Skip to main content

America: The Story of Us ~ Episode 3: "Westward 2" Lesson Plans

As stated in my last post in this series, Episode 3 had so much information that I just felt that we should break it up into two separate units. Today's installment contains the lesson plans for Episode 3: "Westward 2". We spent three weeks on this unit.

It might be beneficial to your student to have them rewatch Episode 3 and review the vocabulary and episode discussion questions to get them started.


We continued to read The Captain's Dog by Roland Smith (we still had a few chapters left).


Then we moved on to what has been our favorite read of the year ... The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.


Surprisingly, I had never read this book. It was a hoot! A word of warning, however. I think I have mentioned that I read our historical novel to Dawson each morning. For us it's a good way to start our day, it keeps me involved in what he is studying, it gives us loads of conversation topics, and I just happen to believe our kids are never too old to be read to. He loves it and so do I. That being said, this is a tiresome book for an oral reader! There are SO many different dialects ... very unnatural dialects ... that need to be read to give the piece justice. There were times my tongue was so tied that Dawson just laughed. There were even times I had to take a break because my brain and tongue were tired! But it was so worth it!!!


All "notebooking pages" are printed from Advanced World History Vol. 2 from Hold that Thought!

All "America's Heritage" references are materials printed from America's Heritage: An Adventure in Liberty by The American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc.

Dawson also does Internet research to help him obtain information for his note booking pages. He is required to write 8-9 sentences since he is in the 9th grade.


We did the following activities:

* The Battle of Alamo notebooking page
* Looked at photos from our vacation to The Alamo in 2005
* California Gold Rush notebooking page
* Photo analysis of "The Trail of Tears"
* Trail of Tears map study and cause and effect study
* Field trip to Cherokee Heritage Center and Trail of Tears Museum in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (the site where the Trail of Tears ended)
* Steamboat invention notebooking page


Books Read (maybe not the whole book, but reading through it for notebooking pages and general information):

The Battle of Alamo by Rod Espinosa
California Gold Rush - an interactive history adventure by Elizabeth Raum
The Trail of Tears by R. Conrad Stein
Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi by Cheryl Harness
Young Abe Lincoln by Cheryl Harness


Videos Watched:

"Remember the Alamo" (checked out from the library)
"We Shall Remain" a production of An American Experience, PBS

** These lesson plans were based on planning for an American History course for a 9th grade boy. I allow some activities to be under his grade level and some to be above in order to give him a fun, exciting, and well-rounded understanding of the materials.



Previous Lesson Plans Posted:
Lesson 1 ~ (Episode 1) Rebels
Lesson 2 ~ (Episode 2) Revolution
Lesson 3 ~ (Episode 3) Westward 1

Comments

  1. I am enjoying this series so much and so in awe of you!! Great job!! I love Huck Finn too - he is a funny fellow!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

We all know that in this crazy world of homeschooling, we need all the (adult) support we can get. Please leave a comment if you so wish!

Popular posts from this blog

A Thomas Jefferson Education "This Week in History" ~ Schoolhouse Review

Talk about a GOLD MINE! A Thomas Jefferson Education's This Week in History by Rachel DeMille is her "labor of love" ... and I absolutely LOVE it! " This Week in History is a daily resource that brings your home school or classroom to life." For just $9.99 per month, you can log onto TJEd.com and click the "This Week in History" link to obtain many, many, many resources tied to specific events that occurred in the upcoming week in history. Or even better, you can receive the summaries and links to ALL resources right in your email Inbox each week! It doesn't get any easier than that! What does this really look like in real life? Each week, I receive an email from Rachel DeMille that sets out each date of the coming week. Under the date, there are listed anywhere from one to several events that occurred in history on that date. THEN there are ALL kinds of things to do related to that event, such as books to read, websites to visit, ac...

ABCya

Eli's reading resource teacher shared a website with me yesterday that I would like to pass along. It's called ABCya . There are separate educational sections with fantastic games for ages kindergarten through 5th grade. I browsed the 2nd grade level, and it includes age-appropriate games about Letters, Numbers, Shapes, Geometry, Patterns, Mouse Manipulation, Art and Holiday games. There are lots and lots of fun and creative games for children to play. They are fun, but oh, so educational. Eli's favorite, in his short time playing it, was Create a Car . A lot of the games also have Apps available for purchase (99 cents for most of them) for the iPad and iPhone. I have been looking for another free website for games similar to Starfall , for some time. I think I have found it. I can feel confident having Eli and Brynne play these games.

Cells ~ It's What's for Dinner

Dawson made edible cells on Friday. He made an animal cell pizza ... and a plant cell chocolate chip cookie ... He reviewed what he's learned about cells the past two weeks, and I had dinner made by someone else. Win, win!! I am linking up at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.