Grade Level 2
Lesson Title: Our Ancestors’ Journeys
Suggested Time Period: 1 week
Framework/Standards Connection and Geography Theme/Standards:
2.1 Students differentiate between those things that happened long ago and yesterday by:
1. tracing the history of a family through the use of primary and secondary sources
including artifacts, photographs, interviews, and documents
2.2 Students demonstrate map skills by describing the absolute and relative locations of
people, places, and environments by:
3. locating on a map where their ancestors live(d), describing when their family
moved to the local community, and describing how and why they made the their trip
Geography Theme:
Movement
Focus Question(s):
1. How did my family ancestors migrate to California?
2. Where did my family ancestors come from?
Outcomes:
Student will write and present a summary paragraph about their ancestors’ migrations to
California.
Primary Sources/Literature:
Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say
world map
Activities:
1. Read aloud Grandfather’s Journey to the students. On a world map trace the
travels of the grandfather. Have students predict which parts of the United States
the grandfather visited by analyzing the physical features shown in the
illustrations of the book. List the forms of transportation that were taken by the
grandfather.
2. Tell the students that they are going to write their own version of the story using
their grandparent as the main character. (This can be another relative or any adult
important to the student’s life) To help them write about their grandparent they
are going to become newspaper reporters. Explain how newspaper reporters try
to answer the 5 “W” questions (who, what, when, where, why) and “how” when
they investigate events for news articles. Have the students interview their
grandparent to learn about their family origins. The basic interview questions are:
Who? (the person or family)
What? (the migration)
When? (the approximate date of the trip)
Where? (country, state, or city)
Why? (migration reasons)
How? (transportation mode)
Before the students interview their grandparent, model by helping them answer these
questions using Grandfather’s Journey as an example.
3. Have students write a simple paragraph using the 5 “W” information they got
from the interview with their grandparents. The stages of the writing process can
be used. have students present their paragraph to the entire class. While the
students listen, have them list the countries, states or cities they hear in their
classmates’ reports. Graph them by continents (Appendix 1). On a world wall
map have students place a colored push pin at the location of his or her ancestors’
origin, attach it to colored yarn, and pull it to California (the specific community
of the school). Put a title over this map such as “Our Ancestors’ World Migration
Flow Map”. (A flow map shows movement with arrows.) A separate legend can
be made to the side showing the push pins as symbols of the ancestors’ origins,
and the yarn strings as their migrations.
Assessment:
The summary paragraph written from the interview using the 5 “W”s may be used for a
curriculum-embedded assessment.
Bibliography:
Renfrew, Dr. Melanie and Dr. Priscilla Porter. Standard 2: Expanding Map Skills
From Neighborhood to the World. Carson, Calif. 1998
Say, Allen. Grandfather’s Journey. Scholastic Inc. New York, 1993. ISBN 0-59048864-3