My Kind of Town
The making of a city.
Chicago less than 40
years after a
devastating fire.
Why do some
communities grow
and thrive faster and
greater than other
communities?
What are major
reasons that make a
town a city or even a
metropolis?
Objectives
Identify and interpret primary source
documents within an historical context
Integrate creative writing, historical
analysis, and technology
Evaluate the components that generate to
a metropolitan community
Plan and create a starter community that
has the necessary components to evolve
to a metropolitan area.
You will:
Fill in a graphic organizer comparing small towns and
large cities based on what you know before beginning
this unit.
Read the lesson in the student text about settling the
midwest
Explore the primary resources available on the internet
to begin answering the question, “What makes a town
grow into a city?”
Complete your graphic organizer with your group and
begin planning your own town.
Build a new community
Write a radio commercial that advertises the new town
that clearly describes the new community.
List 3 observations about this drawing of
Chicago in 1868.
Waterways
List 3 advantages of
using water transportation
What other forms of
transportation were
available in the early
1800s?
List 3 disadvantages of
traveling on waterways.
American Environmental Photographs Collection, [AEP Image Number,
e.g., AEP-N73], Dartment of Special Collections, University of Chicago
Look at this map, can
you identify the lake
in the upper center of
the map?
The “lines” are
railroads that are
being built from the
Mississippi to the east
coast.
How did the railroads
affect communities?
Compare and contrast railroad transportation with other forms of transportaion
How do communities move from
individual settlements to small towns and
in some cases to major cities?
What would your NEW town look like?
What type of geographical features
would we notice? How would you
convince others to settle in your town?
My-y-y-y-y-y Ki-i-i-i-ind of Tow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-n!