Nebraska Studies
Nebraska Studies: Pioneer Children: Games, Toys, and Recreation
Learn about the lives of pioneer children whose families moved to Nebraska during the period of Western Expansion. Topics include toys, games and other activities for enjoyment.
Other
At Home in the Heartland: At Home on the Fringes of the Prairie (1800 1850)
Interactive site offers information and pictures pertaining to early pioneer life. See advertisements in the paper, furniture, glassware, and food preparation tools. Read stories of individuals who lived during that time and make...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Our Story: Life in a Sod House
Imagine moving into a house made out of sod that you and your family had to build in the middle of a prairie! Find great information and activities that will help you understand how it felt to live on the prairie.
The History Cat
The History Cat: Pioneers on the Plains: Pioneer Living
Describes the struggles that pioneer settlers who established farms on the Plains faced. Without trees, they had to build homes using sod and cow dung. Temperatures were extreme and farms were isolated, making life lonely.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Frontier Life: Recreation and Leisure Time on the Frontier
Read about how the homesteaders on the American frontier added a little levity to their otherwise harsh frontier life, and in particular how women, how spent much time at home, worked to add variety to their lives. From a companion essay...
Curated OER
York Region District School Board: Pioneer Life in Upper Canada: Settlement
In 1800 most of the 35,000 pioneers in Upper Canada lived on farms. This map shows where the earliest pioneers settled.
Ducksters
Ducksters: History: Daily Life on the Frontier for Kids
Kids learn about the daily life on the frontier of the Old West. This site explores how pioneers and settlers lived.
Orca Book Publishers
Orca Book Publishers: Strawberry Moon Teaching Guide [Pdf]
Strawberry Moon, a novel by Becky Citra, continues to follow the life of Ellie, a young girl living in Upper Canada in the 1830s. In this story, her strict grandmother has come to take her back to England and Ellie doesn't want to go....
Energy for Sustainable Development
Esd Bulgaria: Kids & Energy: Energy Pioneers: Lee De Forest
A profile of Lee de Forest who lived from 1873 to 1961. He was one of the most important inventors of radio and electronic technology, whose inventions touch everyday life.
Texas State Historical Association
Texas State Historical Association: Mary Ann Adams Maverick
A biography of Mary Maverick, who lived along the Texas frontier after the Texas Revolution. Her diaries of her life as a frontier woman provide firsthand accounts of historic events from that time.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Collection: Becoming Helen Keller
Rediscover the complex life and legacy of the author, advocate and human rights pioneer. Helen Keller (1880-1968), who was deaf and blind since childhood, used her celebrity and wit to advocate for social justice, particularly for women,...
Other
Doing History/keeping the Past: Farmers and Ranchers of Colorado
An essay on how farmers and ranchers lived and created communities in Colorado in the late nineteenth century. This was the period following the initial migrations of pioneers and homesteaders into the West.
EL Education
El Education: Bessy
8th grade students at the Pioneer Charter School in Fort Collins, Colorado, each created a historical character file (HCF) as part of a Learning Expedition on slavery. Each HCF is a fictionalized account of a historically/geographically...