Document #1 _______________________________________________
Document #2 ______________________________________________
Document #3_______________________________________________
Document #4
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Toni McDevitt
Orphan Train
Theme: Students will learn about the orphan trains and attempt to understand how many of the children on the trains must have felt.
Grade Level: Fourth
Materials needed:
· Primary documents from WHS 1-4 (teacher copy)
· Primary Document #3 (20 copies)
· Primary Document #4 (20 copies)
· Journaling paper
· Lecture notes, paper copy and overhead copy
Questions to go with lecture notes, paper copy only
Goal: Students will demonstrate the skills needed to analyze historical evidence and draw conclusions by participating in the discussion of the orphan trains, along with viewing and studying primary documents associated with this topic.
Objectives:
1. Students will be able to participate in class discussion helping to list the facts of the orphan trains.
2. Students will analyze the primary documents associated with the orphan train and express through a journal entry what the children of the orphan trains went through physically and emotionally.
Procedures:
A. Introductory experience: (5 minutes)
· Explain to children we are going to have a 30 second shout out. What we are going to shout out is different cargo items that might have been transported on the steam engines in Minnesota.
· When the teacher says go, he/she will listen to the different shouts from the students and list all of the answers on the board. Remind students their shout out can only be one word. For example, if a student wants to give the answer of corn for a possible cargo item, he only shouts that word out once. He is not to say “corn, corn, corn” etc. If after several seconds he doesn’t see his shout out on the board, he may shout it out again.
· After the 30 seconds, look over the list of possible cargo. Assuming none of the students shouted out the idea of orphans, tell the students you are going to add one more cargo item to the list…orphans. If someone did say orphans, ask the class who said orphans and tell him or her they are exactly right.
· Tell the students that today we are going to start learning about orphan trains.
B. Developmental Experiences:
#1 Discussion of what the orphan trains were: (15 minutes)
· Give definition from attached lecture sheet.
· Show them the primary documents informing the students they will be using them later in the class.
· Continue with the lecture as noted on the attached lecture sheet. Show the lecture notes as you go on the overhead.
· Hand out to students primary documents. Explain to the students that these were actual articles in a Winona paper called the Winona Daily Republican. Document #3, "Orphan Children Coming", was printed on Aug. 16, 1900 and document #4, "Are Taken To New Homes", was printed on July 27, 1901
· Ask a for a student volunteer to calculate the math problem telling us how old these articles are.
Goal: Students will demonstrate the skills needed to analyze historical evidence and draw conclusions by participating in the discussion of the orphan trains, along with viewing and studying primary documents associated with this topic.
Objectives:
1. Students will be able to participate in class discussion helping to list the facts of the orphan trains.
2. Students will analyze the primary documents associated with the orphan train and express through a journal entry what the children of the orphan trains went through physically and emotionally.
Procedures:
A. Introductory experience: (5 minutes)
· Explain to children we are going to have a 30 second shout out. What we are going to shout out is different cargo items that might have been transported on the steam engines in Minnesota.
· When the teacher says go, he/she will listen to the different shouts from the students and list all of the answers on the board. Remind students their shout out can only be one word. For example, if a student wants to give the answer of corn for a possible cargo item, he only shouts that word out once. He is not to say “corn, corn, corn” etc. If after several seconds he doesn’t see his shout out on the board, he may shout it out again.
· After the 30 seconds, look over the list of possible cargo. Assuming none of the students shouted out the idea of orphans, tell the students you are going to add one more cargo item to the list…orphans. If someone did say orphans, ask the class who said orphans and tell him or her they are exactly right.
· Tell the students that today we are going to start learning about orphan trains.
B. Developmental Experiences:
#1 Discussion of what the orphan trains were: (15 minutes)
· Give definition from attached lecture sheet.
· Show them the primary documents informing the students they will be using them later in the class.
· Continue with the lecture as noted on the attached lecture sheet. Show the lecture notes as you go on the overhead.
· Hand out to students primary documents. Explain to the students that these were actual articles in a Winona paper called the Winona Daily Republican. Document #3, "Orphan Children Coming", was printed on Aug. 16, 1900 and document #4, "Are Taken To New Homes", was printed on July 27, 1901
· Ask a for a student volunteer to calculate the math problem telling us how old these articles are.
#2 Fact finding activity: (18 minutes)
· Read aloud, with the students reading along silently, document #3. Have the children highlight the facts they find interesting. Make sure to read slowly allowing time for the students to highlight. After doing this, make a list on the overhead of the different facts the students had highlighted. Do this again with document #4.
#3 Putting faces with the print: (2 minutes)
· Now show the students document #1 and #2. Explain to the students that these are pictures of actual orphan train children who made that long scary ride from New York to Winona. Explain to the students that in tomorrow’s lesson we will be learning more about these orphans.
C. Culminating experience:
#1 Journal Entry: (5 minutes)
· Give students a piece of journal paper. Ask them to journal what they think the children who were on the orphan train might have felt emotionally or what they may have been going through as they left the orphanages out East to travel west.
Assessment: Will read journal entries evaluating the ability of the students to make conclusions based on the documents from today’s lesson.
· Read aloud, with the students reading along silently, document #3. Have the children highlight the facts they find interesting. Make sure to read slowly allowing time for the students to highlight. After doing this, make a list on the overhead of the different facts the students had highlighted. Do this again with document #4.
#3 Putting faces with the print: (2 minutes)
· Now show the students document #1 and #2. Explain to the students that these are pictures of actual orphan train children who made that long scary ride from New York to Winona. Explain to the students that in tomorrow’s lesson we will be learning more about these orphans.
C. Culminating experience:
#1 Journal Entry: (5 minutes)
· Give students a piece of journal paper. Ask them to journal what they think the children who were on the orphan train might have felt emotionally or what they may have been going through as they left the orphanages out East to travel west.
Assessment: Will read journal entries evaluating the ability of the students to make conclusions based on the documents from today’s lesson.
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Orphan Trains Facts
Definition of Orphan Trains ~Trains that started from the East coast headed to the cities in the Mid-West and the West filled with children who needed homes.
1) These trains ran from 1854 to 1929.
2) The children on these trains came from large cities such as New York and Boston.
3) There were approximately 200,000 children sent out on the orphan trains.
4) Many of the children on the trains were not actual orphans but were given up by parents who were too poor to care for them.
5) When the trains would stop at the different communities, churches and newspapers usually provided advance notice of a trains arrival so that local citizens could prepare to pick up their new children.
6) Some children were already spoken for and had their “new” parents waiting for them at the train stations.
7) The other orphans were cleaned up, dressed in a Sunday best outfit, and lined up for people to inspect them as possible new adoptive children. The locals sometimes evaluated children by poking and prodding, as they might have done at a livestock auction.
8) The children who failed to secure adoptive families at one stop were put back onto the train in hopes that their success would be better at the next community.
9) Some siblings were adopted into the same family but for most, they were separated and adopted into different families.
10) Some children were taken in by loving families who gave them warm and supportive homes, while others ended up as mere servants or field hands.
11) Most of the children had nothing to bring with them other than one change of clothes.
Definition of Orphan Trains ~Trains that started from the East coast headed to the cities in the Mid-West and the West filled with children who needed homes.
1) These trains ran from 1854 to 1929.
2) The children on these trains came from large cities such as New York and Boston.
3) There were approximately 200,000 children sent out on the orphan trains.
4) Many of the children on the trains were not actual orphans but were given up by parents who were too poor to care for them.
5) When the trains would stop at the different communities, churches and newspapers usually provided advance notice of a trains arrival so that local citizens could prepare to pick up their new children.
6) Some children were already spoken for and had their “new” parents waiting for them at the train stations.
7) The other orphans were cleaned up, dressed in a Sunday best outfit, and lined up for people to inspect them as possible new adoptive children. The locals sometimes evaluated children by poking and prodding, as they might have done at a livestock auction.
8) The children who failed to secure adoptive families at one stop were put back onto the train in hopes that their success would be better at the next community.
9) Some siblings were adopted into the same family but for most, they were separated and adopted into different families.
10) Some children were taken in by loving families who gave them warm and supportive homes, while others ended up as mere servants or field hands.
11) Most of the children had nothing to bring with them other than one change of clothes.
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Questions to ask with lecture fact notes
1) Ask volunteer to calculate how many years this is.
2) Ask a volunteer to go to the map and find New York and find Winona showing the distance between the two cities.
3) Compare this number to the total number of citizens in the town of Winona (27,000). See if a student volunteer would want to calculate how many times Winona would have to be multiplied to make 200,000.
4) Why would these parents give up their children? Why couldn’t the parents just go down to McDonalds and get a job to make money to raise their children?
5) Do you think this was a big deal when the trains came to town? Let them know that it was and many people would come to watch the process like it was some kind of entertainment.
6) Do you think these children were excited to meet their new parents? There is no wrong answer to this question.
7) Why were the children dressed in their Sunday best? Why did people prod and poke them? They had to look their best because, in a sense, they were selling themselves. The reason for poking and prodding was some of the adults who were there to adopt wanted someone strong and healthy who could be a good worker.
8) How might the children have felt? How would children feel who didn’t get picked town after town?
9) Ask students how they would feel about this. Explain sometimes it might seem really cool to think of getting away from your sister or brother because they can be a pain, but for these kids their sisters and brothers were all they had. For many of the older children they took on the role of parent to little toddlers and would be heartbroken when they were separated.
10) Why would someone just take a child to get free labor? How do you think this made the children feel?
11) Wouldn’t it be an awful feeling to have nothing in your life other than a change of clothes?
1) Ask volunteer to calculate how many years this is.
2) Ask a volunteer to go to the map and find New York and find Winona showing the distance between the two cities.
3) Compare this number to the total number of citizens in the town of Winona (27,000). See if a student volunteer would want to calculate how many times Winona would have to be multiplied to make 200,000.
4) Why would these parents give up their children? Why couldn’t the parents just go down to McDonalds and get a job to make money to raise their children?
5) Do you think this was a big deal when the trains came to town? Let them know that it was and many people would come to watch the process like it was some kind of entertainment.
6) Do you think these children were excited to meet their new parents? There is no wrong answer to this question.
7) Why were the children dressed in their Sunday best? Why did people prod and poke them? They had to look their best because, in a sense, they were selling themselves. The reason for poking and prodding was some of the adults who were there to adopt wanted someone strong and healthy who could be a good worker.
8) How might the children have felt? How would children feel who didn’t get picked town after town?
9) Ask students how they would feel about this. Explain sometimes it might seem really cool to think of getting away from your sister or brother because they can be a pain, but for these kids their sisters and brothers were all they had. For many of the older children they took on the role of parent to little toddlers and would be heartbroken when they were separated.
10) Why would someone just take a child to get free labor? How do you think this made the children feel?
11) Wouldn’t it be an awful feeling to have nothing in your life other than a change of clothes?
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