Nebraska Studies
Nebraska Studies: African American Settlers
This presents an overview of African Americans moving and settling in the West.
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.
![Arts Now Learning: Moving Shapes [Pdf] Lesson Plan](https://static.lp.lexp.cloud/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Arts Now Learning: Moving Shapes [Pdf] Lesson Plan")
ArtsNow
Arts Now Learning: Moving Shapes [Pdf]
These activities will allow students to discover the concepts of geometry through shape exploration and the creation of choreographic sequences.
OpenStax
Open Stax: The Impact of Expansion on Chinese Immigrants and Hispanic Citizens
As white populations moved westward in the 19th century, Chinese immigrants and Hispanic Americans faced racism and discrimination and were unable to compete on an equal basis for land. Eventually, both groups settled into urban areas...
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Moving West, Natural Disasters
Assign reasons from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to explain pioneers' migration to and return from the American plains in the 1800s. Research, write and produce a newspaper dedicated to a natural disaster such as the 19th-century drought.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: The Difficult Journey [Pdf]
"The Difficult Journey" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about the hardships of a family of early settlers moving West in a wagon train. It is followed by constructed-response questions which require students to provide evidence...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: The Difficult Journey [Pdf]
"The Difficult Journey" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about the hardships of a family moving west in a wagon train. It is followed by constructed-response questions which require students to provide evidence from the story;...
Curated OER
Bureau of Land Management: Basic Facts About the Oregon Trail
Learn basic facts about the Oregon Trail and the early pioneers who used it in their move West.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Moving West
In this cross curricular lesson students will learn how to write a concept poem regarding an immigrant trail. Covered Wagons, Bumpy Trails by Verla Kay is a helpful tool, but not necessary to teach the lesson.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Native Resistance in the Trans Appalachian West
This site gives a brief look at the Indian alliance built by Tecumseh to confront the U.S. military which wanted to protect the settlers moving west into Indian territory.
Other
Postbellum African American Society and Culture: Black Migration
From the Encyclopedia of American Social History. Read about the black migration to the West, primarily Kansas and Oklahoma after the end of Reconstruction and the institution of black codes in the South.
Other
Colorado Historical Society: Kit Carson: A Hero in Fact and Fiction [Pdf]
A short biography of the legend of the West, Kit Carson. PDF (requires Adobe Reader).
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: Social Studies: Grade 4: Westward Expansion
This instructional task asks students to analyze the impact Westward Expansion had on the people and cultures of the American West.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: West Indian Manatee
West Indian manatees are big, slow-moving, gentle vegetarians. They live in warm, shallow water in coastal rivers, estuaries, and lagoons. Learn more about the Trichechus manatus, more commonly known as a West Indian Manatee, in this...
ArtsNow
Arts Now Learning: Moving With Mathematics [Pdf]
In this lesson, learners explore the concepts of fractions, percentages, and decimals by creating dances using locomotor and non-locomotor movements.
ArtsNow
Arts Now Learning: Moving With Fractions [Pdf]
In this lesson plan, 4th graders use movement phrases to model common fractions and decimal fractions with like denominators. They compare the fraction of locomotor and non-locomotor movements in a movement phrase. Students then create...
ArtsNow
Arts Now Learning: Moving Sound [Pdf]
In this lesson, 4th graders will use movement and dance composition to aid their comprehension of sound and sound waves.
Other
World Arts West: People Like Me: Dance Styles
This site creates a sort of Online Encyclopedia of World Dance which encompasses varying dance styles and dance cultures from around the world. Each dance style is linked to further information and dance move depictions.
Other
Trail of Tears Assoc: The Story Trail of Tears National Historic Trail
Follow the early history of Native American and European contact in America. As more settlers moved west, a law was passed to relocate the Cherokee from Arkansas. The routes they followed and the cruelties they suffered came to be known...
Alberta Online Encyclopedia
Alberta Online Encyclopedia: How the West Was Young
Alberta's early history is presented for students in this website covering pre-contact native people's history and fur trade exploration. Teachers looking to incorporate audio in organized lesson plans will like this website prepared by...
Civil War Home
Home of the American Civil War: The Wester Theater: The Opening Moves
From "Epic Battles of the Civil War, 1861-1865" comes this overview of the Main Western Theater in 1861 and 1862. Read about the struggle for Kentucky and the success of the Union at Ft. Henry and Ft. Donelson. Hyperlinks to battle...
New York Public Library
In Motion: African American Migration Experience: Western Migration: To Kansas
From the extensive site about African-American migrations, this part of the site focuses on Exodusters and African-Americans who moved to Kansas after the Civil War. Read first-person accounts and see photographs of these hardy...
Texas State Historical Association
Texas State Historical Association: The Frontier Forts of Texas
The system of frontier forts in Texas was established to protect Anglo settlers as well as those moving on westward. This article details the observations of Lt. Col. William Grigsby Freeman, who set out in 1853 to inspect a series of...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: America's History in the Making: Contested Territories
This site highlights the westward expansion of settlers in North America and the effects this expansion had on Native Americans between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.