Summary: Cheryl Harness, shares the journey of an ambitious politician who dreams of building a canal to connect the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. The author uses images to depict the long and hard 8-year journey that made history. Americans were now able to travel from the American Prarie all the way to Europe.
3rd Grade Unit Overview: Students will learn about the Erie Canal and it impacted society. Students will understand what a canal is and how it changed the way people lived. Students will learn about other developments that enhanced daily living such as, roads and railroads.
This story is a bit longer than other picture books, the information may be overload for the younger students if it is all in one day. This unit should be done throughout a couple of days. After reading the story, the students should view the song Low Bridge, Everybody Down by Bruce Springsteen. The students will then learn the song and study the lyrics. They will be able to connect them to the story they just read about the Erie Canal. The students should break apart the building of the Erie Canal into a timeline and then connect the events to the lyrics of the song. This is a great way to incorporate music into a history lesson.
Essential Questions:
- What is a canal?
- What other developments helped Americans travel?
- How did the Erie Canal change the way Americans lived?
- How did the building of the canal lead to other transportation inventions?
*This lesson can lead to many different lessons about transportation and other inventions that changed American society.*
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