Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Heading West: Learn About a Pioneer's Life

For Teachers 2nd Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about what life was like for pioneers. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
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Other

Images Canada Picturing Canadian Culture

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource contains 150 images, which provide a glimpse into pioneer life, during the late 18th and early 20th century, in the Canadian West. Each photograph is complete with a description.
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Other

At Home in the Heartland: At Home on the Fringes of the Prairie (1800 1850)

For Students 3rd - 5th
Interactive site offers information and pictures pertaining to early pioneer life. See advertisements in the paper, furniture, glassware, and food preparation tools. Read stories of individuals who lived during that time and make...
Unit Plan
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Illinois Pioneers and Prairies [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th
"Illinois Pioneers and Prairies" is a one page, nonfiction, reading passage about life in the prairies of Illinois for the early settlers including their hard work, setting up governments, building schools, and making laws. It is...
Lesson Plan
Orca Book Publishers

Orca Book Publishers: Max and Ellie Books Teaching Guide [Pdf]

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
The Ellie and Max books by Becky Citra take place in pioneer times and follow the experiences of a brother and sister in Upper Canada. This teacher's guide includes a book summary, teaching ideas and the author's reflections on writing...
Whiteboard
ClassFlow

Class Flow: Read About Pioneers

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart contains a lot of information to read and learn about the ways of the Pioneers. It also gives opportunity to learn new vocabulary.
eBook
Other

Kansas Collection Books: Emigrant Life in Kansas

For Students 9th - 10th
This site is a textual copy of a book written by an Englishman, Percy G. Ebbutt entitled Emigrant Life in Kansas, published in 1886. The book focuses on a young man's experiences on the prairie in Kansas. Written for an English audience.
Unit Plan
Cengage Learning

An Introduction to the Life and Writings of Willa Cather

For Students 9th - 10th
This website is an attempt to give a comprehensive introduction to Cather's (1873-1947 CE) life and work. Aside from an introduction to the body of work, it includes a short biography, an extensive bibliography, an overview of the...
Website
Virtual Museum of Canada

Virtual Museum of Canada: Community Stories: One Man's History in Wood: The John Mc Crea Collection

For Students 9th - 10th
Explore this collection of models created by artisan John McNeely. The exhibit features furnishings, homes, and buildings used by Ontario pioneers. Excellent annotations accompany each artifact.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

National Park Service: Adeline Hornbeck and the Homestead Act

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This Teaching with Historic Places lesson effectively depicts the life of a pioneer woman and ways in which the Homestead Act impacted her life. The site includes lesson plans, inquiry questions, and photos that may be used in covering...
Interactive
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: Texas Ranch House

For Students 3rd - 8th
What was it like to be a cowboy in 1867? Visit the Cooke Ranch and explore a cowboy's working and dwelling quarters. Play the interactive games to learn about the many aspects of daily life in the American West. (Click "Interactive...
Graphic
Curated OER

York Region District School Board: Pioneer Life in Upper Canada: Settlement

For Students Pre-K - 1st
In 1800 most of the 35,000 pioneers in Upper Canada lived on farms. This map shows where the earliest pioneers settled.
Graphic
Curated OER

York Region District School Bd: Pioneer Life in Upper Canada: Doctors Office

For Students Pre-K - 1st
In pioneer days the doctor's office would be in a special room at his house. Learn about the remedies pioneers would use if they did not have a village doctor. Then try the herbal remedy matching exercise.
Graphic
Curated OER

York Region District School Board: Pioneer Life in Upper Canada: Water

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Pioneers usually settled near rivers or lakes as the waterways were their highways. Find out about their methods of travel.
Graphic
Curated OER

York Region District School Board: Pioneer Life in Upper Canada: Water

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Pioneers usually settled near rivers or lakes as the waterways were their highways. Find out about their methods of travel.
Graphic
Curated OER

York Region District School Board: Pioneer Life in Upper Canada: Saw Mill

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Do you know what a "buck" is? Learn about the saw mill in pioneer times and this important tool.
Website
Scholastic

Scholastic: Bring Hispanic Heritage Month to Life: A Collection of Resources

For Students Pre-K - 1st
Celebrate diversity with this collection of ideas to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, including lesson plans, authors, pioneers, and more.
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Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Our Story: Life in a Sod House

For Students 3rd - 8th
Imagine moving into a house made out of sod that you and your family had to build in the middle of a prairie! Find great information and activities that will help you understand how it felt to live on the prairie.
Website
Other

Agriculture in the Classroom Sask: Early Days: Homesteaders

For Students 2nd - 8th
A broad view of life as a pioneer or homesteader in the prairie lands of the United States or Canada in the 19th century. Learn about the work and play of pioneer families, and how their towns developed.
eBook
Open Library of the Internet Archive

Open Library: The Story of the Life of Abraham Lincoln

For Students 9th - 10th
This ebook version of William Makepeace Thayer's The Pioneer Boy, And How He Became President: The Story Of The Life Of Abraham Lincoln has been made available in multiple formats by the Open Library. Editions of the full novel,...
Unit Plan
Other

Connie Brummel Crook: 'The Hungry Year' Teaching Guide [Pdf]

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
"The Hungry Year", an historical novel by Connie Brummel Crook, begins in 1787 and is set in what is now Ontario. It follows the life of a Loyalist pioneer family that has fled into Canada. This teacher's guide has a book summary,...
Unit Plan
Other

Connie Brummel Crook: 'The Perilous Year' Teaching Guide [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
"The Perilous Year", an historical novel by Connie Brummel Crook, begins in 1793 and is set in what is now Ontario. It follows the life of two brothers into adulthood. This teacher's guide has a book summary, chapter discussion guides...
Lesson Plan
Orca Book Publishers

Orca Book Publishers: Strawberry Moon Teaching Guide [Pdf]

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Strawberry Moon, a novel by Becky Citra, continues to follow the life of Ellie, a young girl living in Upper Canada in the 1830s. In this story, her strict grandmother has come to take her back to England and Ellie doesn't want to go....
Website
Digital History

Digital History: Pioneers

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the pioneers that migrated West and see what drove some of them to seek a new way of life.

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