Lesson Plan
Social Studies
“Homesteading on the Plains”
6th Grade
April 25-29, 2011
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
K-W-L Chart
Read the
Chapter/Lesson
together to make
sure they
understand the
whole main idea.
Compare &
Contrast Homes
at that time
(Venn Digram)
Review the
windmills – how
it is working and
what is it for.
Introducing
VOCABULARY
WORDS
via pictures and
words. Discuss
what they know.
Vocabulary Sheet
Pick the person
from the lesson
& Write about
them
Test
Word Search
Study Guide
Fill-in blanks
Friday
Review for Test
Goal for the week: Lesson 3 – Homesteading on the Plains
Pragmatic: Homestead on the Plains
Semantic: Introducing the Homestead on the Plains Lesson,
and the vocabulary itself.
Syntactic: Discuss each paragraphs in the lesson, find some sentences that may not
make sense to TS and explain everything what TS want to know.
TTA Communication: to find out how much TS know, to get TSW to think more
about the certain things in the history – why, how, who, what, and where.
(attachment – TTA Communication)
Reading: Reading the lesson together and read their life on the plains.
Writing: Use few people in the lesson – to write about the person and apply to TS’s
writing. Help TS with grammar, punctuation, and the structure before the
final draft.
Vocabulary Lists: Homestead Act, homesteader, sodbuster, exoduster, haven, dugout,
barbed wires, windmill and locust
Lesson Plan
Components of a Lesson Plan
Goal: Homesteading on the Plains
Objective(s): Recognize the life of plains (History) and understand how it turned out to be.
Materials: Worksheets, Textbook pg. 201-212
Vocabulary Lists:
Homestead Act (1862): The act gave 160 acres of public land to adult men at age of
21, widows, or heads of family. Pay a small fee, farm the land and
live there for 5 years.
Homesteader: who claimed land under Homestead Act.
Sodbuster: people who “bust” through thick sod to plant their crop.
Exoduster: African American who settled in Kansas hoping to find the “Promised
Land” that Israelites had sought in the bible.
Haven: shelter
Dugout: underground house
Locust: grasshopper
Barbed wires: twisted two wires together
Lesson Procedures:
Introduction: Ask the student about their idea of a life on the plains, and what do
they know about it.
Main Activity: Read the lesson, Make and experiment the windmill – how to make it
turn the wheels, and investigate who these people were and what
they did at that time.
Conclusion: To understand these new vocabulary and apply to every day use.
Student Assessment: Comprehend how the life on the Plains work and why they did that.
Life on the Plains
What I Know
What I wonder
What I have learned
Name
Venn Diagram
Date
Compare the houses in the East and in the Plains.
Assessment Information
Grade Level: Middle School – 6th Grade
Name: David H. Baker
Age: 13
Degree of Hearing Loss: Moderate to Severe
Age Onset: 2 due to Mengititis
Amplification: Digital Hearing Aids
Disability: None
Previous Intervention services: Speech Therapy & Auditory Training
Hearing Status of Parents: Hearing
Method of Communication: Oral and SEE (Signing Exact English)
TTA Communications
As we will read along each paragraphs and discuss several things such as why
build sodhouse and what are they made of. Encourage them to think deeply
about the life on the plains like they are pioneers at that time.
Sodhouse
TTW: Why do they build sodhouse?
TSW: Because there are no woods out of the forest to build.
TSW: Because when farmers take out of sod, so use it as a home.
TTW: What are they made of?
TSW: Out of sod.
TTW: What is sod?
TSW: from the ground with thick grass
TTW: What happened if there’s a lot of rain there?
TSW: The house will be leaking.
TTW: Do the homesteader stay or leave?
TSW: Yes they leave until it’s dry.
TTW: Why there were lots of locust and grasshopper?
TSW: Because locust lives inside of sod to keep it warm and dry.
TTW: Let’s watch a video of sodhouse
Sodhouse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWnIp2FXRcc
Plow
TTW: What kind of technology they have to plow?
TSW: a steel plow
TTW: Who invented it?
TSW: James Oliver
TTW: What does it do?
TSW: a plow that break sod and make the soil soft.
TTW: Let’s see if we can find more information on the plains and the steel
plow.
http://mrclark.aretesys.com/westward.htm
Windmill
TTW: Why does it there on the plains?
TSW: their technology at that time
TTW: Why?
TSW: Because that area has lot of strong wind.
TTW: What does it do?
TSW: to help bring water up from the well.
TTW: What else does it do?
TSW: help determine which wind goes - East, West, North and South.
TTW: Let’s see if we can watch what kind of windmill do.
Windmill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCoUFI5mm1o&NR=1
Location
TTW: Where is the plains?
TSW: Kansas
TSW: Nebraska
TSW: South Dakota
TTW: That’s right!!
(show all the Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas on the map).
Name
Date
Story Map
Write a story about your life on the Plains. What would you do when you
arrive the Plains?
First
Middle
Middle
End
Then write the story about your life on the Plains as you really experience it.