Acting Out Lewis and Clark

I posted this to our class blog last week, but I'm reposting it here, because, of all the school pictures I've taken this year, these are my favorites.

Last week, my history class of younger elementary students finished up their unit about Lewis and Clark, by dressing up and acting out scenes from the Corp of Discovery's trip to the Pacific Ocean.


The younger elementary students aren't just learning about the Corps of Discovery, they ARE the Corp of Discovery.President Thomas Jefferson asks his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to lead an expedition to the West, to make maps, study plants and animal, make friends with the natives, and possibly find a water route to the Pacific ocean.
While the corps spent the winter at Fort Mandan, they were joined by a French trader,Toussaint Charbonneau,and his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea. They would work as guides and interpreters for the explorers. Sacagawea's baby, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, better known as "Pomp" was born while they were still at Fort Mandan.
Sacagawea

Toussaint Charbonneau

Sacagawea and baby Pomp played an important roll in the rest of the trip. The native people they met were less suspicious of a group traveling with a woman and child, because they knew that nobody would take a woman and child to war.
Sacagawea knew which plants were edible and was able to cook for the men.
Once they crossed the mountains, they made dug-out canoes and continued their journey westward.

They finally reached the Pacific Ocean!
They spent the winter at Fort Clatsop.
The men became very fond of Pomp and Clark often referred to him a "my dancing boy".

The journey back to St. Louis:

This will be our last week studying Lewis and Clark. We will be finishing up this book tomorrow:

One of the reading groups is also reading the book Tall Tails, which is told from the perspective of Seaman, Lewis' dog.

We will also be watching the movie of The Time Warp Trio: Lewis and Clark