Chapter 9: El Morro

Teacher's Guide Chapter Author: Carol McGrew, Fifth grade teacher, Gragson Elementary School, Clark County School District
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Chapter Overview: The wagon train starts off on the Beale Road, only to find that their options for water are running out.

Chapter Themes: Westward Movement, decision making, Native American and Pioneer relations, survival

Chapter Activities

• Language Arts
• Family Decision Journal
  
• Describe a time when you and your family made a decision that turned out to be a bad one.
• Standards Addressed
• 5.5.6: Write short essays, speculate on cause and effect
  6.5.3 Write paragraphs and essays with main ideas, supporting details and a conclusion. [6.5]

• Personal Decision Journal
  
• 
  Describe a time in your life where you had to choose from two equally good or bad decisions. What decision did you choose and why did you choose it?
• Standards Addressed
• 
  5.5.6: Write short essays, speculate on cause and effect
  6.5.3 Write paragraphs and essays with main ideas, supporting details and a conclusion. [6.5]
• 
  
• Mathematics
• How much further?
  
• 
  Determine how much of the trail that the group has covered thus far and how much they still have to go.Description
• Standards Addressed
• 
  Generate and solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems using whole numbers and decimals in practical situations. [1.19]
  Students will develop their ability to solve problems by engaging in developmentally appropriate opportunities where there is a need to use various approaches to investigate and understand mathematical concepts.
• 
  
• Line Graph
  
• 
  Use a line graph to show how far the group goes each time they move on the trail.
• Standards Addressed
• 
  Pose questions that can be used to guide the collection of categorical and numerical data. [5.2]
  Organize and represent data using a variety of graphical representations
• Social Studies
• Cave Drawings
• 
  Draw and describe cave drawings made by various Native American tribes in the country. Compare them to other tribes’ drawings. What are the similarities? What are the differences?
• Standards Addressed
• 
  List examples of physical and human features from the community or region [NS 2.4.1]

• Who were the Zuni?
  
• 
  Research the Zuni tribe. Draw pictures of their homes. How did the Spanish influence their way of life?
• Standards Addressed
• 
  Describe the characteristics of another culture from their own point of view [NS 2.4.3]_

• Science
• What is lava and how do we use it?
  
• 
  Describe how lava flows and how to use the lava flows today.
• Standards Addressed
• 
  Identify which landforms result from slow processes (erosion and deposition) and from fast processes (volcanoes, earthquakes, landslides, flood, and human activity). [3.6, 3.7, 3.8
  Describe the effects of various natural hazards on the physical environment [NS 3.4.2]
• 
  
• Where did the water go?
  
• 
  Describe how the group is losing water in the watering hole.
• Standards Addressed

Explain that all organisms, including humans, can cause changes in their environments.
Describe how some environmental conditions are more favorable than others to living Things [3.9, 4.7, 4.10]

Historical Overview of Chapter Themes

In this chapter, the wagon train decides to use the shorter, unknown Beale Road versus the longer, well-known trails. They meet the Zuni tribe where they receive food and rest. Unfortunately, they are also met with hardships further along the trail. After a brief respite at a watering hole that dwindles by the day, the group realizes that the next watering hole is sixty miles ahead. They decide to backtrack to the watering hole from the night before.