• Grade Level
• Goals/purpose
• Lesson Length
• Mind Map Graphic Organizer
• Notes on the Task
• Computer Prerequisites
• Standards Addressed

Additional Teacher Resources

Grade 4 Transcontinental Railroad

2. Goals/Purpose

Students will learn about the building of the transcontinental railroad through an interactive race/game. One group of students begins the race. They later divide into two railroad companies, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific. Each team helps their own railroad company as they face challenges, answer questions and make presentations in order to earn miles of track in a race to Promontory, Utah. The group reunites at the conclusion to compare and contrast the two railroad companies.

3. Lesson Length

1 - 2 weeks

4. Mind Map Graphic Organizer

5. Notes on the Task

Print this material for teacher and student classroom use: 

• Print Central Pacific Map
• Print Union Pacific Map
• Print Mind Map
• Print Venn diagram

Have your whole class begin the program. Later divide the class into half, each representing one railroad company. Divide the computer time. Divide the work between students or have all students complete all projects. Presentations and reports can be shared with the whole class. Print the company maps for the students so they can follow their own progress. Enlarge the maps and place on bulletin board to allow class to follow progress. The teams come together at the conclusion to compare and contrast the two railroad companies. 

Option 2 - A number of computers for your class.

Divide your class into groups of 6 - 8 and have them begin the program. Later each of these groups will divide in half, each representing one railroad company. Each team will follow the material on the computer completing the work as it is presented. Presentations and reports can be shared with the whole class or within their own smaller groups. Enlarge the maps and place on bulletin board to allow teams to follow their progress by using different train markers placed on the maps. The teams come together at the conclusion to compare and contrast the two railroad companies. 

Option 3 - Many computers for your class.

Divide your class into groups of 4 and have each group begin the program. Later each of these groups will divide into teams of two, each representing one railroad company. Each team of two will follow the material on the computer completing the work as it is presented. Presentations and reports can be shared with the whole class or within their own smaller groups of four. Copy the maps and allow students to keep track of their own progress. Enlarge the maps and place on bulletin board to allow teams to follow their progress by using different train markers placed on the maps. The teams come together at the conclusion to compare and contrast the two railroad companies. 
 

Students

• need to know how to log onto the Internet and find the railroad program. 
• need to be able to navigate within the program using the BACK, NEXT, and HOME buttons at the bottom of each page. 
• need to know how to return to the railroad program using the Back Arrow in the navigation bar at the top of the browser page when the students visit Internet sources outside of the program
• need to be able to return to the correct page of the program after they have left it the day before.

Social Studies Standards Addressed

4.4 Students explain how California became an agricultural and industrial power, tracing the transformation of the California economy and its political and cultural development since the 1850s.

1. Understand the story and lasting influence of the Pony Express, Overland Mail Service, Western Union, and the building of the transcontinental railroad, including the contributions of Chinese workers to its construction.

Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills Addressed

Chronological and Spatial Thinking

1. Students explain how major events are related to one another in time

3. Students use a variety of maps and documents to identify physical and cultural features of neighborhoods, cities, states, and countries and to explain the historical migration of people, expansion and disintegration of empires, and the growth of economic systems.

Research, Evidence and Point of View

1. Students frame questions that can be answered by historical study and research.

2. Students distinguish fact from opinion in historical narratives and stories.

3. Students distinguish relevant from irrelevant information, essential from incidental information, and verifiable from unverifiable information in historical narratives and stories.

Historical Interpretation

1. Students explain the central issues and problems of the past, placing people and events in a matrix of time and place.

5. Students recognize interpretations of history are subject to change as new information is uncovered.

English Language Development Standards Addressed

3 - 5 Early Advanced/Advanced

Listening and Speaking

• Consistenly use appropriate wasy of speaking and writing that vary based on purpose, audience, and subject matter
• Speak clearly and comprehensibly using standard English grammatical forms, sounds, intonation, pitch and modulation

• Describe main ideas and supporting details of a text
• Generate and respond to comprehension questions related to the text
• Use resources in the text (such as ideas, illustrations, titiles, etc.) to draw conclusions and make inferences
• Distinguish between explicit examples of fact, opinions, inference, and cause/effect in texts.

• Produce independent writing with consistent use of correct capitalization, punctuation, and spelling
• Edit writing for basic conventions
• Use complete sentences and correct word order

8. Teacher Resources

Outstanding history and photographs of the building of the Central Pacific Railroad:
CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD Photographic History Museum

Excellent written history, photographs, and maps of the building of the Union Pacific Railroad

Timeline for Transcontinental Railroad

Question Sets and Skit   Courtesy Jeanmarie Alo.

Transcontinental Railroad Study - Math Problems [4th grade PROBLEM SET]

Transcontinental Railroad Study - Questions for the CPRR Team, Day 1 [4th grade QUESTIONS]

Transcontinental Railroad Study - Questions for the UPRR Team, Day 1 [4th grade QUESTIONS]

Transcontinental Railroad Study - Questions for the CPRR Team, Day 2 [4th grade QUESTIONS]

Transcontinental Railroad Study - Questions for the UPRR Team, Day 2 [4th grade QUESTIONS]

Script for the "Last Spike" Ceremony [SKIT]

Lesson Plans

Biographies

Theodore Judah, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, Collis Huntington, and Charles Crocker

Collis Porter Huntington

Charles Crocker

Leland Stanford

Thomas Durant

Grenville Dodge

Chinese

Chinese Railroad Workers

Fiddletown's Yee Fung Cheung

Chinese Gold Rush

Chinese

Golden Spike

Pacific Railway Act

Nebraska

Nebraska photo

Scott's Bluff

The Badlands, Nebraska

Council Bluffs map

Plains Indians

Plains Indians

National Park Service Report

Timeline of Indian Conflicts

Lack of Conflict betweens Indians and the CPRR

Buffalo

Extinction of the Buffalo Herds

How the Indians hunted the buffalo

Student report about buffalo

Buffalo hunters

Buffalo report