Curated OER
North Dakota Reading Comprehension
In this North Dakota reading comprehension activity, students read a 2-page selection regarding the state and then respond to 10 true or false questions.
Curated OER
Designing Your Inner Self
Students identify connections between various cultures and the symbolism used in them. Individually, they reflect on their own culture, beliefs and values and identify the symbolisms they use to show them. They discuss how their clothes...
Curated OER
Animals and the Food Webs that Love Them
Students study the animals that Lewis and Clark would have encountered. In this animals lesson students study the food web and how human populations have affected them.
Curated OER
Social Studies Review for Grade 4 (4.1)
In this social studies review for grade 4 (4.1) activity, 4th graders answer 25 multiple choice questions in standardized test format about U.S. history.
Curated OER
Wagons West
Students prepare to travel west. In this Westward Movement lesson plan, students participate in classroom activities that require them to prepare for a trip west as pioneers.
Curated OER
The Blackfeet of Glacier National Park
Students research an aspect of the Blackfeet tribe in Glacier National Park. They work together to create a presentation that is representative of their culture. They share their presentation with the class.
Curated OER
Nomad Land
Students explore the migratory movements of animals as they monitor their own movements throughout the school day. Climatic and feeding conditions are examined as cues for the movement.
Curated OER
At Home on the Prairie
Students discover the importance of the bison within the prairie ecosystem and Native American culture, and explain the importance of habitat and place to living organisms.
Curated OER
People for the Land: Native Americans in Iowa
Students identify Iowa's American Indian cultures and complete a research project for the topic. In this Iowa's American Indian instructional activity, students research read the background information about tribes in Iowa and complete a...
Curated OER
Cultural Collision
Students examine the culture of the Native Americans. As a class, they discuss the negative impact of the melting pot theory and how different cultures can be preserved today. In pairs, they practice saying Native American words and...
Curated OER
Oklahoma
In this geography instructional activity, students read a 2 page selection detailing the location, history and early statehood of Oklahoma. They answer 10 true or false questions based on the reading.
Curated OER
A Cowboy Song
Fifth graders sing "Cowboy Lullaby" with two-part harmony and discuss the text of the song.
Ibis Communications
Eye Witness to History: Buffalo Hunt, 1846
Before the European settlers almost wiped out the buffalo, there were huge herds roaming the Plains.The buffalo hunts by Native Americans were essential for the survival of the tribes, and were fine tuned challenges between man and...
PBS
Pbs: Nature: American Buffalo: Spirit of a Nation
Website that accompanies the PBS movie "American Buffalo: Spirit of a Nation." Offers information about the American buffalo and its struggles in the modern world. Also discusses the impact of national parks on buffalo.
Other
An Introduction to North America's Native People: Plains Culture Area
A wonderful website from Cabrillo College on the Plains Indians can be found here. It gives an in-depth historical overview, profiles of numerous Plains tribes, the significance of the horse, and great information on their culture and...
Other
All About Shoes: Paths Across the Plains: Traditional Footwear From Great Plains
Lesson plans for two different grade levels discussing the footwear of the Plains Indians and the information one can gather from common items to find out about a culture.
Other
Ethnological Museum: Native Americans of the Plains
Part of a larger exhibition about Native Americans, this page gives visitors an up-close look at the Hidatsa and the Mandan, Native Americans of the Plains. Viewable are a decorated a buffalo skin and color etchings of tribal chiefs...
Other
Trans Mississippi and International Exposition: The Arapaho Tribe
Provides general information on the Arapaho tribe, the buffalo hunters of the Great Plains.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Eastern Shoshone: Hide Painting of the Sun Dance
Painting on animal hides is a longstanding tradition of the Great Basin and Great Plains people of the United States. Painting, in tandem with oral traditions, functioned to record history.Cotsiogo, a member of the Eastern Shoshone...
PBS
Frontier House: The Extermination of the American Buffalo
The reign of the buffalo across the plains ended in great slaughter by the end of the 19th century. This companion essay to the PBS series, Frontier House, recounts how the decimation of the buffalo occurred, hastened by both white and...
BBC
Bbc: Nature Wildfacts: American Bison
Use this site to learn some amazing facts about the American Bison and their close brush with extinction.
Ibis Communications
Eye Witness to History: The Old West
This resource provides first-hand accounts and background information on the Old West. Content touches on crossing the plains, cowboys, train robberies, Dalton Gang's Last Raid, Custer's Last Stand, the Death of Billy the Kid, and much...
A&E Television
History.com: 10 Things You May Not Know About Sitting Bull
Get the facts about one of the most legendary Native Americans of the 19th century. Sitting Bull was born around 1831 into the Hunkpapa people, a Lakota Sioux tribe that roamed the Great Plains in what is now the Dakotas.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: Whose Land Is This? Webisode 8
From Joy Hakim's marvelous set of books, A History of US, this webisode offers narrative, pictures, and teaching guides for the settling of the West after the Civil War.