Name: ______

Westward Expansion Project

** Each of the parts of this project will be a separate grade. Make sure to do your best on each section!**

SS4H6 The student will explain westward expansion of America between 1801 and 1861.

  1. Describe territorial expansion with emphasis on the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the acquisitions of Texas (the Alamo and independence), Oregon (Oregon Trail), and California (Gold Rush and the development of mining towns).

Part 1:Use the given resources to locate information about each of the topics. Make sure that you take detailed notes about each topic. Include important people, places and events. Include the dates for important events.You will use the notes for various activities throughout the project. You will take notes on notebook paper. Make sure to title each section/page with the topic name. Keep your notes and project instructions in your Social Studies folder.

Louisiana Purchase / Lewis and Clark Expedition
(including Sacagawea)
Acquisitions of Texas
(the Alamo and Independence) / Oregon Trail
California Gold Rush

Part 2:Choose one of the following activities. Circle the activity you complete. Refer to your notes you took during your research.

  1. Create a time line to depict the important events during the period of Westward Expansion. Include the important events and people and the dates they occurred. Your timeline also needs to include illustrations.
  1. Create a comic strip depicting the major events one of the topics above. Use illustrations and speech bubbles.

Part 3: Use the link called “Westward Expansion Maps” on Ms. Hobbs’ webpage under the Westward Expansion section to complete the Westward Expansion Map activity in this packet.

Part 4: Write a report about one of the topics you have been researching. You need to format your report in paragraphs. Include each of the sections below in your report. Each section will be a new paragraph.

  • Section 1:

Introduction: What is your topic? What are some major events that occurred during that time in history?

  • Section 2:

Major Event: Choose 1 major event that happened during the time period in history that you chose and explain the importance of that event.

  • Section 3:

Major Event: Choose 1 major event that happened during the time period in history that you chose and explain the importance of that event.

  • Section 4:

Conclusion:Restate the topic you chose and describe why that period in history is important.

Part 5:Culminating Task: Create a review board game for all of the topics in part 1. You need to have 5 questions for each topic, for a total 25 question cards. All a start space, end space, and some move ahead and move back spaces on your game board. Add illustrations that depict events that occurred during the time of Westward Expansion.

Name: ______

Westward Expansion Map

  1. Using the map on page 4 (it has the year 1810 in the top right corner) to do the following (You will be coloring your map the same colors that are on the map online.):
  2. Color the states orange
  3. Color the territories light blue
  4. Color the claimed territories light green
  5. Color the unorganized territories dark green
  6. Label the location of the Louisiana Purchase
  7. Use the map on page 7 (the title is Oregon Trail) to draw the location of the Oregon Trail on the map.

Game board question cards (Cut the cards apart. Write your questions on one side and the answers on the other.)