118 Westward Expansion: Supplemental Guide PP | Pausing Point
Class Book: Westward Expansion
Materials: Drawing paper, drawing tools
Tell the class or a group of students that they are going to make
a class book to help them remember what they have learned
thus far in this domain. Have the students brainstorm important
information about the different ways pioneers traveled west,
Robert Fulton, Sequoyah, the Erie Canal, or the Trail of Tears. Have
each student choose one idea to draw a picture of and then write
a caption for the picture. Bind the pages to make a book to put
in the class library for students to read again and again. You may
choose to add more pages upon completion of the entire domain
before binding the book.
Another option is to create an ABC book where students
brainstorm domain-related words for each letter of the alphabet.Using a Map
Materials: U.S. map and Westward Expansion Map
Use a map of the United States to review various locations from
the read-alouds. Ask questions such as the following:- The Erie Canal was built during the 1800s to join the Hudson
River in New York to Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes. [Ask a
student to fi nd the state of New York on the map. Ask another
student to locate Lake Erie and the Hudson River.] - Westward expansion involved many people moving from the
East Coast to the West Coast of the United States. Remember,
coasts are areas of land near the ocean. [Ask a student to point
to the East and West Coasts on the map.] How many states are
along each of these coasts? Which coast has the most states? - The Trail of Tears involved the forced march of the Cherokee
from Georgia to present-day Oklahoma. [Ask a student to fi nd
the states of Georgia and Oklahoma on the map.]