Sixth graders work in small groups to organize a wagon train for a trek westward. They determine leadership responsibilities and rules needed to make a successful trek.

Students investigate the hardships related to pioneer life and the Wagon Train. They listen to an excerpt from the book "Little House on the Prairie," and discuss the hardships faced by pioneers travelling west. In small groups...

Students assume the personality of a pioneer on a wagon train and create daily journals.  In this journal writing lesson, students read excerpts from The Way West:  Journal of a Pioneer Woman.  Students use their imaginations to write...

Second graders read and summarize information about the wagon train. In this wagon train lesson, 2nd graders complete a wordle. Students use the word wagon make an original flipbook. Students write original short scripts to describe the...

You have just hit the lesson plan jackpot! This isn't just a instructional activity, it's a ten-day unit covering westward expansion, pioneer life, and the Oregon Trail. Activities include baking, model building, role-play, newspaper...

For this daily writing prompt worksheet, students learn that on this day in 1834 the first wagon train reached the state of California. Students respond to 3 questions.

Learners research through the internet, books, and other publications to find out about American frontier life. Through hands-on activities, projects, and presentations, students then decide if they would rather be a part of today's...

Fourth graders demonstrate knowledge of the size of a wagon by making several different predictions. They develop a list of items that pioneers would need while traveling on a wagon train.

Students use educational software to examine the hardships and problem solving skills needed by the pioneers as they endured frontier life. They work as teams while using the game simulation. They work a number of project while not on...

Students participate in an Oregon Trail simulation in order to learn the hardships that the emigrating settlers faced. In this U.S. history lesson, students are required to work as a team and use the internet to research a final...

Practice vocabulary related to the days of the pioneers, wagon trains, and sharp shooters like Bill Cody. Here you'll find 20 key terms that could fit easily into any lesson on pioneer life or westward expansion. 

Students practice active listening skills.  In this literacy and U.S. history instructional activity, students predict the hardships pioneers using the Mormon Trail might have faced. Students view the movie "Children of the Wagon Train,"...

From Michael O. Tunnell's book Mailing May, a bank of six words related to train travel, packing, and shipping is the center of a one-page vocabulary worksheet. First learners write the correct word from the bank to match each of four...

Students explore westward movement through eyes of doll belonging to Patty Reed, member of Donner Party. They write journal entries from points of view of characters in book, Patty Reed's Doll, participate in Pack the Wagon game, and...

In this U.S. history lesson plan, 1st graders study the westward expansion movement of the mid-1800's. Students use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast a modern road trip to the methods of travel in the days of the wagon trains....

Students analyze and describe the contributions of various dance artists, performers, teachers, and choreographers. In this dance lesson, students fill in any gaps of knowledge they have in regards to dance training and choreographic...

Students read map symbols for transportation, specifically canals, railroads, and highways.

Did you know horsepower is actually based on the power of a horse? 60 horse power is the equivalent of being pulled by a team of 60 horses! Viewers will learn other interesting facts like this from a presentation that begins with the...

Fourth graders explain the unique experience of pioneer studenT education on the trail. They invent ways to provide schooling to pioneer students while they were on the trail.

“The doors were nailed up; the way back was finally cut off. The world was a cattle wagon hermetically sealed.” Hermetically, pestilential, and deportation are among the words on a list of vocabulary drawn from Elie Wiesel’s Night....

Students investigate what life on the Oregon Trail was like. In this Westward Movement instructional activity, students eat foods that were eaten by settlers on the trail as they read textbook pages about the trial. Students then draw an...

Students listen to the song, The Wheels on the Bus. Instead of a bus, students attempt to sing the song using a different mode of transportation.

Youngsters take a look at methods of transportation in Colorado during the 19th and 20th centuries. They look at how transportation in cities changed during these times, and how transportation affected the way Coloradans lived. They use...

Reading about history is nothing like experiencing it firsthand. Encourage your eighth graders to do the next best thing with a historical narrative prompt, in which they describe the experience of a first-time traveler on the...