find the Oregon Trail on a (wall) map of the United States. Ask them to find the address of Independence, MO, using latitude and longitude lines. If one degree of latitude equals 69 miles, ask students if they can determine the distance from Springfield, MO (or any other city you choose) to Independence. In addition to the math activity on page 19 and the brain teaser on page 30, you will find some varied teaching ideas for activities by visiting the University of Florida site http://www.coe.ufl.edu/faculty/lamme/project/frontier/ssfrontier.html and http://www.eduplace.com/ss/act/oregon.html. "Pack Your Wagon" (pages 13-15). After reading the article, have students list the items their family packs just to go on a weekend trip. How many of these items would have made it into the wagon? Ask them to compare a meal on the Trail to a present-day picnic. Compare the nutritional value. From reading the issue and any other materials you have available in the classroom, have students write down a typical day in their life in one column and what they feel their day would have been like as a child traveling the Oregon Trail in another column. Ask children to contrast how household jobs are being done today vs. in pioneer days. For instance, cooking a meal; doing dishes; going grocery shopping; cleaning your room. Ask about their favorite pastimes and games - how do they differ from what pioneer children did? Push-Pull chart Ask students (working individually or in groups) to compare the similarities/differences in the motives of people leaving their homes on the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, the and Mormon Trail. Bring in the Trail of Tears and the trail of families having to leave their homes in various parts of the globe more recently because of economic, political, or religious pressures. If applicable, invite a recent immigrant to this country to share his/her reasons with the class. Ask students to write a letter to a friend or a relative describing what they have learned about the Oregon Trail. |
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