Recently, we went to homeschooling day at Frontier Culture Museum. My daughter was very inserted in what life was like back then. I decided to make a lesson for Pioneer week and The Oregon Trail. I have recently have been wanting to do some Science and History lessons for my kindergarten and my 5th grade together. This lesson will be for two different age groups. My main goal is to my fun while learning.
My daughter will be reading Little House on the Prairie Books. I will be reading Famer boy to my son and If you were a kid on the Oregon Trail to them. You can find lapbooks for Little House on the Prairie here for free. Check your local library for books. https://www.homeschoolshare.com/little_house_on_prairie.php.
The worksheets I will be using are from education.com. They allow you to download so many for each month for free. You can find them here https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/oregon-trail-map/.
We will be playing games. I have made some worksheets. One for a money supply game. I did not put amounts on the worksheet that way I can make them easier for my son but harder for my daughter. We will use real money to count out the amount they need to buy supplies for the journey to Oregon. The other game we will be playing is counting our way to Oregon. My son is in Kindergarten, we are learning a lot of numbers. I used a pioneer wagon clipart to make this worksheet. We are going to count to 50. I made on worksheet for this, I will be writing the numbers on the wagons.
Now on to the hands on things we will be doing for Pioneer week. Pioneer chores, my kids do not like doing chores lol. We are going to wash clothes in a bucket outside, haul some buckets of water, and make a brown paper bag shirt. My son still little, I thought they could use markers to decorate the bag then cut it into a shirt. I will teach my daughter some basic sewing skills. We will be hunting for some buffalo not really just using our imagination and using sticks for guns. Old fashion pioneer games we will play like tag, hide and seek, we will make our own cup and ball toy.
Things we will be making and baking
We will make a pioneer doll out of corn husks http://littlehouseontheprairie.com/make-your-own-corn-cob-dolls-diy/ or https://everythingbackyard.net/learn-how-to-make-easy-corn-husk-dolls/, a log house out of pretzels, and making candles. You can find the link here to make candles https://schoolhouseteachers.com/browse-by-grade/elementary/5th-grade/.
We will be making our own butter. Link to make your own butter is here http://littlehouseontheprairie.com/making-homemade-butter-with-kids/.
We will be making biscuits. Link to biscuits are here https://kidstir.com/easy-biscuits/.
We will be packing a pioneer lunch everyday and put it in a tin bucket. They will have a choice of a jelly or meat sandwich with a hard boiled egg, fruits and veggies, and a muffin. A long with this lesson my children will be doing Math, Language Arts and Science.
I hope you enjoy this Pioneer lesson with your children.
Blessings,
April