Buffalo Bill, and more Wild West

Well we circled back around to Western Expansion and the Wild West again in our studies of American History.  Mainly we focused this time on the Indian Wars and the West after the Civil War ended.  

Since we cover most of the Wild West before I gave Dare-Devil Boy the choice on some things about the west he wanted to learn more about.  The result was as fallowed: Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickcok, the pony express, the Indian Wars and the Tall Tales that came out of that time. 



So here is some of the things we did this time around for our learning on the Wild West and the added stuff we did.  Also here is the schedule for the the things we I planed out.  It also has lots more books, activities and other things that I've added.  Click here for the schedule.


Books:




Crafts:

Covered Wagon
Wanted Poster (here is a picture)

 

Lapbooks/Notebooks & other printables:
Western Ho! (from Dynamic 2 Moms)

Oregon Trail (from Lapbook Lessons)

Pony express coloring page


Videos:


We finished up the mini-series Into the West.  It the series really helped out our learning about the Indian Wars that we learned about this year.  
Episode:

• Casualties of War
• Ghost Dance

There are a few fighting scenes that your young children might not like.  My children didn't mind.  In our house those scene were what really brought home the reality of how unfair it was.  It became a great way to talk more about what happened.  

Also here are a few of the other clips we added.

John Henry part 1 & 2

 Frontier House part 1

There are more clips and videos we used.  You can find them in the schedule up above.  Hope you enjoy some of the things we added.
 

Covered Wagon

This year we are took a trip back to the Wild West.  Most of it was a review of what we learned last year, but we managed to learn some new things. One thing we did this year, that we didn't do last year was make a covered wagon.  

Last year I bought WinterPromise's Early American Trades & Crafts Kit.  This kit has lot of different craft kits that are already pre-made for you.  One of the crafts was to make a Covered Wagon.  We never did it last year, but this year Dare-Devil Boy really wanted to make one.  


So I went searching for the kit and pulled it out to make.  My husband did the main building.

Dare-Devil Boy paint the covered wagon.  

With the help of Wonder Girl

And I had the task of hand sewing the cover onto the wagon. Which took a lot longer then I thought.  There is the final product.  Hondo wanted to get in to the picture.

Not sure what to do with it now.  My husband plans on making it into a lamp.  But as for now it'll be sitting up a high shelf so it doesn't get broken.

Wild Wild West and the Young Riders

Gold Rush!  Cowboys & Indians! Outlaws! 

What do you think of when you hear the wild west?  Those are a few of the things we learned about in our final section of our study through the early part of American History.  This was a very brief unit but has become one of our favorite parts so far.  We will pick up more on this unit when we do some review next year when we pick up learning about the rest of American History (Pre-Civil War to present).

Here are all the books and extra things we used to make it more fun.  (I'm going to add a bunch more things when we cover it again next year.)

Books:



Notebook pages & Lapbook:
We didn't do much lapbooking or notebooking because I just didn't have much time.  But you can get some lapbook parts from Homeschoolshare.


Websites:

• My friend at Butterflies & Barefoot Lasses has a unit on Cowboys.
• Gold Rush game.
• By the Great Horn Spoon website to go along with the book.
• WayBack Gold Rush 
• Gold Rush California's Untold Stories
• Strike It Rich! (game) My kids like this one.
• Oregon Trail game.  Its the game I played as a kids but updated.  If you have a Facebook account you can play it for free.

Videos:


We've been Watching through this series on Netflix.  Its great and my kid's love it.  Dare-Devil Boy has been become intersted in Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill since we've started watching it.  I've posted just the first part of the first episode of the first season.  There are 5 parts to this episode.




There is 5 parts to this series.  I'm posting just the first.



Clip from America:The Story of US


Pecos Bill Cartoon:






There are lots of other books, videos, projects, websites and other things to do for this unit.  But I'm saving it for next year when we do a short review unit on the west.  I hope you all enjoy the stuff I've added for this unit.