Picturing Early America
Amazing Race West
Westward Expansion
Debra Norby
Custer County School District #1
Westcliffe, Colorado
Amazing Race West
Westward Expansion
Amazing Race West
Guiding Questions
Students will make connections to the
Westward Expansion Movement through
journal entries and activities.
?What motivated the people of the East to
move West?
? What problems were encountered by the
pioneers?
?How was the the Westward Expansion
successful, how was it not successful?
Amazing Race
Pre-assess/Set-up
 Pre-assessment is Pit Stop #1.
 Set-up- each student will be given an
identity as a pioneer, name and status.
 Task Cards = Activity and/or Visual Image
Analysis for each pit stop.
 Fast Forward = Assessment for each
activity.
 Road Block = Extension or extra credit.
Amazing Race
History-in-a Box
 Object:
Look at the element marked # 1.
-For one minute, look at it without saying
anything.
-Go around the group and give your ideas
as to what it is.
Amazing Race West
History-in-a-Box
 Document
Look at the element marked #2.
-Can you read it? Can you find words?
-What does it say?
-Are there any titles, captions, bylines that would
help you figure out what this is?
-What do the 2 elements have in common?
Amazing Race West
History-in-a-Box
 Visual Image
Look at the element marked #3.
-Use your Visual Image Analysis sheet to guide your
wagon train.
-What do the 3 elements have in common?
Discuss the Visual Image Sheet with whole class.
World Café Connections!
Use chart paper and have students write words used in
this lesson, rotate groups, and have them make
connections between words.
Amazing Race West
Visual Image Analysis
Amazing Race
Visual Image Analysis





1. Observation
2. Inference
3. Questions
4. Synthesize
Complete the analysis of the Visual Image,
discuss with your fellow pioneers.
Pit Stop #1
John Gast, American Progress, 1872.
Pit Stop 1
Why go West young man?
 History in a Box
-Object- Wagon Wheel plan
-Document- Song - “I Will Go West”
-Visual Image- “American Progress”
Pit Stop 1
Why Go West Young Man??
Task-Language Arts
• Students will use guiding questions to help them
make inferences to the topic of the unit.
• Students will keep track of the “Western Words
(Vocabulary)” on a large sheet of paper.
• World Café- Students will make connections
between the words by walking around to the various
groups.
 Additional Vocabulary
 Fast Forward-Knowing what you know…If you
lived back then…would you go West?
Pit Stop #2
Pit Stop #2
Where are we?
 History in a Box
-Object: Sacagawea Silver Dollar
-Document: Letter of Meriwether Lewis
-Visual Image: Map of the Louisiana
Purchase
Pit Stop #2
Where are we?
Task: Geography
 Students will complete the Analysis Reports for the
History in a box.
 Activity: Using compasses, in teams of two, students
will guide each other to a predetermined spot.
 Fast Forward: Students will explain using a diagram of
the Louisiana Purchase (provided), how they would
explore the West.
Pit Stop #3
Newell Converse Wyeth, Sacagawea with
Lewis and Clark,
19th Century,
Private
Harvey
Dun.
Collection.
Pit Stop #3
Are we there yet?
 History in a Box
-Object: Sod
-Document: Homestead Act
-Visual Image: Wyeth Lithograph,
“Sacagawea with Lewis and Clark”
Pit Stop #3
Are we there yet?
Task: Language Arts: Writing
 Students will complete Pit Stop using a discussion
format. Each group will report out findings and
inferences about their connections in the history
boxes.
 Using the Homestead Act each student will
complete a “Found Poetry” project.
 Fast Forward: What would you look for to find a
homestead? In your journal create a picture of
what you would want your homestead to look
like? Include items you would need to survive.
Pit Stop #4
Letters Home
Emanuel Leutze, Westward the Course of Empire, 1861
Pit Stop #4
Letters Home
 History in a box
-Object: Quill feather
-Document: Journal Entry from
Meriwether Lewis
-Visual Image: Emanuel Leutze,
“Westward Course of Empire”
Pit Stop #4
Letters Home
Task: Art
 Students will look at journals and journal entries of
Lewis and Clark.
 Students will create use a marbleizing technique
using shaving cream, liquid watercolor and plastic
containers. The marbleized paper will be attached
to cardboard to create covers.
 Students will create their own journals
 Fast Forward: Using the Quill and Leutze’s
painting write a letter home using some aspect of
the image.
Pit Stop#5
Wagons Ho
 Visual Image
Unknown, Jumping Off.
Pit Stop #5
Wagon Ho
 History in a Box
-Object: Sugar or molasses
-Document: Manifest from a Wagon Train
-Visual Image: Wagons Moving West???
Pit Stop #5
Wagons Ho
Task: Math
 Students will be given a scenario of a family in the
wagon train. They will need to convert the
amount of people to the amount of supplies
necessary to survive the trip to Colorado.
 Students will need to convert the amount of
supplies into the livestock they will need to make
the journey.
 Fast Forward: Make a list of items necessary with
a total amount of pounds that will be in your
wagon.
Pit Stop #6
George Catlin, Mah-to-toh-pa,1861/1869, National Gallery
Pit Stop #6
Native Americans
 History in a Box
-Object: a journal with drawings
-Document: Catlin’s account
-Visual Image: Catlin’s “Mah-toh-to-pa”
Source: Book: Susanna Reich, “Painting the
Wild Frontier, The Art and Adventures of
George Catlin, 2007.
Pit Stop #6
Native Americans
Task: Social Studies
 Students will look at Winter Counts on the
website.
 Fast Forward: They will be given the
challenge to determine one important
event from history and one from their
personal life during their pioneer life.
Student will create a Winter Count Story.
Pit Stop #7
Hy Mayer, Awakening, 1915, LOC
Avard Fairbanks, Esther Morris, Capitol Building, Cheyenne, WY
Pit Stop #7
You Have the Right to Vote!
 History in a Box
-Object: ballot
-Document: Wyoming Suffrage Act of 1869
-Visual Image: Mayer’s“Awakening”
Pit Stop #7
You Have the Right to Vote!
Task: Social Studies/Music
 After reading the book “When Esther
Morris Headed West,” they will consider
why women got the right to vote and debate
the voting age.
 Students will listen to Suffragettes Songs.
 Fast Forward: Students will write a
persuasive song for kids’ voting rights.
Pit Stop #8
J. J. Audubon, Golden Eagle, 1833, Birds of America
Pit Stop #8
Fauna
 History in a Box
-Object: bird skull
-Document: journal entry from Audubon
-Visual Image: Audubon’s Golden Eagle
Pit Stop #8
Fauna
Task: Science
 Investigate the fauna (birds) found going
across to the West.
 Make Audubon-like pictures of birds that
pioneers would have seen in the 19th
century that are extinct today.
 Fast Forward: Habitat requirements and
drawing for chosen bird.
Pit Stop #9
 Charles Russell, “Waiting for the Chinook, 1896.
Pit Stop #9
Survivor
 History in a box
-Object: Gravestone Rubbings
-Document: Letters from the Oregon Trail,
American Memory
-Visual Image: Russell, “Waiting for the
Chinook”
Pit Stop #9
Survivor
Task: Math and Art
 Students will read letters from American Memory from a
person with same role. Determinations will be made as
to whether they survive the journey.
 Students will consider their journey west and make
determinations as to who survived (percentages).
 With a partner, students will create a poster that supports
a position of whether to go West or not.
 Fast Forward: Write a persuasive piece convincing your
relatives to either come “West” or “stay put.”
Pit Stop #10
Harvey Dunn, The Prairie is My Garden, 1950,
South Dakota Art Museum.
Pit Stop #10
Day by Day
 History in a Box
-Object: Pictures of inside a soddie
-Document: List of contents from pioneer
house
-Visual Image: Dunn’s “The Prairie is My
Garden”
Pit Stop #10
Day by Day
Task: Art
 Students will research typical work and play done
by pioneer boys and girls.
 Using implements from pioneer times, students
will create a historical painting.
 Fast Forward: Students will play a game played in
pioneer times with their wagon party (directions
will be oral). In their journal, they create their
own game and provide instructions (step by step).
Road Blocks
 Extensions Ideas
-write a letter using calligraphy
-create a diorama of your home
-write a play using your westward trip as your setting
-make a craft or toy from the period
-make a model of a Conestoga wagon
-give trip ticks for other travelers-”Immigrant’s
Guide to the West”
Amazing Race
We made it!
Celebration of our Efforts
What should we eat?
 Chuck Wagon Simulation
 Prizes- Sacagawea Dollars
-Highest Rubric Score
-Best Art Project
-Best Journal Entry
Amazing Race West
Post-Assessment-Rubric
Sample
Category
All projects
Creativity
Mechanics
Effort
Road Block
Art Work
4
3
2
1
total
Amazing Race West
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