Last week I shared some teacher recommendations--of IEFA books they've used and loved and an adaptation to one of our lesson plans, Montana Place Names, A-Z, for online learning. I'm pleased to say that post inspired more teachers to write in and share lesson plans that have worked for them.
Tracing the Old North Trail
Jim Martin, from Missoula Public Schools, wrote: "In response to teaching Montana Place Names, A-Z, I use Highway maps to trace the Old North Trail. Our 6th grade curriculum is teaching ancient civilizations (not Americas) so I built Migration to the Americas into our lessons. I have built a Google Earth presentation and as we travel the Old North Trail we find locations along the way, starting at Carway, Alberta, then hitting places like First Peoples Buffalo Jump by Ulm, Tower Rock by Craig, Madison Buffalo Jump, Obsidian Cliffs in Yellowstone plus rivers and other natural features that would provide resources or obstacles. We then exit the state through the Madison valley. We also notice how some of our modern highways follow the same route that’s been traveled for 10,000 years.
"The Walter McClintock story of a Blackfeet family traveling the route, presumably to Mexico, is fascinating to the kids, who are amazed at how interconnected First Nations were." [Jim shares parts of chapter 33].
Homesteading Lesson Plan
April Wills, who teaches in Bainville, created an online unit for her fifth graders on homesteading:
- We started with viewing the Museum of the Rockies Homesteading in Montana virtual field trip. [If the MOR material isn't available, you might want to show part of the 27-minute video Sun River Homestead.]
- Students then had to read the three articles from Montanakids.com on Homesteading.
- After they read those articles and took notes, they had to do a retelling for each article in Seesaw- Basic understandings: (3 things you learned, your opinion of the article, the main idea of each article and three details that from the text that support the main idea).
- They created a "storyboard" where they picked any person that they wanted to pretend to be from this era of living and made 5 sketches of what life would have been like. (So if they were a railroad worker, banker, blacksmith etc.) The images they sketched should make the viewer know what their job/ life was like. They also had to come up with a description of the photo.
Finally they used the Ditch That Textbook: Google Template to create a Instagram style story- where they could either find photos & videos from various online resources, or make their own and create an Instagram spread of life in the Homesteading era of Montana. They were encouraged to use dates, specific vocabulary and to be creative with their comments for each photo. These turned out AMAZING!
I've linked the resources below. I am not sure if MOR will release the recording of their conversations from Monday but they were really good too!
- They Settled in Montana: Introduction [montanakids.com]
- They Settled in Montana: The Homesteading Act [montanakids.com]
- They Settled in Montana: The Homesteaders [montanakids.com]
- Ditch That Textbook Instagram Stories Template
More Book Suggestions
Pat Bauerle, Bozeman, wrote in to say that "There, There is a title worthy of reading with older grade levels (content). The situational stories of multiple characters as they focus on getting to a certain pow-wow is revealing."
In the Teaching Montana History Facebook group, Kathi Hoyt, Billings middle school librarian, shared this list, created by the Billings Public Library, of Indigenous People Inclusive Literature. Lots of great looking picture books and chapter books too!
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