Teacher's Guide Chapter Authors: Beth Mulvey and Mike Kuennen 5th Grade Teachers at
Chapter Overview: The group is still searching for water. They ran out of food two days ago. Sallie continues to suffer from her injuries received during the Indian attack. Liefy’s health progressively gets worse. Finally, two weeks after the Indian attack, they reach White Rock Spring. This is the place they were three weeks prior that had plenty of water. A short time after arriving at the spring, Sallie sees ‘sunbonnets’ in the distance. As the sunbonnets grow closer, it is discovered that it is a group of covered wagons led by E.O. Smith. This wagon train has plenty of food, water, and supplies. Sallie and her family, as well as the other members of their wagon train, join Mr. Smith’s wagon train and they turn around to go back toward
Chapter Themes: Water, E.O. Smith, Lack of Supplies
Chapter Activities
- Language Arts
- Keeping a Daily Diary
- The students will keep a daily diary of events that happened in the book and in their lives. This project would have started at the beginning of the book. The diary was something that Sallie Fox kept during her journey.
§ Standards Addresssed
- (5)2.12 understanding of text by note taking
- (5)3.3 identify historical events and cultural contexts as portrayed in literature
- Readers Theater relating to the events involved with Chapter 13. The students and teacher will develop a Reader’s Theater and perform it for the class.
- Standards Addressed
- (5)3.7 describe difference in purpose and structure in a variety of fiction and nonfiction selections ex. plays
- (5)2.4 determine importance in stories: a) recall important details/facts of the text while reading b.) recall sequence of events c.) Identify purpose d.) recall the main idea of text while reading
- Mathematics
- How much does water weigh?
- This lesson will involve the science lesson which what to find out the following: “How much water does our body need to survive?” The students will solve problem related to the number to people who are in their party and how much water they would need and how much this water would weigh. The students will display their findings in a graph
- Standards Addressed
- (5)5.10 select an appropriate type of graph to accurately represent the data
- (5)A.2 apply previous experience and knowledge to new problem solving situations
- How many miles did they travel?
- Students will be given a map with a scale shown they will need to figure out how far they traveled during this chapter and then they will need to show this figure in miles per day.
- Standards Addressed
- (5)A.1 select, modify, develop, apply and justify strategies to solve a variety of mathematical and practical problems
- Standard 2 (5)1.18 multiply and divide decimals by whole numbers in problems representing practical situations [NS/PS 1.5.7]
- Social Studies
- What is a Free Mason?
- Student groups will need to research to find out what a Free Mason. The students can use the Internet to find out this information. The students will need to find out the following: a)Do the Free Masons still exist? b)How long have they been in existence? c)The symbol that the group uses. d) How many people below to this group in the world? e) What is a Knights Templar?
- Standards Addressed
- (5)1.10 give examples of interest groups
- (5)4.3 ask a historical question and identify resources to be used in research
- Did La Roux Springs (Leroux Springs) exist?
- Students will need to find out if this place actually existed. (The place is located in the present day
- Standards Addressed
- (5)3.3 Read and derive geographic information from photographs, maps, graphs and computer resources.
- (5)3.9 describe physical and human features and cultural characteristics of places and regions in the
- Science
- How much water does our body need to survive?
- The students will need to research to find out how much water it takes to keep people alive. This information will be used in conjunction with the math part which deals with how much water weighs. The students can also find out how much water a cow requires to survive.
- Standards Addressed
- (5)4.3 investigate and describe how animals require food, water, air and space
- (5)4.5 explain that living things get what they need to survive from their environments [L5C1]
- What is a comet?
- In this chapter Sallie Fox and her family saw a comet. The students will work in groups want to find out what a comet is and then to see if they can possibly figure out the name of the comet that they saw. If the comet doesn’t have a name they will need to draw a picture of a comet and name this comet and they explain why they named the comet the way they did.
- Standards Addressed
- (5)1.4 draw conclusion from scientific evidence
- (5)1.10 cooperate and contribute ideas within a group [N5B
Other Resources
Freedman, R. (1983). Children of the wild west.
Gerrard, R. Wagons west!
Web Sites
Free Mason Info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasons
Flagstaff, AZ Info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagstaff_az
La Roux Springs (Leroux Springs) Info
http://www.tomjonas.com/swex/wherelspring.htm
1 comment:
You provide a very thorough chapter overview - THANKS!
Do you know of any good websites you could use along with the "water needed for bodies" activity?
Perhaps you could invite a Mason to come and speak to your class to discuss the history of the organization/institution and tell about famous members and their current service projects. This could be a good beginning point to start a service learning unit (since you're about to finish this book).
Great idea for the comet! Do you know what comet is was (the only one I know is Haley's)? Perhaps you could also have a night out at Red Rock looking at the stars with local astronomers. This would be a fun family event (as long as all children have access to transportation).
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