Spirit of the Old West

 Our third grade class went on a field trip to the Blackhawk Museum on Thursday, May 10 to see the Spirit of the Old West exhibit. This exhibit is dedicated to presenting a balanced narrative of both Native Americans and American Settler – depicting their challenges, their successes and failures, their ways of life. Since our two main social studies units in third grade are about Native Americans and Pioneers, this was the perfect field trip to complement our studies. We saw many of the animals that roam the plains and mountains, many artifacts from Native Americans and Pioneers, a life size replica of a covered wagon, and a very large miniature diorama that tells the story of the settlement of the western plains. The students’ favorite activity was spinning the “wheel of death” to learn about the many ways the Native Americans and Pioneers might have died since life back then was much harder than it is today. We also got to tour the auto museum and get a VIP “sneak peak” at an upcoming exhibit still being built.

Many thanks to Keely Dreisbach for organizing and coordinating this amazing field trip for our class!