The Wild West Topic - Lesson 15: Science | Plants and Animals of the Plains

Discover how America became the United States and explore the journey across the Western Frontier with the pioneers as they settle in new lands, meet the native Americans and encounter the difficulties and challenges of life on the Great Plains. Intended for Year 3 and 4 but easily adaptable for other age groups, this Wild West cross-curricular topic gives you a creative approach to the curriculum and enables you to give your class an all-round view of this period in American history.

Download the two Art lessons that form part of a complete Year 3/4 'Wild West' classic cross-curricular topic.

Download the two DT lessons that form part of a complete Year 3/4 'Wild West' classic cross-curricular topic.

Download the two Geography lessons that form part of a complete Year 3/4 'Wild West' classic cross-curricular topic. 

Introduce your class to cowboys, pioneers and Native Americans in this KS2 History scheme of work as your class explore the settlement of America by Europeans. Your class will find out about the long journey westward across the Appalachian mountains and how homesteaders set up their lives on the Great Plains. They will also learn about the native American way of life and how this was affected by the arrival of European settlers.

With lesson plans, presentations and a range of printable resources, these 'Wild West' History lessons contain everything you need to explore early American history with your children. Perfect if you are teaching 'The USA' as a cross-curricular topic.

**Teacher note: these History lessons are identical to the History lessons within our 'USA Road Trip Topic Bundle' Topic Bundle.

Download the three RE lessons that form part of a complete Year 3/4 'Wild West' classic cross-curricular topic.

Download the three Science lessons that form part of a complete Year 3/4 'Wild West' classic cross-curricular topic.

Keep bad dreams at bay! In this lesson, your class learn where dreamcatchers originated and study some examples before going on to design, make and evaluate their very own Native American dreamcatchers. 

The Iroquois tribe used false face masks to scare away evil spirits. This lesson describes how false face masks were used by the Iroquois and shows your class some examples before they design, make and evaluate their own masks.

The pioneers spent months travelling across America in their prairie schooners. This lesson informs your class about the different features of these wagons before they come to design, make and evaluate their own prairie schooners.

This lesson shows your children some examples of patchwork quilts, both the necessary and the artistic, before they get the chance to design their own patchwork square. You can sew all the finished products together to make a beautiful classwork patchwork quilt too.

Maps at the ready in this lesson as your class learn to identify America and the Great Plains as well as studying the states that are situated on the Plains today.

This lesson allows your class to explore the geography of the Great Plains by studying their landscape, climate, size, seasons, rainfall and soils. Your class will use pictures to help them describe the landscape.

The first lesson in this History series describes briefly the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, the European settlement of America and how America became the United States, before looking at how and why the pioneers left the States to settle beyond the Western Frontier.

Investigate the Native American way of life before the pioneers came to settle on the Plains. Find out how they lived by following the buffalo, how tipis fit their nomadic lifestyle, as well as aspects of their daily life.

This lesson explores what happened when the pioneers and the Native Americans met and why they clashed. Find out about famous battles, such as Little Bighorn, and why the reservations didn't work, resulting in the ultimate defeat of a centuries-old way of life.

Find out why the government and railroad companies gave away free land to families willing to settle on the Great Plains and how the homesteaders made a life for themselves on this difficult terrain, gradually overcoming a host of problems and difficulties to create towns and communities.

The life of a cowboy wasn't always as exciting as Hollywood films may make you believe! This lesson tells your class about the lives of real cowboys, what they had to do, what they wore and why, what happened on the long drive northwards and what they did when they reached their destination.

This introductory lesson gives your class the chance to explore the fundamental beliefs of Christianity and some of the teachings of the Bible, especially the Ten Commandments.

When the first Europeans settled in America they brought their Christian beliefs with them. This lesson explores how Christianity impacted on the lives of Christian pioneers and how Bible teachings would have helped them as they faced the hardships of life on the Plains. 

In this lesson, your class will explore some of the plants and animals of the Great Plains and begin to describe them using appropriate vocabulary. They will also recap some of the ways in which plants and animals can be classified.

This lesson encourages your class to think of the ways in which they can organise plants and animals of the Great Plains into groups according to varying criteria.

This lesson introduces your class to food chains and vocabulary such as producer, consumer, carnivore, herbivore and omnivore before looking at the feeding relationships between animals on the Plains and giving them the chance to organise animals and plants into food chains.