Last updated: December 28, 2021
Lesson Plan
Border Conflict 3rd & 4th Grade
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- State Standards:
- Missouri: #3a. Knowledge of continuity & change in the history of Missouri and the U.S. Concept F - Westward Expansion and settlement in the U.S.
Kansas - KCCRS RI.4.3 Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or - Additional Standards:
- technical text.
Oklahoma - 3.1.4 Describe relationships between people and events of the past, including those commemorated on national, state, and community holidays. - 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. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Creating: Bring together parts (elements, compounds) of knowledge to form a whole and build relationships for NEW situations. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.
Essential Question
Can a legislature pass legislation to end a crisis?
Objective
Students will become aware that not every Crisis has a black and white solution that can be solved with a pen stroke.
Student Friendly Objective: I will see that sometimes there are unintended consequences to good intentions.
Background
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854-Became law on May 30,1854. The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, created two new territories, and allowed for popular sovereignty. It also produced a violent uprising known as "Bleeding Kansas," as proslavery and antislavery activists flooded into the territories to sway the vote.
Fort Scott National Historic Site video clip: Bleeding Kansas, 4:18
Popular Sovereignty leads to Bleeding Kansas You Tube Video, 1:33
Kansas-Nebraska Act/Popular Sovereignty - Road to the Civil War
Compromise of 1820-This co-called Missouri Compromise drew a line from east to west along the 36th parallel, dividing the nation into competing halves-half free, half slave. The House passed the compromise bill on March 2, 1820.
The Compromise of 1850 consists of five laws passed in September of 1850 that dealt with the issue of slavery and territorial expansion. ...As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished.
Preparation
Have a large balloon filled with water and tied at top.
Five gallon tub.
Scotch or painter's tape
Marker
Materials
Lesson Hook/Preview
Ever scrape your knee? Did that scrape ever become worse because you didn't disinfect or clean it? Did your wound ever reopen if scraped again?
Procedure
Show video: Kansas-Nebraska Act/Popular Sovereignty - Road to Civil War, 4:34 min.
Show Fort Scott National Historic Site video clip: Bleeding Kansas, 4:18 min.
Discuss
ShowPopular Sovereignty leads to Bleeding Kansas You Tube video, 1:33 min.
Discuss
Prepare two strips of scotch/painter's tape, one saying Compromise of 1820, the other labeled Compromise of 1850.
Over a five gallon bucket, push a pin hole into water-filled balloon, quickly attach first piece of scotch tape saying Compromise of 1820.
Over five gallon bucket, push a pin hole into water-filled balloon on opposite site of first pin hole, quickly attach second piece of scotch tape saying Compromise of 1850. By this time the outside of the balloon should be wet.
Tell students you are going to place pin holes to represent the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the Emigrant Aid Society, Missouri slave supporters.
Ready your strips of scotch tape to represent these elements, then proceed to place pinholes.
Conclusion: Hopefully students will be able to see the visual representation of "Bleeding Kansas" through the fragile balloon exercise.
Teacher led concluding discussion:
1) Can you legislate a moral issue?
2) If you can't legislate a moral issue, ie., Slavery, how should a nation deal with it?
3) What is needed in a nation to have a successful democracy prevent violence between groups of differing beliefs?
Vocabulary
Popular Sovereignty: also called Squatter Sovereignty, in U.S. history, a controversial political doctrine according to which the people of federal territories should decide for themselves whether their territories would enter the Union as free or slave states. Its enemies, especially in New England, called it "squatter sovereignty".
Manifest Destiny: In U.S. history, the supposed inevitability of a continued territorial expansion of the boundaries of the United States westward to the Pacific and beyond. Before the American Civil War (1861-1865), the idea of Manifest Destiny was used to validate continental acquisitions in the Oregon Country, Texas, New Mexico, and California.
Supports for Struggling Learners
Ask students to think of a time when something grew bigger causing problems for the space it was in and people it was with (puppy, plants, etc.) Ask them to find one similarity between their personal situation and that of the situation during Bleeding Kansas.
Enrichment Activities
Have students construct a railroad that bridges together the differing perspectives of the United States. Have the railroad be made of words that join and unify the United States. Then have students construct multiple spots in Kansas that break the RR that is working to unify the U.S. Have them construct an obstacle in words or physical form that would break the train of unity. Have them show their displays to the class, paying close attention to struggling learners.