Geography/History Moving West

I decided to try something a little different for Geography/History this week. We found Wagon Train by Sydelle Kramer illustrations by Deborah Kogan Ray at our library. It talks about how the pioneers traveled West. It describes the wagon, the supplies they carried, how their travels were, the difficulties they encountered, and introduces new words, which Selena was thrilled to see broke down by syllables so she could easily try to pronounce them. I didn’t really know due to it’s length if Selena would really engage in the book, but we have read it several times now. I really get a kick out of Selena’s reactions when it talks about how the pioneers found themselves with a river to cross, and how they did this task as well as when they run into a lot of mud after some heavy rains.

We decided to make our own covered wagon. I used a box, covered it with brown paper, cardboard wheels, pipe cleaners, paper clasps, and a plain off white piece of construction paper.

We used the pipe cleaners to hold the cover in place.

Selena found it fairly easy to help me put the wheels on. I had pre punched the holes in the wheels and the wagon.

Selena was so careful when putting the cover over. She examined and made sure it was just perfect before we taped it in place.

Using some of her doll furniture we filled the wagon with some items that were discussed in the book that the pioneers probably took West with them. We also placed a family in the wagon.

Selena had a lot of fun and was very proud of her covered wagon. While it is pretty destroyed now, she had a lot of fun playing with it. She did wait until Papa could see it before she played with it, she described the entire process to him. Her little story as she played with it was all about the things she learned from the Wagon Train book, it was cute to hear her talk about her pioneers as she played.

We look forward to what you are learning in Geography and History.