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Writing Activities
- Have students read the following scenario and write a response to it by using the questions as guidelines. Note: This letter could be put in book form with illustrations included.
- Pretend you are a pioneer who has just landed on a new planet. Your expedition is the first to find and explore this new place. You are one of the explorers who will help build the first colony of settlers. Write a letter home to your family describing this new place. Include details about the landscape you see, and describe how you and the other members of your expedition feel in this new place. Think about this place as your new home.
- What opportunities exist for you here?
- Do you want your family to join you?
- What kinds of materials exist for you to build your homes?
- What kinds of food will you grow and eat?
- What are the native animals?
- Can they be used for work or food?
- This letter should give your family a sense of where and how you will be living in your new environment.
- Have students research and write about stagecoaches that were used for travel in North Dakota during the time of early settlement.
- Have each student keep a journal of his/her activities, dreams, goals, and frustrations. Encourage them to write in their journal at least two times a week detailing what their average day is like.
- What do they do in their free time?
- What are their favorite subjects in school?
- What kind of music do they listen to?
- What kinds of chores do they do around the house?
- What are the latest fashions for their age group?
- Note: Their journals should describe their experiences so that if someone who did not know them were to read the journal 100 years from now, the person would begin to understand what their life was like.
- Have each student imagine he/she is an early pioneer just coming to North Dakota by railroad to stake a claim on a small piece of land. Have them make a list of all the food, clothing, and other goods they would bring along to begin their new life. Give a reason for each item they choose. This writing activity would also lend itself well to a small group activity.
- Have students imagine it is the year 2289 and they go back in time 400 years and meet a pioneer family. But there is a problem, as this pioneer family does not believe they are from the future! Have the students write how they would persuade this family that they are really from the future. What will they tell the family to persuade them? Write what they see, and describe what it is like living 400 years in the past.
- Have students research their family tree, or if there is difficulty in doing this, have students work in small groups and choose one person’s ancestry to research and share.
