Oregon Trail Simulation
Teacher Instructions
During a study on
the Oregon Trail, students were asked to view family histories of
actual pioneers which were found on the Internet.
Once the students
read and got a feel for what families were like in the 1850's, they
were put into family groups. Each group would create a history for
their family, including names and ages of the members as well as the
reason they were traveling to Oregon.
The families were
given a supply list and were told that they could not exceed 1000
pounds when they listed the supplies that they would take with them
on their trip. They made a list of the supplies that they thought
they would need to take along.
Prior to the
Oregon Trail simulation, students read the book, Dear Rachel,
which is a short story about a pioneer girl traveling on a trail to
California. Students were encouraged to use what they learned to
create a pattern for their own experiences during the simulation.
The class then
participated in a simulation where they "made the trip" to
Oregon. The simulation spanned one day on the trail. The families
were responsible for creating a diary of their trip on that day.
Students also had
to create a game which might have been played by children along the
trail. They were instructed to use items which would have been found
along the trail and to write down the directions for their game.
Students supplied
authentic food for the trip. Examples of items brought in by the
students that the class could share for their "lunch" on
the trail were:
Beef and Venison
Jerky
Homemade bread
Crackers
Nuts and dried fruits
blueberries and strawberries
Scenarios were
created for the students which would direct them as to the events
that would occur during their day on the trail. The teacher read the
scenarios at selected intervals during the day. The students used
this information to help create their diary entries. Each family
group had to deal with a "tragedy" on this day of their
trip, but this was a surprise to them, as the teacher did not reveal
this until the scenario was presented to the families while they
were "traveling" on the trail. All scenarios were kept
secret by the teacher in order to enable the students to create the
diary entries at the exact moment they were "experiencing"
them on the trail.
Each family group
had, during a previous activity dealing with the history of the
Oregon Trail, created a "tragedy" which might befall
pioneers on the trail. The tragedies were shared in class and the
students voted on the "best" one. The family group that
created the selected tragedy would be assigned that tragedy while on
the trail, although the students did not know that at the time.
The simulation
was created to last the whole school day. When the family groups
finished their diary entries after a given scenario, they read from
the book, Dear Levi - Letters from the Overland Trail.
This really helped to give the students a good base of knowledge for
their own trail experiences.
Are you interested in more American History projects for use in your classroom? Check out my book, USING THE INTERNET: AMERICAN HISTORY PROJECTS FOR THE GIFTED CLASSROOM, GRADES 4 - 8, available through Gifted Education Press. Focusing on performance task activities and projects, this activity book is suitable for any American History classroom - regular or gifted. The book is available for sale at the Gifted Education Press webpage.
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