SEW Instructional Menus (Combined: Modify as necessary)
Children of the Pioneers Grades K-1
Up On a Mountaintop: Grades 4-5
Jessica Cate
TYPE I ACTIVITIES
1. View pictures of native Smoky Mountain wildlife to see what creatures are also on the frontier.
2. Read journal entries from a child’s life in the Smoky Mountains to make personal connections to the frontier people.
3. Play games from the frontier to experience entertainment on the homestead.
4. Taste authentic foods to experience what pioneers ate.
5. Play with homemade toys to appreciate the difference in activities between the pioneer settlers and today.
6. Identify the importance of animals on a pioneer homestead
7. Read non-fiction books about the geography of the Smoky Mountains to examine the terrain the settlers had to cross.
8. Participate in a mock frontier school lesson to compare and contrast how school today is different.
9. Invite a guest speaker who grew up in one of the last homesteads to not give up land to the National Park service.
10. Discuss similarities and differences in pioneer life and today.
11. View a video on pioneer life in the Smoky Mountains.
12. Take a virtual fieldtrip around a recreated pioneer homestead.
13. Read Cassie's Journey by Brett Harvey to compare their family with a pioneer family.
14. Handle and examine pioneer tools to get an idea of what work was like in the fields.
15. Listen to folktales read by the teacher which are an example of pioneer entertainment.
16. Dress up in time period clothing to experience life as a child in the Smoky Mountains.
17. Explore a recreated log cabin to see first-hand how the settlers lived.
18. Examine methods of housing on the frontier to see the variety in ways they lived.
19. Read books about the Native Americans who were part of the settlers’ life since they were still in the area.
20. Handle the seeds used to plant the settlers’ gardens to see what tiny things were able to sprout into food for the entire year.
21. Watch a fire be built that was used for cooking, cleaning, and comfort.
22. Read and smell home remedies that were used to treat common health problems.
23. Sing authentic pioneer songs.
24. Examine pioneer quilts to determine their importance on the frontier.
25. Read a pioneer diary to experience how people felt on the journey to their new home.
26. List predators that lived in the Smoky Mountains to identify dangers of the woods.
27. Experiment and play with various instruments from the mountains.
28. Read a letter from a student written 100 years ago about how they lived so students can compare and contrast their own school with that of the frontier children’s.
29. Complete a pioneer life wordsearch to become familiar with the vocabulary.
30. Play mountain bolo to experience a child’s game in the mountain’s.
TYPE II ACTIVITIES
1. Construct a log cabin from sticks and clay to experience how pioneers lived. (Planning)
2. Plant a garden to feed the family to determine the difficulty of self-sustained living.
3. Plant the garden using the zodiac signs pioneers depended on to yield successful crops to determine whether the pioneer method worked. (Decision Making- what to plant)
4. Weave a rug to cover the bare, wood floors of your cabin in order to recreate pioneer life.
5. Create a quilt square to add the class patchwork memory quilt to exhibit their knowledge.(Productive Thinking and Decision Making)
6. Make a cornhusk doll that resembles a pioneer toy to explain how pioneer children had to use their available materials for playthings.
7. Invent a new pioneer game with simple materials and easy rules to explore the life of pioneer children. (Productive Thinking)
8. Write a new folktale to be shared around the fire to demonstrate understanding of pioneer recreation. (Communication #5)
9. Make paper dolls to experience how children played on the frontier.
10. Design pioneer outfits in order to see the importance of one outfit.
11. Determine the best layout for your garden to acquire knowledge about how to plant a healthy harvest. (Decision Making)
12. Build a miniature covered wagon to evaluate pioneer transportation.
13. Make a homemade Appalachian instrument to practice making your own entertainment.
14. Prepare a home remedy to cure a cold or stomach ache to test medicine on the frontier.
15. Churn butter to experience the difficulty of preparing one meal.
16. Plan a list of all the necessary materials to pack before leaving for the new homestead to feel what pioneers felt when leaving home. (Planning)
17. Learn an easy song and perform it around the class “campfire” to demonstrate knowledge of pioneers.
18. Help make wax drip candles to see how pioneers lit their homes.
19. Try cross-stitch embroidery to practice working with girls’ chores.
20. Learn an authentic square dance to participate in pioneer leisure activities.
21. Sew a simple quilt square to examine the complexity of these simple blankets.
22. Respond to a letter from a student their age written 100 years ago to compare and contrast their school and the pioneers’. (Communication #5)
23. Color a quilt pattern using various colors that would have been available to experiment with different ideas for their own quilt block.
24. Construct a thaumatrope with a scene that would be seen in the mountains to create a pioneer toy.
25. Play a variety of pioneer games such as blind man’s bluff and marbles to express their knowledge of kid pioneers recreation.
26. Perform a drama about pioneer life to teach others about what they have learned. (Communication #6)
27. Perform a pioneer drama about children doing their chores to get a better understanding of what that aspect of pioneer life was like.
28. Determine whether life was better for pioneers after they were made to leave the mountains to make room for the national park. (CoRT CAF)
TYPE III ACTIVITIES
1. Write and perform a play for the rest of the class that showcases life in the southern Appalachians.
2. Write a new folktale and read it to the class.
3. Write a new folksong and perform it for the class.
4. Create a website documenting what they learned about the pioneers and give everyone the web address so we can explore the website.
5. Invent a new pioneer game/activity and teach it to the class.
6. Make a picture book of pioneer life and share it with the class. (Maybe it can be good enough to publish!)
Amelia Stimpson
June 13, 2010
Pioneers K-1
SEW Enrichment Menu:
Type 1 Enrichment:
1. Brainstorm and make a list of what pioneers might have had in their cupboards to eat. Then, split into groups and look through cookbooks. Identify the main crop eaten by pioneers. (resources; food, garden)
2. Taste drinks of the pioneer time to get a feel for what pioneer children drank. (resources; plants)
3. Listen to the reading of “My Aunt Arizona” so students can get a better feel for the hardships and resources pioneers went without. (resources)
4. Play a game of horseshoes and discuss how this was one of the few games children played in the 19th century. Discuss differences in games now and then. (resources, recreation)
5. Dress up in mountain clothing and talk about the differences in clothes now and then. Would the students prefer the hotter, longer, heavier clothing? Would they prefer clothes they wear today? Explain that pioneers had to make their own clothes. (resources, jobs)
6. Examine a model log cabin. Explain that pioneers had to make their own houses from limited resources available. (resources, architecture, jobs)
7. Observe a handmade quilt. Ask students how long they think it took to make. Who do they think made the quilts? Where did pioneers get the resources to make the quilts? (resources, jobs)
8. Observe a piece of coal and guess what it is. After students make observations, explain what it is and how it was used. (jobs, resources)
9. Observe the chamber pots and guess what they are. (resources)
10. Look through the flashcards and think about the differences of flashcards now and then. (education)
11. Observe the quilt square and consider how long it would take to hand sew it. (jobs, recreation)
12. Look at the iron kitchen tools and think about what pioneers used to make these. (jobs)
13. Examine the cast iron irons. Determine how long pioneers had to hold it in the fire to get hot enough to iron their clothes. (jobs)
14. View the lunch pail and think about what the coal miners put in the two different sections. (resources, jobs)
15. Look at the iron sifter and determine what it was used for and why. (resources, jobs)
16. Find the broom and determine what materials were used to make it. (jobs, resources, geography)
17. Examine the cornhusk doll and determine what materials were used to make it. How long did it take? (resources, recreation, geography)
18. View the flatter cast iron tools and determine what they were used for. How often were they used? What was the main crop used to cook with these? (resources, geography, jobs)
19. Observe the hat and determine what kind of animal was used to make it. (geography, resources, recreation)
20. Examine the candles and determine why two candles were connected together. Who would have made these candles? (jobs, recreation and resources)
21. Look at the harmonica and kazoo that the pioneers used during social events. Where would they gather to play these? How often do you think they gathered? (recreation, social)
Type 2 Enrichment:
1. Look at a picture puzzle out of a picture of the Appalachian Mountains. Determine what the picture makes. Tell a friend why this is important to the pioneers of this area. (recreation, resources, geography)
2. Pretend you are a pioneer child and make many, varied predictions about what would happen if you did not have corn. (geography, resources)
3. Use productive thinking to think of many, varied, and unusual ways pioneer children entertained themselves while not doing chores or school work. (recreation, geography, resources)
4. Pioneers had very limited resources available to build their homes. Think if many, varied resources we could use from the classroom to create our own log cabin. (architecture, resources, geography)
5. Think of many, varied, single words we could use to describe the corn husk doll. (recreation, resources)
6. Plant several seeds. Determine which seeds took the longest to sprout and which were the quickest. Which seeds do you think pioneers would have preferred to plant and why? (resources, geography, jobs, recreation)
7. Discover how the corn toss game was played and the rules. How many people could play at once? Did the parents allow children to play a lot or not because of limited amount of corn available? (recreation, geography, resources)
8. Listen to the reading of a book to determine what the most important items were for pioneers to pack in their wagon. What did they have to leave behind? How long were they in the wagons? How many people traveled in the wagons? (recreation, resources, geography)
9. Compare and contrast homes of pioneer days with modern day log cabins by examining pictures and noticing differences. Make your own log cabin using pretzels and icing. (resources, jobs)
10. Write and address a letter to a family member living in another part of the country. For example, Lucy Wipple to her grandparents. Read “The Ballads of Lucy Wipple” to give students some ideas. (recreation, geography)
11. Link logs together to make a log cabin much like the ones pioneers made. (jobs, resources, architecture)
Type 3 Enrichment:
1. Students will create their own “If I had a farm book”. They will write what they would have had on their farms (animals, tools, toys, food, clothing, etc.). Students may decorate their books. They will be allowed to share it with the class and their parents on the last day. (recreation, jobs, geography, social, education, timeline, architecture)
2. Student will create a book of chores from then and now as a class. (jobs)
3. Students will invent their own game/toy that pioneer children would have used. Just like pioneers, they will have a limited amount of resources available. (resources, recreation)
4. Students will create a pioneer mountain song as a class. They will include pioneer topics they have become familiar with in their song. The class may put chores, education, architecture, homesteading, transportation, or anything else we have learned about during SEW. (geography, architecture, resources, jobs, education, timeline, social, recreation)
5. Students will create a meal that pioneers would have eaten during the 19th century. They must use resources that would have been available to pioneers. We will be able to cook the meal at the end of SEW as a class. (resources, timeline, jobs, geography)
SEW Enrichment:
Type 1 Enrichment:
- Solve a picture puzzle of the Appalachian Mountains to see the different landscapes of the mountains. (Landscape)
- Play horseshoe game to experience the games the pioneers had to play. (Recreation)
- Play a game of corn toss to experience the games the pioneers had to play. (Recreation)
- Listen to the reading of “My Aunt Arizona” so students can get a better feel for the hardships and resources pioneers went without. (Communication- written letters; games and toys- dancing)
- Wash clothes using a washboard and tub to show how the pioneers had to do everything by hand. (Job)
- Observe a rag rug. To see the types of materials that were available in the eighteen hundreds. (Resources)
- Dress up in mountain clothing. To experience how the clothing was different from todays clothes. (Resources)
- Examine a model log cabin. This is to show how we have more resources available for building buildings and how limited the pioneers were. (Homesteading)
- Examine mountain language. Explore how “Slang” has changed over the years. (Social)
- Play a game of marbles to experience the games the pioneers had to play. (Recreation)
- Play a game of hopscotch to experience the games the pioneers had to play. (Recreation)
- Observe a handmade quilt to be able to see the time it takes to make things such as quilts and clothes. This is to also stress how the pioneers did not have a store. (Resources)
- Observe a piece of coal and guess what it is. Showing jobs that were available. (Resources and Jobs)
- Observe the chamber pots and guess what they are. Materials they had to use instead of a toilet. (Resource)
- Listen to mountain music and instruments. Tell how the mountain music has a story behind each song and compare it to today’s music.(Recreation)
- Using the class library books; research and tell how and why the mountains were born. To learn about mountains(Landscape)
- Investigate traditional recipes of the Appalachian Mountains by looking at recipe cards.
- Observe the flashcards and think about the differences of flashcards now and then. (Education)
- Observe the quilt square and consider how long it would take to hand sew it. (Recreation and Jobs)
- Find the presidents of the 1800’s.To know who was around in that time and how they “ran” things. (Timeline)
- Observe the iron kitchen tools and think about the many different foods Pioneers used to cook with these. (Jobs and Homesteading)
- Examine the wicker baskets and think about what Pioneers used to make these. (Jobs)
- Study the brown jug and think about its many, varied uses. (Recreation)
- Look at the cast iron irons and determine how long Pioneers had to hold it in the fire to get hot enough to iron their clothes. Think about how different it is than our irons today. (Jobs)
- View the lunch pail and think about what workers put in the two different sections. How well do you think this lunch pail worked? Did it keep the drinks cold? How is it different from today’s lunch boxes?(Resources)
- Look at the iron sifter and determine what it was used for and why. How the materials the pioneers hod to use are so different from what we have today. (Resources)
- Find the broom and determine what materials were used to make it. Do you think this broom worked well? Tell Why? or Why not? Show how everything the pioneers had was made from natural resources. (Resources and Jobs)
- Examine the corn husk doll and determine what materials were used to make it and how long it took. Does this doll look like dolls today? To show how everything was made from natural resources. (Recreation and Resources)
- View the flatter cast iron tools and determine what they were used for. (Jobs and Resources)
- Observe the hat and determine what kind of animal Pioneers used to make it. To show how everything the pioneers had was made from natural resources. (Resources)
- Examine the candles and determine why two candles are connected together. To show how things in the eighteen hundreds was done differently than today. (Recreation and Resources)
- Look at the clay bowl and determine what materials were used to make it. To show how they used natural resources. (Resources and Job)
- Observe the harmonica and kazoo that the Pioneers used during social events. How the pioneers made their own music instead of listening to a CD. (Recreation and Social).
Type 2 Activities: