Mrs. Bousman's Social Studies Units
Westward Expansion
Westward Expansion is the second unit of study. Standard 5-2 states: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the
continued westward expansion of the United States. This includes travel and settlement of the West. Within this standard students
learn aspects of the natural environment and how environment affected travel to the West and thus the settlement of that region.
It also includes how the naturalenvironment was affected by settlement and the railroads. Students also provide examples of conflict
and cooperation between occupational and ethnic groups in the West, including miners, ranchers, and cowboys; Native Americans
and Mexican Americans; and European and Asian immigrants.
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5-2.1 Explain how aspects of the natural environment�including the principal mountain ranges and rivers, terrain, vegetation, and climate
of the region�affected travel to the West and thus the settlement of that region.
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5-2.2 Illustrate the effects of settlement on the environment of the West, including changes in the physical and human systems.
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5-2.3 Summarize how railroads affected development of the West, including their ease and inexpensiveness for travelers and their impact
on trade and the natural environment.
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5-2.4 Provide examples of conflict and cooperation between occupational and ethnic groups in the West, including miners, ranchers, and cowboys;
Native Americans and Mexican Americans; and European and Asian immigrants.
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5-2.5 Explain the social and economic effects of the westward expansion on Native Americans, including changes in federal policies, armed conflicts,
opposing views concerning land ownership, and Native American displacement.
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Know the definitions to the following vocabulary:
- homesteader
- sodbuster
- cowboy
- roundup
- cattle drive
- brand
- barbed wire
- boom
- bust
- capital
- conflict
- cooperation
- corporation
- displacement
- hub
- immigration
- migration
- miner
- pioneer
- rancher
- range
- reservation
- resources
- settlement
- Transcontinental railroad
- Promontory Point
- Homestead Act
- exoduster
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Students and teachers utilize a new series published by Pearson Education, Inc.
It is called Social Studies Growth of a Nation by Scott Foresman. Our district purchased this textbook and many
extra materials for use in the classroom. As supplementary materials our fifth grade teachers use USA Studies Weekly, a
great newspaper for kids that highlights all our social studies standards in a "kid friendly" format. Teachers also use
many read aloud books to supplement. Some of the titles are:
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Casey's Journey: Going West in the 1860's by Harvey
- Grandma Essie's Covered Wagon by Williams
- The Land of Gray Wolf by Locker
- Songs of the Wild West by Axelrod
- Wagon Wheels by Brenner
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Scholastic's View on Westward
Expansion
This website is amazing and can be used throughout United States History. There are a lot of fun and interactive activities.
CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD
Photographic History Museum
This website describes the building of the Transcontinental Railroad.
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Westward Expansion Study Guide
- Explain how the natural environment affected travel to and settlement of the west.
- Reread the article �Go West, Young Man!� in your US Studies Weekly.
- Describe the climate of the Great Plains
- Use your social studies text to describe the problems farmers faced as they settled the West.
- In the text, two types of new technology helped the farmers. What were the inventions and how did they help?
- There were two major ways that people could get their own land on the Great Plains. What two ways did
people get land on the Great Plains?
- In Grandma�s Essie�s Covered Wagon, there were several reasons why Grandma�s Essie�s family moved.
Think of three reasons from the story.
- How did Grandma Essie�s family use natural, capital and human resources to celebrate Christmas?
- natural resource
- capital resource
- human resource
- What obstacles in the environment did Grandma Essie�s family have to overcome when they moved from Missouri to Kansas to start a farm?
- There was one major mountain range and one major river you have learned about through our study of Westward Expansion.
- Name the mountain range
- Name the river
- Explain how the transcontinental railroad helped settle the American West.
- There were two major railroad companies who were hired to build railroad tracks through the
American West. They had an awesome job of creating the transcontinental railroad.
- What were the names of the railroad companies?
- What dangers did the railroad workers experience?
- What two major groups of immigrants worked on the railroads?
- The government paid the railroad companies to lay track. Then the government gave millions of acres of
land around the railroads. The railroad companies could later sell the land to farmers or ranchers.
Who would end up benefiting the most from these transactions? Explain.
- Texas ranchers drove herds of cattle from southern Texas to northern towns, called cow towns.
- What was the name of the most heavily traveled trail from San Antonio, Texas to Abilene, Kansas?
- What was the name of the long trips ranchers took from their ranches to cow towns? How long did the trips usually take?
- What was the name of the free grazing lands, given by the government and the railroads,
that ranchers used to feed their cattle?
- There were a lot of problems with ranching on the Great Plains.
- Name at least two problems that affected cattle ranching.
- How did barbed wire fences affect the Cattle Kingdom?
- How did the Cattle Kingdom change as a result of the railroads?
- Early prospectors searched for gold, silver and other precious minerals
How did they work, in large groups or alone?
- What sort of equipment did the prospectors use?
- Towns grew up around mines, which replaced lone prospectors
- When the minerals above the ground ran out, big companies mined the metals below ground.
- Towns that grew up around the mines depended on the success of the mines.
- Mining companies hired workers (miners) and used heavy equipment to remove minerals from below the ground.
- Minors then became laborers who worked under dangerous conditions.
- Booms and busts were examples of the economic times.
- What is a boom?
- During this time in history, mining camps and towns were dangerous places. What problems did people face?
- How did people solve the problems?
Mrs. Bousman
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