Pioneer Life and Westward Expansion Activity and Research Project

Description

This resource is meant to be used in any number of creative ways to help your child/students organize their “research” about the era of pioneer life and Westward Expansion and then to create a project that showcases their most important learning. Photographs and explanations of how I used it are included, but use your judgment based on YOUR curriculum or the resources available to you.

Whether you use a textbook, resources from the library, videos, or online research—this resource should be open-ended enough for anyone to tailor it to their instructional needs. Please be mindful of the complex historical issues surrounding this time period and do your research so that you present this period in history with due attention to ALL the people involved. This was a complicated time in history–and it is often taught without the “ugly” side of the growth of our nation and its impact on those here first.

The first pages of this resource include some “note taking” sheets that students can use to organize their findings. They can certainly use a notebook or other tools as well, but I wanted my students to see that notes can be organized into categories, so I created the categories for them. I have also included a blank sheet in case you have other areas you want students to investigate and research.

The second group of pages include the different flaps needed to create the lap book pictured in the samples. Remember, you can use all of them or just some depending on your needs. I have also included several extra templates in case you wish to customize this project even more. Using interactive notebooks instead? Easy! Just use the templates in your notebook rather than create a separate project.

I hope you and your students enjoy the research process with this project!