Go West!
Journey Across the Oregon Trail
by Jen Crook
This multimedia adventure across the Oregon Trail includes a myriad of resources that help 4th grade students understand life on the Wild Frontier. Through art, photographs, music, and physical games, children still had many opportunities for entertainment...it just happened to be very different from our version of entertainment today.
Theater and Music
Oregon Trail: The Play
Without movies, iPads, cellphones, television, etc., children had to use their imaginations. Children would often create plays and perform for their friends and family.
Activity Idea: To enjoy both some history from the trail as well as an opportunity to act, students can organize and perform this play. The play can be found on page 74.
Image retrieved from the Library of Congress
Play retrieved from retrieved from the Bureau of Land Management National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
Activity Idea: To enjoy both some history from the trail as well as an opportunity to act, students can organize and perform this play. The play can be found on page 74.
Image retrieved from the Library of Congress
Play retrieved from retrieved from the Bureau of Land Management National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
Song Sheets
"For most of the nineteenth century, before the advent of phonograph and radio technologies, Americans learned the latest songs from printed song sheets" -
Activity Idea: Students could create their own song sheet after learning about the history from the Library of Congress website. Song sheets were only lyrics and often contained artwork.
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress American Singing Collection
Activity Idea: Students could create their own song sheet after learning about the history from the Library of Congress website. Song sheets were only lyrics and often contained artwork.
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress American Singing Collection
Wait for the Wagon
Pioneers were very talented and enjoyed singing and dancing. While dragging a piano across the plains didn't happen often, many people played the fiddle and other light-weight instruments for entertainment. Wait for the Wagon sheet music was just one of many found on the Library of Congress website.
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress
Music for the Campfire AUDIO
The Girl I Left Behind Me
Woodman, Spare that Tree
Old Rosin the Beau
Buffalo Gals
Activity Idea: Teach students the words to a few different songs. Try and imagine what life was like as a pioneer and how music broke the monotony of daily travel. Have students record in their Oregon Trail Notebooks how music might help them as they walked 2,000 miles.
Image retrieved from the Library of Congress
Audio retrieved from SoundCloud
Woodman, Spare that Tree
Old Rosin the Beau
Buffalo Gals
Activity Idea: Teach students the words to a few different songs. Try and imagine what life was like as a pioneer and how music broke the monotony of daily travel. Have students record in their Oregon Trail Notebooks how music might help them as they walked 2,000 miles.
Image retrieved from the Library of Congress
Audio retrieved from SoundCloud
Turkey in the Straw AUDIO
Turkey in the Straw
More Oregon Trail Music (audio only) on YouTube.
Activity Idea: Turn on this playlist in the background while students are working on a craft. This is a good way to expose them to music from this era.
Image and audio retrieved from the Library of Congress
More Oregon Trail Music (audio only) on YouTube.
Activity Idea: Turn on this playlist in the background while students are working on a craft. This is a good way to expose them to music from this era.
Image and audio retrieved from the Library of Congress
Music: Write your own Lyrics/Play the Recorder
Who doesn't love to take a familiar tune and write their own lyrics? This was a common thing to do with hours of boredom and walking on the Oregon Trail. Students can have fun in creating their own lyrics about life on the frontier with these familiar simple tunes as on pages 92-95.
Activity Idea: Students could easily learn to play many of these simple tunes on the recorder.
Image and link retrieved from the Bureau of Land Management National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
Activity Idea: Students could easily learn to play many of these simple tunes on the recorder.
Image and link retrieved from the Bureau of Land Management National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
Art and Advertisements
Advertisements
Many individuals dreamed of owning land and during the mid-1800's land was cheap and easy to obtain. There was no shortage of acreage in Iowa and Nebraska. It was common to see advertisements all along the Oregon Trial enticing emigrants to settle along the trail.
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress
Railroad Advertisement
If an individual could afford it, taking the train west was far simpler than traveling by wagon. The Missouri Pacific Railroad advertises for their railroad.
Activity Idea: Create an advertisement for travelers visiting a trading post.
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress
Activity Idea: Create an advertisement for travelers visiting a trading post.
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress
Covered Wagon History through Photographs
Photographs can tell us a lot about history. While cameras were scarce in the mid-19th century, they did exist. Photographs have a grand way of telling a story about events that may not have been written or detailed enough in description to explain.
Activity Idea: Have students choose one photograph from the linked website and write a 5 paragraph story about what might be happening in the photo.
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress
Activity Idea: Have students choose one photograph from the linked website and write a 5 paragraph story about what might be happening in the photo.
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress
Sketches
Cameras were available but not many people had the opportunity to own one. Instead of shooting a photograph with our cell phones, the pioneers relied on a paper and a pencil to record life on the trail. These were called drawings or sketches.
Activity Idea: Have students sketch their own surroundings or a particular event.. Encourage attention to detail so their sketch can tell a story about what is happening. Share with the class and allow classmates to try and guess the story.
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress
Activity Idea: Have students sketch their own surroundings or a particular event.. Encourage attention to detail so their sketch can tell a story about what is happening. Share with the class and allow classmates to try and guess the story.
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress
Quilting as an Art
Through out history, most women (rich and poor) sewed. It was the first skill women taught their daughters. Quilting requires good geometric design and was considered an art during that time. Because women so much time indoors in the winter, quilting was also a recreational and social activity as many women gathered to quilt together.
Students and teachers can learn more about the history of quilting HERE and HERE.
Activity Idea: Students may make their own quilt blocks and create a class quilt (pg. 71-72). This activity can also be part of a math/geometry unit.
Activity link retrieved from the Bureau of Land Management National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
Students and teachers can learn more about the history of quilting HERE and HERE.
Activity Idea: Students may make their own quilt blocks and create a class quilt (pg. 71-72). This activity can also be part of a math/geometry unit.
Activity link retrieved from the Bureau of Land Management National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
Dancing Etiquette
48 pages of amazing dancing etiquette and instructions. Instructions vary for different genre of music and dances.
Activity Idea: There are dozen of humorous rules that individuals had to practice when dancing. Give students a copy of the list and have them choose their top three. Have students share them on a Padlet with the rest of the class.
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress
Activity Idea: There are dozen of humorous rules that individuals had to practice when dancing. Give students a copy of the list and have them choose their top three. Have students share them on a Padlet with the rest of the class.
Image and link retrieved from the Library of Congress
Children's Games/Physical Education
Pioneer Games: Chain Tag
Games in the 19th century were very different from today.
Without video games and electronics, children had to use their imaginations and physical bodies to play.
Chain Tag was one of many popular outdoor games kids could play when not burdened down with chores or traveling along the trail.
Imaged obtained from the Great Glub Club.
Without video games and electronics, children had to use their imaginations and physical bodies to play.
Chain Tag was one of many popular outdoor games kids could play when not burdened down with chores or traveling along the trail.
Imaged obtained from the Great Glub Club.
Pioneer Games: Blind Man's Bluff
Blind Man's Bluff was another popular game that children played along the Oregon Trail as it only required a blind fold and a crowd of children.
Image obtained from Children's Birthday Games.
Image obtained from Children's Birthday Games.
Pioneer Games: Fox and Geese
Fox and Geese is a winter outdoor game that Pioneer children would play in the snow.
Imaged obtained from Human Kinetics.
Imaged obtained from Human Kinetics.
OREGON TRAIL OLD WEST JOURNEY
Pioneer Pride Dancing
Oregon Trail II Music - "Long, Long Ago" East Town Theme 2
References
- Audio Recordings Turkey in the Straw. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/item/afcreed000091/
- Books Dancing and prompting, etiquette and deportment of society and ball room. (1864). Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/resource/musdi.002.0?st=gallery
- Children's birthday games - Blind Man's Buff. (2011, July 6). Retrieved from https://birthdaycandles.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/childrens-birthday-games-blind-mans-buff/
- Early Settlement of North Dakota. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ndstudies.org/resources/activites/es/pioneer.html
- History of Quilts. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.quilting-in-america.com/History-of-Quilts.html
- Library of Congress Home | Library of Congress. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/
- Picnic games. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.greatgrubclub.com/picnic_games#.VRYlSUY2xNN
- Pioneer Quilts: A Comfort Through Hardship. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/pioneer.htm
- Teaching Cross-Country Skiing: Fox and Geese. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/fox-and-geese-creates-fun-while-learning
- The Oregon Trail: Education Resource Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.blm.gov/or/oregontrail/files/TBKS_opt.pdf
- Thorne, R. (2012, October 6). Oregon trail old west journey [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E7MJu34sQk
- Willow Springs. (2013, July 29). Pioneer pride dancing [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du7SxV0o6K8
- Yoshikarter1. (2011, February 20). Oregon trail II music - "Long, long ago" east town theme 2 [video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/M4pDXmysNyc?list=PLAE18021362A0EFBF