Section 1: The Floating House
(By: Scott Russell Sanders)
In 1815 the McClure family decided to load up their wagon, farm tools,
household goods, horse, cow, pig, and mule onto a flatboat and head down
the Ohio River in search of richer land. The family is looking for Jeffersonville,
Indiana where they will build their new home. However, we see that along
the journey everyone must pitch in to make the journey a success. The children
help to watch for dangers on the river, pa steers the boat and hunts for
food, and ma cooks the food. With the help of fellow pioneer friends we
see the family anxious to see this new place and all it has to offer.
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Section 2: Wagons West! (By: Roy Gerrard)
(page 1-16)
This picture book tells an adventure about a wild journey on the Oregon
Trail. It tells of pioneers hoping to find rich green land out West. The
hearty pioneers are invited by Buckskin Dan, who becomes their trusty leader,
to take up their stuff and travel west along side him. They fight off outlaws
near Fort Laramie, rescue a lost Indian boy, and raft down the rocky Columbia
River. They eventually start new lives in the fertile Williamette Valley.
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Section 3: Wagons West! (By: Roy Gerrard)
(page 17-31)
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Section 4: A Fourth of July on the Plains
(By: Jean Van Leeuwen) (page 1-16)
As a group of pioneers travel west they stop to rest their weary cattle.
Pa makes the decision that the wagon train would stop till after the Fourth
of July. Jesse begins to remember that back home the Fourth of July was
a day of flying flags, booming canons, of parades, speeches, and games.
To make the holiday just as special as it was back home everyone prepared
for the holiday. Everyone helped by hunting for game, baking pies, assembling
tables, and sewing a flag from scraps of clothes. Jesse decided to help
in the most wonderful way that would add thrill to this glorious holiday.
He decides to create his own band out of supplies around the camp to make
the Fourth of July the most it could be.
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Section 5: A Fourth of July on the Plains
(By: Jean Van Leeuwen) (page 17-29)
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Section 6: My Prairie Christmas (By:
Brett Harvey) (page 1-14)
Elenore Plaisted’s first Christmas on the prairie is much different
from her Christmas back in Maine. Since her family moved west there is
neither relatives to help in preparing the meals nor Christmas trees for
the family to cut down for the holiday. All of the family’s ornaments are
in Maine, there is no flour for baking, or cranberries to string on the
tree. However, there is plenty of corn on the farm so they use it to make
tree decorations and for baking. Papa decides that he will walk through
the snowy plains to find an evergreen to cut for the house. However, when
Papa leaves to get a tree there is a howling blizzard and does not come
back for several days. Mama decides that Christmas will go on this year
despite the hardships, so she takes the girls and ventures out to a tree.
It is not until Papa returns that Christmas becomes special and a Christmas
the Elenore will never forget.
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Section 7: My Prairie Christmas (By:
Brett Harvey) (page 15-29)
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Section 8: Hard Times on the Prairie
(By: Laura Ingalls Wilder) (page 1-19)
Laura and her family learn that frontier life is not easy for the pioneers.
They are faced with summer floods, winter blizzards, and plagues of grasshoppers,
but with pioneer spirit they make it through these hard time.
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Section 9: Hard Times on the Prairie
(By: Laura Ingalls Wilder) (page 20-45)
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Section 10: Hard Times on the Prairie
(By: Laura Ingalls Wilder) (page 46-72)
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