Driving Question: How can we as pioneers, make good decisions so that we can survive our journey to California?
Project Explanation: Each student will take on the role of a pioneer family. They will be given a pioneer occupation and an amount of funds to purchase supplies. Students will decide which items to bring with them on their journey west. They will have to consider the needs of all of the members of their family. Then they will be given a series of historical challenges as a wagon train (group of families). They must use collaboration skills to decide their fate. Students will then stake a gold mining claim in California. Wagon trains who made better decisions will be able to choose their claim first, but there is no guarantee that they will strike gold. They will use their earnings to buy a ticket to the ole west shindig where they will eat western vittles and participate in a barn raisin'.
Novels: Patty Reed's Doll and The Great Hornspoon
Key Standards:
Social Studies
2. Compare how and why people traveled to California and the routes they traveled
3. Analyze the effects of the Gold Rush on settlements, daily life, politics, and the physical environment
Math
Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic.
Mathematical Practices
Project Explanation: Each student will take on the role of a pioneer family. They will be given a pioneer occupation and an amount of funds to purchase supplies. Students will decide which items to bring with them on their journey west. They will have to consider the needs of all of the members of their family. Then they will be given a series of historical challenges as a wagon train (group of families). They must use collaboration skills to decide their fate. Students will then stake a gold mining claim in California. Wagon trains who made better decisions will be able to choose their claim first, but there is no guarantee that they will strike gold. They will use their earnings to buy a ticket to the ole west shindig where they will eat western vittles and participate in a barn raisin'.
Novels: Patty Reed's Doll and The Great Hornspoon
Key Standards:
Social Studies
2. Compare how and why people traveled to California and the routes they traveled
3. Analyze the effects of the Gold Rush on settlements, daily life, politics, and the physical environment
Math
Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic.
Mathematical Practices
- Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
- Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
- Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.