1. WARM -UP 1) Look over your exam & create a list of questions you have
2) Look at the following quote and create 3 statements about what you imagine life was like.
“The homesteaders faced many challenges. Everything about the prairie was extreme. The land was flat and treeless and the sky seemed to go on forever. Summer brought endless days of heat when the surface temperature could exceed 120 degrees. Periods of drought, rainstorms, tornadoes, swarms of grasshoppers that could destroy fields of crops, and never-ending wind also challenged settlers. Winters were long and cold. Blizzards were so strong that they could trap livestock and homesteaders under the snow. “

2. FARMING THE PLAINS

3. Who wouldn’t want to live here?

4. What is the geography of the Great Plains?
The Great Plains are flat, dry and grassy land
The Wheat Belt is located on the Great Plains

5. What do you notice about the Great Plains?

6. With a partner: Using this map, explain why the Great Plains are so important to America

7. How did Railroads affect settlement?
3 big changes: Goods moved quicker and farther, People can travel easier, Cheap Land Opportunities

8. What was the Homestead Act?
1862
Provided cheap/free land to Americans
Act provided for 160 acres per application out West
5 Year requirement attached to land (why?)

9. Turn and Talk: Have you seen a modern-day version of this type of advertisement?

10. The Wheat Belt Farming technology was changing
That new technology was changing the way people farm and produce
Made farming the Great Plains a possibility

11. New Technology Threshing Machines (knocked seeds loose)
Windmill (water)
Binder (allowed crops to be gathered quicker)
Mechanical Reaper (cut as fast as 5 men)
Seed Drill (dirt dry and hard)
Steel Plow (dirt dry and hard)

12. Turn and talk - Which technology do you think was most important for the successful cultivation of the Great Plains?

13. How did this new technology change America?
Food becomes cheaper (why?)
Less farmers needed (why?)
More free time (what might this lead to?)
Population shifts (Where? Why?)

14. Farming Acrostics
Individually create an Acrostic that describes lives of farmers on the Great Plains.
1) Use the words GREAT PLAINS for your acrostic
2) Be sure to include the page number you found the information (pgs80-83 in the text)
3) Be creative, write in the voice of the people from that time
Example:
My house is shabby and the town is a dump. (pg 75)
I found gold only 1 time this month, where are the riches?
New technology like hydraulic mining helps me out.(pg 76)
Every farmer complains we are flooding their crops (notes)
Rot gut is my beverage of choice, I wish there were some women about (notes / pg 77)