Last updated: July 3, 2024
Lesson Plan
Exploring the Anza Trail
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Front cover of the Exploring the Anza Trail activity book
NPS / EEE Photo
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 90 Minutes
- State Standards:
- 3.SP1.1, 3.SP1.2, 3.SP1.3, 3.SP4.1, 3.C3.2, 3.G1.1, 3.G2.1, 3.G3.1, 3.G4.1, 3.H1.1, 3.W.2, 4.W.2, 3.SL.1, 4.SL.1, 3.SL.3, 3.SL.4, 4.SL.4, VA.CR.1.3, VA.CN.10.3
- Thinking Skills:
- Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience.
Essential Question
What was it like to be a colonist on the Anza expedition and leave your home forever to face new challenges, make connections, and seek a better life?
Objective
✓ To provide engaging activities that help students relate to life during the Anza expedition.
✓ To help students contemplate essential concepts relevant both during the Anza expedition and today, such as overcoming challenges, having hope and courage, making connections, and seeking a better life.
✓ To depict life on the Anza Trail in a fun, dramatic, and engaging way.
Background
Exploring the Anza Trail is a three-part program:
➡ Part One is the pre-visit classroom lesson. Students will explore the meaning and significance of fundamental concepts that were relevant during the Anza Expedition and are still important today - concepts such as overcoming challenges, having hope and courage, making connections, and seeking a better life. Students will watch a short video on the history and major themes of the Anza Expedition. They will then visualize themselves as a colonist on the Anza Trail.
➡ Part Two is a 50-minute dramatic on-site presentation by a “member of the Anza Expedition”. An engaging storyteller portrays life on the Anza Trail while inviting students to participate in fun group activities. At the end of the presentation, all students will receive an Exploring the Anza Trail Activity Book filled with engaging activities and video links, and 4th graders will also receive a free National Parks pass. Teachers will receive a DVD of the National Park Service video, The Anza Expedition, 1775-1776, as well as some informational brochures and maps.
➡ Part Three includes a variety of post-visit classroom activities. Students have the opportunity to watch a historical video on the Anza Expedition, create a personal timeline, interview a family member about their heritage, write a letter home as a colonist on the Anza Trail, and visit relevant historic sites.
Preparation
- Schedule the dramatic 50-minute class presentation: contact Owen Daly-Forseth at owen@eeexchange.org or 520-670-1442. Alternatively, you can show the video recording of the presentation.
- Pre-visit Video: Show the 5-minute pre-visit video before your classroom presentation so that students are prepared with the necessary vocabulary and content.
- Print the Pre- and Post-Visit Activities: Part A2, all of Part B, and Part C3 could be done in class, or as homework assignments.
Materials
✓ Student Worksheet: My Expedition!, projected or printed (one per student) ✓ Chalkboard, Whiteboard, or Smart Board ✓ Computer and Projector Optional for vocabulary section: ✓ Piece of copy paper ✓ Small book ✓ Ball of yarn or string ✓ Drawing Supplies: colored pencils, markers, or crayons ✓ 6-minute Anza Expedition Pre-Visit Video
Download Exploring the Anza Trail
Lesson Hook/Preview
Welcome to Exploring the Anza Trail, an interdisciplinary program specifically designed for 3rd and 4th grade students. Through a series of hands-on activities, writing and drawing assignments, and a dramatic 50-minute class presentation, students put themselves in the shoes of a colonist on the Anza Trail to explore the universal concepts of overcoming obstacles, using resources, and seeking a better life.
Procedure
- Show your class the 5-minute Pre-Visit Video
- Show the 50-minute dramatic presentation either in-person or by video
- Schedule the 50-minute dramatic on-site presentation by a “member of the Anza Expedition." Contact Owen Daly-Forseth at owen@eeexchange.org or 520-670-1442 for the in-person presentation.
- Show the video recording of the 50-minute dramatic presentation
Video (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
- Print out or project the Student Worksheet: My Expedition! to accompany this lesson. If you choose to project the document, have students complete each section on a separate piece of paper. Refer to the Student Worksheet as you read through these instructions. Part A2, all of Part B, and Part C3 could be done in class, or as homework assignments.
Vocabulary
- Challenge: Something or someone that gets in the way of our goal or what we need; obstacle, barrier.
- Hope: Something that we want to happen; the feeling that good things will come; optimism.
- Courage: Facing our fears with confidence; being brave; rising to a challenge; standing up for what we believe in.
- Connection: The feeling of belonging to a group or feeling close to other people.