The Lewis & Clark Summer Expedition Begins!

 

Week One

And so it begins! Have you already read the Lewis & Clark Summer Expedition prep post?  Are your journals and expedition maps ready? No? Click here to get started. Yes? Let’s go!

Expedition Journal

Each of the original Lewis & Clark Expedition members kept a journal and so are the kids on our Summer Expedition. Kids can write in it as much as they want to or just write when an activity calls for it. I’d love it if P spent all summer writing away in his journal, but I know he’ll only do it when he has to which means at the end of each activity. Sigh.

Click here to download your Lewis and Clark Missouri Printable

The Lewis & Clark Expedition started their expedition heading up the Missouri River, so we’re also starting by heading up the river. Print the Missouri page above to get started.

Boat Background

P and I read about the keelboat and pirogues the expedition used in The Lewis & Clark Expedition: Join the Corps of Discovery to Explore Uncharted Territory by Carol A. Johmann. If you don’t have Lewis & Clark books at home, check out the sites below to get an idea of what life might have been like going up the Missouri River in the 1800s.

• Lewisclark.org has some interesting, but very detailed information here.
• For a little bit simpler information try lewis-clark.org’s pages on the boats they used here.

Making Boats

There are two activities to choose from this week: Try kayaking or canoeing or make your own boat and float it down a stream, at the beach or in the tub. I really wanted to take P kayaking, but work and other obligations made that impossible. Instead we chose activity #2 and ended up having a great time.

P decided to make his boat on his own while I was at the grocery store yesterday and came up with a “beaut”, but soon learned that glue is not the way to secure a seaworthy boat.

We talked about where to go to try out the boat he made. We thought about Mahon’s Creek on UWGB’s arboretum and Baird’s Creek, but ultimately P thought outside the box (his Grandpa frequently says, that boy thinks so far outside the box he doesn’t even know where the box IS). He wanted to make a river. 

Making a River?

Yes, we made a river. I really hope he couldn’t tell what I was thinking when he announced he wanted to make his own river which was something like “Oh man! Seriously? Can’t we just drive somewhere, throw the boat in the water and do this thing?” I recovered and we started brainstorming with duct tape and milk cartons.

It turned out pretty darn well, but as I expected, the boat, modeled after the pirogues and held together with glue, quickly fell apart.  We switched over to a boat leftover from his scout rain gutter regatta and imagined it was the expedition’s keelboat. It worked really well on our very windy day.

I hope your first Lewis & Clark Summer Expedition adventure isn’t as intense as ours was. If you’re looking for boat ideas, check out my Lewis & Clark Pinterest board.

Once your children have completed the activities on the Missouri sheet, they can either color in Missouri or cut out the small Missouri from the Missouri sheet and paste it on their map to mark their progress. Of course P still hasn’t written in his journal…

See you on the trail!