Did you think we bailed on the Lewis & Clark Summer Expedition? I don’t blame you. It’s been awhile, but we finally managed to complete Week Three’s animal tracks activity. It rained quite a bit over the 4th of July weekend, making it ideal for spotting them. Now we’re reading for Week Four as the expedition heads into what is now Iowa.
Reading
Begin by reading from the Lewis & Clark journal entries they wrote while traveling along Iowa. I experimented with P and asked him to read them on his own, expecting resistance and drama. I was disappointed (pleasantly so). He read them all without complaint.
Print Week Four activities here
Expedition Exploration & Writing
I’m a wee bit jealous that we don’t live in a state that Lewis and Clark explored so this week we’re looking into explorers of Wisconsin. We scoured the library’s catalog for books and resources about our state’s history. Here are this week’s activities:
- Find out who the primary explorers were in your home state. Think about the “Explorer Mindset”. What do you think makes a good explorer? What do the explorers in your state have in common with Lewis & Clark? Write about it in your journal.
- Do a little exploring of your own. Visit a historic site or living history museum in your region. Imagine what it must have been like for the expedition traveling by river & for four years. Write about what you observed and what you think it might have been like to travel that far by foot and boat 200 years ago.
My son chose activity A and I chose B. He almost always chooses the activity that’s physical over the more cerebral one so this surprised me. It’s hard not to get outside with this kid.
He read about Jean Nicolet in a neat book written by Wisconsin middle school students, Wisconsin for Kids by Kids. We read more about Wisconsin’s early explorers in Wisconsin: Our State, Our Story, a wonderful book put out by the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Reading about Jean Nicolet led him to read more in Wisconsin for Kids by Kids. He was especially interested in Aldo Leopold so he journaled about Leopold’s life instead of the Lewis & Clark activity, but writing is writing. I’ll take it!
I visited Red Banks Historic spot. Not far outside of Green Bay, it commemorates Jean Nicolet’s arrival in Wisconsin (prior to statehood) in 1634. Wearing a Chinese silk robe and shooting two pistols (or so says the legend), he landed in what is now Wisconsin. Sent by the French Canadians, Nicolet was the first documented European in Wisconsin.
Now that I satisfied my curiosity about explorers in Wisconsin, I’m looking forward to the expedition moving into South Dakota. I’ve had some of my favorite field trips in South Dakota.
See you on the trail!
Never miss a field trip!
Subscribe to our email list.
Growing up in Wisconsin, I earned a curiosity for history. Now I’m old enough (71) be in a history book or at least have lived through some great historical events. Each state has such amazing things to learn about like volcanos and dinosaurs in Utah.