#2819. Westward Ho!

Social Studies, level: Elementary
Posted Tue Feb 25 12:09:57 PST 2003 by Leigh Oden (theohioodens@aol.com).
Home School parent, Mansfield, Ohio USA
Materials Required: construction paper, glue, ruler, seeds, pots & soil
Activity Time: varied
Concepts Taught: sciences, math, shapes

Read Going West by Jean Van Leeuwen. Discuss hardships of early settlers, how families worked together for the good of the unit. Compare life then and now. Have children use a ruler to draw and cut squares, triangles and rectangles from construction paper to make a paper quilt. This will teach about colors, shapes and patterns that are used in quilting. Also this could be used as an art project that could be put on the class board. For science the children could plant seeds in pots to be kept in the class and chart the seeds development into a plant. This can be great to use as a concept for farming and how we all get the food we eat.