Oregon Trail Obsession

Hey everyone!

The Oregon Trail has got to be my absolute favorite unit to teach. The last two years, my students say that's their favorite unit, and I think it's because I totally put my heart and soul into bringing it alive. I have to thank my 4th grade teachers Mrs. Weber and Mrs. Sweet for making the Oregon Trail so memorable for me, that same passion and dedication is what I want to give to my students.

I get dressed for it, use real photos of present day places on the trail (thanks Mom and Dad!), and really get my kids involved.

You can see what I did last year here and the year before here.

I'll do mostly the same stuff again, with the maps, pioneer journals, making butter, etc. I absolutely loved that last year we went to Philip Foster Farm and my kids showed off their knowledge of the Oregon Trail.

This summer I've been reading these books and thinking about how I want to incorporate them this year. I think these will be read alouds, or at least 1 or 2 of them.

Do you teach the Oregon Trail or Westward Expansion? What do you like to incorporate in your lessons? Leave a comment below!

0

Teaching About The Oregon Trail

Hey everyone!

I'm getting ready to wrap up my favorite social studies unit in 4th grade, the Oregon Trail and Oregon history.

Last year I wrote a few blog posts about what I did to start the unit , how I  used realia , and how we had a few fun days of making butter and playing pioneer games.

I'm going to fill in the rest of the gaps right now and give you a basic outline of what I do with my class.

The first thing I did was send out a KWL in my Google Classroom for my students to fill out. Then I show them some posters about heading to Oregon, the land of milk and honey. The land where pigs are roasted and running around with forks in them. I tell them this is the propaganda told to pioneers to get them out west.

 The next day is when I hook them in to my unit by setting up shop and at each table,  they work as a "wagon" to choose supplies with a weight and money constraint. I feel that this day sets the whole mood for the unit, so I go all out. There is fiddle music, I wear a bonnet and apron, I've got a table with realia and supplies. They also decide who is on the wagon train council and who is the wagon master. They vote and everything!

Our next day, they set up a journal and pick out a pioneer name. I put up a list of pioneer names I found and they put it on the front of their journal.

 I do a quick slideshow about Independence, Missouri and why people are leaving.


I have a map of our journey.

We only have social studies four days a week, so a typical week will have us at a landmark 1-2 times, fate day, and then some sort of research or activity.

Landmarks include: Ft. Laramie, Chimney Rock, Independence Rock, Ft. Bridger, Ft. Hall, Soda Springs,  and the Whitman Mission. There are some others I could definitely include. Right after the landmark slideshow and/or video, they write in their pioneer journals. They write about what they saw, how they felt, and what they did at that landmark. At Independence Rock, they "carved" their names into the rock. At one of the forts, they get new supplies to finish the trail.

The second to last day of the unit, they decide whether to go on the Columbia River or go over Barlow Pass. Students research the pros and cons of each decision and decide as a wagon, not as a wagon train, how they will travel. Then it's fate time and they roll a dice to see what happens. The last day, for those that made it, there is a celebration in Oregon City.

Activities done: Compare and contrast with pioneer children typical day, pioneer game day, Oregon Trail game day (I found it on a DOS website and also there is a card game!), butter making day, wagon making, pioneer quilt day (they make quilts out of construction paper). We also do this unit during December, so I have them make snowflakes right before winter break and talk about other things pioneer kids did to decorate their homes.

I thoroughly enjoy this unit and I think it comes through to my students because they get so excited at social studies time. My vice principal seems to visit me during this time a lot too, so I think he enjoys it as well.

Let me know if there is anything else you want to know specifically or more details on a certain part of my unit. I hope this helps those of you teaching or gives you an idea to include in your classroom!

0

Oregon Trail: Our Journey Begins

Hey everyone!

We began our journey on the Oregon Trail and my kiddos have loved it from the first minute. It makes me thrilled that we expanded this unit into January and give a bigger amount of time of how our state was really developed from this big moment.

Now I love getting into character, especially at the start of any new social studies or science unit. This lent itself beautifully for me; pioneers are a topic I have been obsessed with since I was a little girl. I even dressed up as Laura Ingalls one Halloween.

I started this unit last week. We had Monday off for teacher in-service and Tuesday, the kids learned about Oregon Trail propaganda. I tried to entice them with the "land of milk and honey" poster and a "cooked pigs run free" stuff, but they wouldn't fall for it. They couldn't believe some people headed to Oregon just because of those posters!

They came in Wednesday morning to see me dressed in a bonnet and apron and my trading post ready to go. Toss in some fiddle music in the background, a southern accent (yes I know we started in Missouri and they don't have that accent, but it was about being a different character!) They called me ma'am and I called them sir and ma'am and we had fun. That was until they were told they were at my trading post to go to the Oregon Trail and they now had 20 minutes to decide in wagons (table groups) what to spend their $1,000 on and that it had to be 2,400 pounds or less. 

Intense discussion and agreements going on. Each table/wagon was so into it!

I loved the math talks I heard going on, "Six people with 30 pounds each is 180 pounds. We can afford it too."

This wagon group finished early, so they taped out an approximate size of the wagon, 4 x 10. "Hey Ms. T, that's an area of 40 sq ft.!" Oh a little more math in social studies? Oh yeah!

Sitting in the wagon is a popular thing now in the last week lol.

We're an IB school so I like having it laid all out there for them and myself to refer too. 

Our first key question actually got us talking about the migration happening in Germany right now with refugees.

 The next day they came into class and we had this map and wagon ready to go.

Then on Friday we picked pioneer names and got journals/diaries ready to go. They were so excited!

They loved my pioneer name and journal.

 Yesterday was the best though. We had a wagon council meeting, because on Monday, fates hit them hard. We had sick oxen, fire problems, and some food issues already. I rolled some construction paper, cute flames, threw in some electric tealights and my assistant wrapped tissue boxes in paper for rocks/bricks.

Turn off the lights, put on fiddle music, and project the prairie and it was a fabulous meeting. The pic above has the kids warming their hands :)   We discussed our wagon train business, decided to set up camp for the night, I read by lantern a few pages from an Oregon Trail book, and our time was up already!

I can't wait for the rest of journey to unfold and will definitely keep you posted as we travel along the Oregon Trail!

3