Other
Camp Silos: Exploring the Prairie
An excellent site for studying the Iowa prairie. Offers wonderful facts and interactive activities for students to do individually or as a group. Identifies national standards and lesson plans for the teaching of prairie life. Provides...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Prairie Life: Observation and Recording of Plant and Animal Life
Students will learn about prairie life as they investigate the plants and animals that live there. They will then share their observations with their classmates.
Library of Congress
Loc: American Memory: Prairie Settlement, 1862 1912
Read letters from homesteaders in Nebraska and view photographs of prairie life in Nebraska. Visitors can browse by topic, date, or keyword.
NPR: National Public Radio
Npr: Prairie Diaries
This site from NPR is an excellent example of personal narratives from the heartland. Read and listen to excerpts from Kansans about a day in their life. What were they doing, what were they thinking, what was going on in their lives.
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.
US National Archives
Laura Ingalls Wilder Teaching Unit: Pioneer Life With Laura
A great instructional activity using the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder to teach about pioneer life on the plains. Filled with before reading and during reading activities and questions.
US National Archives
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library: Pioneer Life With Laura
This site is an integrated teaching unit on pioneer life and Westward Movement of the United States, using books by author Laura Ingalls Wilder. It includes suggested read-alouds, a wealth of large and small group activities, a pioneer...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Prairie Farmers [Pdf]
"Prairie Farmers" is a one page, historical fiction, journal describing life for farmers in the prairie throughout the year. It shows the difficulties including bad weather and fires. It requires students to closely read the journal and...
PBS
Pbs: Homes on the Prairie
A complete description of the prairie and how it changed as people began to settle there. Click on the links after the text to take you to the next page.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Frontier Life: "The Little Old Shanty on the Claim"
An essay provided as part of the PBS series, Frontier House, describes the housing options of pioneers on the prairies in eastern Montana.
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...
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...
US Geological Survey
U.s. Geological Survey: North Prairie Wildlife Research: Caterpillars of Forests
Descriptions, photographs and information on the caterpillar life cycle for the different species of eastern United states caterpillars. Includes details on collecting and photographing specimens.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Illinois Pioneers and Prairies [Pdf]
"Illinois Pioneers and Prairies" is a one page, nonfiction, reading passage about life in the prairies of Illinois for the early settlers including their hard work, setting up governments, building schools, and making laws. It is...
Virtual Museum of Canada
Virtual Museum of Canada: Community Stories: Prairie Fire
The growth of a prairie evangelical school located in Eston, Saskatchewan is profiled. Student life and interactions with townfolk as well as archival materials are included.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Potawatomi Prairie [Pdf]
"Potawatomi Prairie" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about the Potawatomi tribe and what their life may have been like during the different seasons of the year. It is followed by questions which require students to provide...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Potawatomi Prairie [Pdf]
"Potawatomi Prairie" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about the Potawatomi tribe and what their life may have been like during the different seasons of the year. It is followed by questions which require students to provide...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Potawatomi Prairie [Pdf]
"Potawatomi Prairie" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about the Potawatomi tribe and what their life may have been like during the different seasons of the year. It is followed by questions which require students to provide...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Potawatomi Prairie [Pdf]
"Potawatomi Prairie" is a one page, historical fiction, reading passage about the Potawatomi tribe and what their life may have been like during the different seasons of the year. It is followed by questions which require students to...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Potawatomi Prairie [Pdf]
"Potawatomi Prairie" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about the Potawatomi tribe and what their life may have been like during the different seasons of the year. It is followed by questions which require students to provide...
Other
Volet's Diary: Life in Saskatchewan Early 20th Cent.
A first hand account of what it like to be a women going to college in western Canada at the turn of the century (1900-1905). The diary also explores her life as a school teacher.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Frontier Life: Frontier Education and the One Room Schoolhouse
See how much public education has changed from the one-room schoolhouse days of the frontier. From a companion essay to the PBS series, Frontier House.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Frontier Life: Creating a Home on the Frontier
Making a house a home was a struggle on the plains. This companion essay to the PBS series, Frontier House, describes the problems with getting water, outhouses, and furnishing the sod house.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Frontier Life: Food on the Frontier
Would you clean your plate if you had to eat what frontier families served in eastern Montana? Find out what's on the menu from this companion essay to the PBS series, Frontier House.