Lewis and Clark lesson

In elementary and middle school we all have the Lewis and Clark lesson. They talk about Lewis and Clark hiking across the Western United States with Sacagewea leading them with her baby strapped to her back. It’s a fascinating story. Unfortunately, it’s not a happy ending, and there is so much to go into. I’m about to head into teaching Lewis and Clark and the whole Westward Expansion again in our history lessons. I thought it was worth revisiting how I taught this lesson ages ago back when we last studied US history.

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Let’s talk Lewis and Clark in history

After Thomas Jefferson somewhat dubiously bought the Louisiana Purchase (our Government Class threw some serious shade at Jefferson with the point that he didn’t have the power as the president to do that, and Jefferson even admitted he didn’t, “but gosh darn it, it’s such a good deal, I’m going to go ahead and do it.”

Then he recruited Merriwether Lewis to lead the expedition to explore all this land which has doubled the United States in size. Lewis was a captain in the army and had quite a bit of experience exploring the wilds. Lewis turned around and recruited William Clark to join him as his second in command, and then promoted him to co-leader.

Contrary to what I was thinking, they did not start down in New Orleans, but up in Missouri, where many pioneers would start their journey West. They ran into a bit of luck up in the Dakota area and ran into a fur trapper who was married to a Shoshone woman, named, you guessed it, Sacagewea.

She’s amazingly helpful to the expedition. Here’s a shortlist of what she did.

• translated to other tribes they ran into
• serving as a guide in the areas she’d been to
• helped them find food
• helped calm natives when all of these strange men came hiking into their area, because a young mother was with them

They slowly traveled West and gathered a wide variety of new plants and animals to send back to Thomas Jefferson. If you ever visit Monticello, they’ll point out some of the items in Jefferson’s home that he kept after his presidency.

Lewis and Clark resources

Our Lewis and Clark lesson all started from the Mystery of History vol. 4 lesson.

Your Life as a Private on the Lewis and Clark Expedition– which is in our library and looks to be a great source

BUT, the big one I remember from when we studied this way back when the kids were little:

Lewis and Clark: A Prarie Dog for the President– which I have to admit I partially remember because I lost the original copy the library had and had to buy the book. After buying it, it was found under one of the boys’ bed, and I have no clue how it got there. But, it’s well worth getting if you can find it, just make sure you check under your kid’s bed if you check it out from the library.

For our history this year, these are the videos I’ve added to my Westward Expansion playlist (which I’m still putting together) for our Lewis and Clark lesson:

 

It’s actually kind of amazing this is probably the best video I found about them, though this is good history, but weird.

 

Our Lewis and Clark lesson

Now, after we read the history lesson, I said we were going to head out to the nearby park and create a map of the park like Lewis and Clark did for President Jefferson.

First, they had to put together their lunch (this would be a perfect time to use the sailor’s meal). Then we headed off to the park with an interesting array of food, a notebook to make a map like Merriweather Lewis compiled, and a general level of excitement.

Their maps were rather amusing and sometimes less than accurate, but it was a good exercise for them to do (Expanded on in the Lewis and Clark mapmaking lesson when my kids were itty bitty and we did another variation on this).

More fun history lessons

• Lewis and Clark mapmaking lesson
• Oregon Trail booklist
• Portolan Navigation
• Oklahoma unit
• Native American report