Virtual Field Trip to the Dust Bowl

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Virtual Field Trip to the Dust Bowl

• By Rachael Caskey

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Themes/Concepts

• People, places, and environment
• Culture
• Grade Level Fifth Grade
• History of the United States
• Geography of the United States

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New York State Standards

• Social Studies, Standard 3. Geography, students
  will use a variety of intellectual skills to
  demonstrate their understanding of the geography
  of the interdependent world in which we live
  local, national, and global including the
  distribution of people, places, and environments
  over the earths surface.

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Student Outcomes

• Explain what the Dust Bowl was, when it occurred,
  and who was affected by it
• Describe what some people did to cope with the
  Dust Bowl
• Explain how the geography of the land contributed
  to the Dust Bowl

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Imagine

• The year is 1935. You are ten years old. Your
  parents are trying to decide whether to pack up
  their belongings and leave the farm behind or to
  stick it out in Oklahoma until the end of the
  Dust Bowl. Because of the Great Depression,
  drought, and the Dust Bowl many of your neighbors
  have left for California. Read on to see what
  you would have decided

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What caused the Dust Bowl?

• The Dust Bowl was caused in part by the raising
  of cattle and planting of crops on the plains.
  This resulted in destruction of the natural
  grasslands and allowed the wind to erode the
  soil.
• What do you think could have been done to prevent
  the Dust Bowl from occurring?

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Who could have helped you in the dust bowl?

• Many children wrote to President Roosevelt or his
  wife hoping for help.
• Here is a letter written by a 13 year old boy
  from Kansas who was suffering through the Dust
  Bowl.

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Life on the Farm in Oklahoma

• Life on the farm was hard. There were chores to
  complete every day and you raised most if not all
  of your food. Many children had to leave school
  to help on their family farm.
• Imagine what life on the farm would be like for
  you

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If you left Oklahoma, one of your destinations
might have been Weedpatch Camp

• Click here to see what Weedpatch Camp was like
  and what it would have offered your family

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If you didnt go to a migrant camp in California

• You most likely didnt receive a warm welcome.
  Many migrants were not welcomed in California and
  if they found work, they worked for very low
  wages.
• Was California really a better option for the
  Okies?

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You have reached the end of your journey through
the Dust Bowl

• What do you think?
• Would you have stayed in Oklahoma or gone to
  California?
• What could have been done to prevent the Dust
  Bowl? Anything?
• If you stayed in Oklahoma what did you do to get
  by?

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Follow-Up Activity

• Write a letter from the point of view living
  through the Dust Bowl.
• Do you want to know what its like in California,
  are you looking for help from someone, or are you
  writing a letter to a friend?
• Be sure to include at least five facts you have
  learned about the Dust Bowl!

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Questions?
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Resources

• This website gave detailed definition of the Dust
  Bowl and why it occurred.
• http//encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761572810/Dus
  t_Bowl.html
• This website described the migrants experience
  upon arriving in California.
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/peopleevent
  s/pandeAMEX08.html
• This website shows Weedpatch Camp and what it
  offered migrants from the plains.
• http//www.weedpatchcamp.com/camp.htm
• This website offers a glimpse of farm life during
  the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.
• http//www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/
  life_01.html
• Here is a letter from a 13-year old boy who wrote
  to Eleanor Roosevelt.
• http//newdeal.feri.org/eleanor/fm1137.htm