Grade 2 Read-Aloud

Westward Expansion: Supplemental Guide DR | Domain Review 209

Riddles for Core Content

Ask students riddles such as the following to review core content:

• I am the route between Missouri and the Oregon Territory that
  was traveled by settlers moving west. What am I called? (the
  Oregon Trail)


• I am the overland route between Missouri and California created
  to send mail on horseback from the East Coast to the West
  Coast. What am I called? (the Pony Express route)


• I am the animal that the Lakota considered their source of life.
  What am I? (bison)


• We are forms of transportation that pioneers used to travel from
  the East Coast to the West. What are we? (horses, covered
  wagons, steamboats, trains)


• I am the nickname given to the fi rst trains in America. What am I
  called? (“iron horse”)


• I am the railroad that connects the East Coast and West Coast
  of the United States. What am I? (transcontinental railroad)

Writing Prompts

Students may be given an additional writing prompt such as the

following:

• Communication has certainly changed since the time of
  westward expansion. Today for communication, I use...


• The most diffi cult thing about traveling on the Oregon Trail would
  be...


• I wish I could have been a Pony Express rider because...


• Pretend your family was moving west in the late 1800s. How
  would you persuade them to take the transcontinental railroad
  rather than a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail?


• The Lakota Sioux thought bison were sacred because...