You've loaded your wagon with the much needed supplies, said goodbye to your friends who've decided to stay in the east, and you and your family are off. You have finally made your way to the beginning of the Oregon Trail, the only practical path to the entire western United States. You’ve joined up with some other families in Missouri. You know there will be many risks and one in ten will die along the trail. You’ll have to cross the mountains and you want to be sure to do this at the right time of year when the weather won't be so harsh. Your wagon is filled with the supplies, so your group will walk most of the 2,000 miles. The free land and a new life in Oregon make this trip worth it for your group.
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The Oregon Trail |
Begin by exploring the following websites below and answering the questions you can print from here.
You will use the information you gather to write 12 indepth journal entries along the way from the viewpoint of a ten-year-old child on the trail. First, you must select a name that was common back then. Your job is to record in your journal what daily life is like during your journey beginning at Independence, Missouri, and ending in the Williamette Valley in Oregon. Look for landmarks, mountains, rivers, and points of interest to describe your journey. Be descriptive of what you see and what your family and others are going through.
Journal entries are expected to be based on actual events and landforms that pioneers might have encountered while traveling on the Oregon Trail. You must have the date for each journal entry and each entry must be at least six sentences. The journal entries should cover events in a logical order involving your family's reasons for leaving your home along with your arrival at Independence, Missouri, which will also be your first journal entry. You will also include in your entries information about prominent points represented on the Oregon Trail map, dealing with hunger and sickness,
encountering Native Americans, crossing mountains and rivers, crossing the Continental Divide, weather, disease, famine, your first view of the buffalo herds and other animals, and reaching Oregon. If you have other ideas based on your research that would be great!
Your journal can be a handmade one with actual entries done on blank paper with a pencil. Adding images to the information
would be great! The images should be drawn by you and may be colored in with colored pencils only. Drawing the images will make it more realistic. You can also choose to do an electronic journal. You will type your entries in Microsoft Word. Put only 1 entry on a page. Save them in your home directory with the journal date as the file name. You can either find images to include or you can draw them and we can take a photo of them. We will put the journal together using a program called Flipsnack.
You will use the information you gather to write 12 indepth journal entries along the way from the viewpoint of a ten-year-old child on the trail. First, you must select a name that was common back then. Your job is to record in your journal what daily life is like during your journey beginning at Independence, Missouri, and ending in the Williamette Valley in Oregon. Look for landmarks, mountains, rivers, and points of interest to describe your journey. Be descriptive of what you see and what your family and others are going through.
Journal entries are expected to be based on actual events and landforms that pioneers might have encountered while traveling on the Oregon Trail. You must have the date for each journal entry and each entry must be at least six sentences. The journal entries should cover events in a logical order involving your family's reasons for leaving your home along with your arrival at Independence, Missouri, which will also be your first journal entry. You will also include in your entries information about prominent points represented on the Oregon Trail map, dealing with hunger and sickness,
encountering Native Americans, crossing mountains and rivers, crossing the Continental Divide, weather, disease, famine, your first view of the buffalo herds and other animals, and reaching Oregon. If you have other ideas based on your research that would be great!
Your journal can be a handmade one with actual entries done on blank paper with a pencil. Adding images to the information
would be great! The images should be drawn by you and may be colored in with colored pencils only. Drawing the images will make it more realistic. You can also choose to do an electronic journal. You will type your entries in Microsoft Word. Put only 1 entry on a page. Save them in your home directory with the journal date as the file name. You can either find images to include or you can draw them and we can take a photo of them. We will put the journal together using a program called Flipsnack.
Parts of this are adapted from Can You Survive the Oregon Trail https://sites.google.com/site/canyousurvivetheoregontrail/home
and
Pioneer Life http://ilioncsd.11gb881.remote.schoolcenter.com/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=5684&&PHPSESSID=e58ecc1da81048bfcefab1c7b46f756e
and
Pioneer Life http://ilioncsd.11gb881.remote.schoolcenter.com/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=5684&&PHPSESSID=e58ecc1da81048bfcefab1c7b46f756e